Did The Wait Hurt us or Not?

[jimhagle]

JJ brought in a lot of o-line help-something PB never could do. And wait till next year and see what he does. We will never be good until we have some quality on the o-line.

[expony18]

Gosh, that was fun!

twss

[smu diamond m]

Gosh, that was fun!

twss

Is there an established difference between twss and TWSS?

Is one more funny?

[mrydel]

Gosh, that was fun!

twss

Is there an established difference between twss and TWSS?

Is one more funny?

If true, then size does matter.

[smu diamond m]

TWSS

[Junior]

I think we should table this discussion for approximately 3 years and then bump the thread to discuss. We know absolutely nothing more about this class today than we did a month ago. Personally, I've never seen any of them play D1 college ball before, so I have no opinion.

[Warbow]

Just though I should share some recruitng history in regards to JJ. JJ has always been a poor recruiter. He seemed to have some ego issues with Hawaii local high school coaches and players. He rarely visited with high school coaches or made home visit to top notch Hawaii talent. His best recruiting years were when Coach Mack and Reinbold came along. It's a good thing Reinbold followed him to SMU or your recruiting class would probably be on the bottom of all D-1A stats. Reinbold is a great recruiter but JJ needs to put a lease on him at times. There was two recruiting incidents (Smith and Brown) this year with Reinbold that has made news and created some bad drama for Hawaii.

Having a late start has always hurt JJ, as he tends to wait until a week prior to signing day to offer. Not until Reinbold arrived did Hawaii start with the early offers. One of Reinbolds early commits (Brown) was offered by Reinbold but later pulled by JJ after the kid commited because JJ knew nothing about the offer.

Many of JJ's Hawaii highly regarded commits never make it to campus or on the football field for one reason or another. (See DE's Jackson and Hamai and CB Graham) Lets hope you get all your signees.

I'm sure with all the talent in Texas JJ will find a lot talent to run his offense. JJ should do find in Texas and make a run or two for the CUSA title. Great QB's is what makes his offense work, if he doesn't get one, expect Timmy Chang like win/loss records for years to come. Unless you get a good defense coordinator, don't expect to win the CUSA title.

[ponyboy]

IF we have a winning season, I will be more excited about next years’ class than any in 20+ years.

IF we only win 2 or 3 games? I don’t know, but past history tells us honeymoon periods at SMU are rather short. Could be even Doh is finding this out.

I don't know about that reasoning. Phil Bennett's first season in 2002, we were 3-7. And he rolled off a very impressive class with the ten Rivals three-stars that following recruiting season. JJ's certainly got longer than one season to turn this thing around. Probably more like two or three before recruiting falls off. His history shows he won't need that many.

[stobor]

This is not a very good recruiting class. Waiting to hire a coach probably hurt it.

To people complaining about stars and how we shouldn't put that much faith in them: You may be right. We consistently perform worse than the ranking of our classes. SMU recruits may be inflated too much.

[SMU21TCU10]

what is TWSS? Is it thats what stallion said just guessing?

[SMU21TCU10]

Oh im an idiot its thats what she said huh haha? wow i dont even recognize my favorite joke =D

[Dutch]

easy mistake to make around here with the overuse and abuse of the punchline.

[ponyboy]

This is not a very good recruiting class.

Actually, this is a good class for a guy who was given three weeks. We should be thrilled. It could have been ugly.

[SMU21TCU10]

This is not a very good recruiting class. Waiting to hire a coach probably hurt it.

To people complaining about stars and how we shouldn't put that much faith in them: You may be right. We consistently perform worse than the ranking of our classes. SMU recruits may be inflated too much.

Have some faith in JJ! The guy won 9 games with a team that had previously lost 18 straight i think it was. And im sure that the talent right now on the SMU roster is better than what Hawaii had at that time. He will get the players motivated. And He had 3 weeks to recruit and did a pretty good job in my opinion. Imagine if Bennett had 3 weeeks to recruit? . Now imagine next February when he has had a full year!

[Fried Ahi]

JJ has always been a poor recruiter.

I wouldn't necessarily categorize JJ as a poor recruiter. He just has a very different way of doing it. His philosophy over time morphed into concentrating on recruits who wanted to go to Hawaii rather than wasting time pursuing those who were looking at going elsewhere. Obviously, this had some flaws because there were some talented Hawaii kids who would have likely stayed had JJ done what McMackin is doing; by going into their homes and talking to the recruit and their parents. The only time JJ has done this in recent years was with QB's.

Of course, part of the above was out of necessity due to lack of a recruiting budget at least when it came to recruits outside of Hawaii. As for recruits in state, why he didn't place more effort into building bridges to the high schools in Hawaii like what McMackin is doing is a curiosity though. It doesn't seem to be an ego thing either. Maybe it's just something he doesn't enjoy doing unless it is a QB. Time will answer whether or not he continues this practice in Dallas since he isn't going to be constrained by a limited recruiting budget.

On the offensive side, JJ felt that some recruits (QB and WR) would be flocking to him and the fact that they received so much tapes and DVD's bears that out. The problem is that they often times got so much video that most of it went unreviewed unless the recruit was able to get their tape looked at quickly via a referral or recommendation (sort of like how Ryan Mouton was the one who brought Bo Levi Mitchell to Dan Morrison's attention).

Great QB's is what makes his offense work

As well as an effective receiving corp and a decent OL. Brennan's accuracy along with working with a group of closeknit receivers is one of the main reasons why they were so prolific in 2006 and 2007. Contrast to 2005 when Brennan took over the starting role from Graunke after the USC game and when Bess and Grice-Mullins were freshman. It took most all of that season for Colt to become comfortable operating the offense and to gell with the receivers. It wasn't until the offseason when he said something went off in his head, it all made sense, and it became 2nd nature to both the QB and receivers. The result was some unreal numbers in 2006. The same thing happened with Nick Rolovich when he first vied for the starting position in 2000 but ended up third on the depth chart behind Chang and Jared Flint. When he came off the bench in 2001 to replace an injured Chang, something went off in his head where it made sense. He was really the first Hawaii QB under JJ to show the potential of what the offense could really do when everything was clicking. Despite the stats that Chang had, he was inconsistent and his lack of leadership on and off the field played a big role in why Hawaii failed to win the WAC or even had a consistent top 25 team during those years as a starter.

Have some faith in JJ! The guy won 9 games with a team that had previously lost 18 straight i think it was. And im sure that the talent right now on the SMU roster is better than what Hawaii had at that time.

JJ and his coaching staff that year do deserve some credit for the turnaround season but it is also true that many of the players on that 0-12 squad felt they were on the cusp of turning it around anyway as most were now Fred vonAppen recruits suited for the West Coast offense they were running. The talent and skill was there. What didn't help is that each year, vonAppen had constant coaching staff departures including 3 different offensive coordinators. That 1998 season was no different but the players felt comfortable with Don Lindsey at OC since he had been the DC and helped turn around the defense. Even some of the other coaches at the time felt they would be able to finally turn the corner in 1999. So when vonAppen was fired, most of his players expressed their disappointment because they felt they were ready to start winning the next season despite going winless the past 18 games. Fortunately, the transition to JJ's offense wasn't as drastic as when vonAppen took over Bob Wagner's spread-option squad. Of course, when Hawaii got blasted 62-7 by Paul Hackett's average USC team in JJ's first game, it looked like it was going to be a continuation of the previous years of trying to get comfortable with different coaches.

The fact however is that Don Lindsey laid down the same disciplinary approach on the offensive side that he did with Hawaii's defense. This gave the returning players a good foundation for JJ and his staff to build off of. Contrast this with the 2000 season, a rebuilding year on offense with JJ's highly rated recruit Timmy Chang when they went 3-9. 2001 started off no better under Chang including 2 losses 3 games into the season. When he tore a ligament during the SMU game, Rolovich came off the bench and pulled off the win and continued to play well for the rest of the season (his only loss being the Boise State game) including a 72-45 shellacking of then unbeaten and 9th ranked BYU. From 2002-2004, Chang was subsequently booed many times for his inconsistent play and was also replaced in some games by backup Shawn Withy-Allen in 2002 and benched twice in 2003 during the Alabama game where his backup Jason Whieldon pulled off the victory.

During those years, JJ staunchly defended his choice of a clearly struggling Chang (who also had personal problems off the field which spilled over into his playing) as the starter and was highly criticized by fans and some of the media. He even addressed this on his TV show that it was beginning to wear on him which is why even as far back as 2004, he had thoughts about leaving. Hiring Glanville as DC in 2005 and Colt Brennan's breakout 2006 season is pretty much why he stuck it out. In 2006, all of a sudden most of JJ's detractors were silenced and all the bandwagon fans jumped onboard. This is why he told Brennan that he would also stay if he came back for his senior year. 2007 and going to a BCS bowl was icing on the cake but also going to prove to be a tough act to follow. Most everyone was praising JJ and now didn't want him to leave (just a few short years earlier, it was completely different), It did not surprise me when he left because he knew that the feel good 2006-2007 seasons could easily become the same 2003-2005 seasons with the criticisms. It didn't help that the facility related things he had been asking for were never addressed over the years.

Anyway, the point is that one of JJ's ideosyncracies is that he can be very stubborn with his choices and he'll often time stick with a player in order to allow them the chance to work through the adversity (fans as we all know sometimes aren't as patient). In Timmy Chang's case, it was far too often where the guys riding the pine would have likely been able to perform and yield far better results if they had taken over the starter role. JJ really got a gift with Colt Brennan and the receiving corp Hawaii had the last few seasons since they all clicked together. Despite the outcome of the Sugar Bowl, JJ was still able to leave on a relatively high note. In some respects, SMU was able to reap the rewards of Hawaii's BCS appearance as some recruits chose to follow Jones rather than the school.