June Jones in Week 1

[Dooby]

I was going to reply to another post with this nugget, but I thought it was worth its own thread. It might have been nice to know this before the Tech game.

June's teams struggle in week 1. June has never beaten a I-A/FBS team in week one as head coach. Every time he won in week 1, he beat a FCS/I-AA team; and one year he lost to I-AA Portland State in Week 1 at home.

Most of the time the season turned out fine. Lets go crush UAB.

[RGV Pony]

good point. During that 2007 season, week 1 was Northern Colorado. Then a bad UNLV team, La Tech in overtime, and Charleston Southern

[kull]

They were close to nipping Bama in Tuscaloosa in 2006.

[Alaric]

Tech offenses under Leach always struggled early as well...might be a problem forever with such a pass heavy offense.

Might be worth checking if BYU under Lavell Edwards had the same problem. Houston under Pardee/Jenkins (although half their throws were screens/inside screens/very short passes so that might not be applicable).

[ponytailgater]

too bad the big time non-conf games are so early then... on the other hand, they are tuned up for conf. play!

[Butts in the Stands]

One reason may be lack of tackling in practice. We sure looked a little shell-shocked in the first half of the Tech game. By the second half we seemed to get our bearings but by then we were several scores down. Not sure if JJ has always conducted tackle-free training camps but that may be one reason.

[Warbow]

One more thing you may want to add to this is that JJ has NEVER beaten a BCS team on the road.

[Pony_Law]

i don't think it is that surprising given the the importance of timing in the offense he runs. Getting up tp game speed takes playing some games

[expony18]

One reason may be lack of tackling in practice. We sure looked a little shell-shocked in the first half of the Tech game. By the second half we seemed to get our bearings but by then we were several scores down. Not sure if JJ has always conducted tackle-free training camps but that may be one reason.

not sure the defense had any "real" issues with tackling in the first half. I was actually surprised with how the defense was flying around the first half (and for that matter the entire game)

here's the TT drive chart (only 2 drives over 60 yards and only four OVER 50).
http://scores.espn.go.com/ncf/drivechar ... =302482641

[SMU2007]

One more thing you may want to add to this is that JJ has NEVER beaten a BCS team on the road.

well he nearly did, and should have, last week.

[Butts in the Stands]

One reason may be lack of tackling in practice. We sure looked a little shell-shocked in the first half of the Tech game. By the second half we seemed to get our bearings but by then we were several scores down. Not sure if JJ has always conducted tackle-free training camps but that may be one reason.

not sure the defense had any "real" issues with tackling in the first half. I was actually surprised with how the defense was flying around the first half (and for that matter the entire game)

here's the TT drive chart (only 2 drives over 60 yards and only four OVER 50).
http://scores.espn.go.com/ncf/drivechar ... =302482641

Let me re-phrase - "hitting"! For example, if we had been hitting, maybe Acker doesn't hold the ball where he did allowing it to get knocked out. It almost seemed like it took us the first half to get used to hitting and being hit. We seemed to get a bit more comfortable after half.

[Alaric]

One reason may be lack of tackling in practice. We sure looked a little shell-shocked in the first half of the Tech game. By the second half we seemed to get our bearings but by then we were several scores down. Not sure if JJ has always conducted tackle-free training camps but that may be one reason.

not sure the defense had any "real" issues with tackling in the first half. I was actually surprised with how the defense was flying around the first half (and for that matter the entire game)

here's the TT drive chart (only 2 drives over 60 yards and only four OVER 50).
http://scores.espn.go.com/ncf/drivechar ... =302482641

Let me re-phrase - "hitting"! For example, if we had been hitting, maybe Acker doesn't hold the ball where he did allowing it to get knocked out. It almost seemed like it took us the first half to get used to hitting and being hit. We seemed to get a bit more comfortable after half.

I think Acker was more of a freshman mistake in not wrapping up but you might have something there. Other than that one example, I think Tech was surprised how hard we hit and how well we wrapped up...if we move the ball consistently in the first half, don't have 4 turnovers and if Richard Crawford (who was always in position), makes a play, we win the game by 14 and the world's shocked.

[Dooby]

One more thing you may want to add to this is that JJ has NEVER beaten a BCS team on the road.

well he nearly did, and should have, last week.

Hadn't looked into that, but, yes, it is true. Kind of surprised that since 1999, he has only six road games against BCS conference teams, including last week. One game into his third season, June has had as many such games at SMU as he had in his tenure at Hawaii (losses to Alabama, Mich. State and USC); the only one of those three that you look at and say Hawaii possibly should have won was the 2006 game featuring an eventual 11-3 Hawaii team @ a future 6-7 Alabama (which, coincidentally, was in Week 1). The '08 team that played Tech was awful, and SMU should have won that '09 Wash State game and SMU was in the game last week.

[PonySnob]

I think Acker was more of a freshman mistake in not wrapping up but you might have something there. Other than that one example, I think Tech was surprised how hard we hit and how well we wrapped up...if we move the ball consistently in the first half, don't have 4 turnovers and if Richard Crawford (who was always in position), makes a play, we win the game by 14 and the world's shocked.

There have been so many games in the last 20 years that have been defined by the word "if".................

[Dooby]

I think Acker was more of a freshman mistake in not wrapping up but you might have something there. Other than that one example, I think Tech was surprised how hard we hit and how well we wrapped up...if we move the ball consistently in the first half, don't have 4 turnovers and if Richard Crawford (who was always in position), makes a play, we win the game by 14 and the world's shocked.

There have been so many games in the last 20 years that have been defined by the word "if".................

Exactly "if", but it didn't happen and it is over now. We all expect Padron to play better Saturday. We don't plan on muffing punts. However, we don't know what is going to happen.