SMU's newfound leverage

[Mitch McConnell]

After considering the events of Dec. 7, it's clear that the relationship between SMU and June Jones needs have a firm resolution.

I took nothing out of what Dr. Turner and Steve Orsini or any member of the C of C said at the Big East announcement. In a public event, it's time to play to poker.

What SMU needs to determine with its legal team is if June Jones used the weekend to visit with ASU officials on university time and then influence recruits, who were guests of SMU, to entice them to come with him to ASU as he was in discussions with ASU. It may come down to SMU actually reaching out to the recruits to determine if this was the case be it at dinner or on SMU property.

The worst-case scenario is that SMU and Jones co-exist for 2012 and then move on. I guess it's been discussed that his buyout clause expires after 2012. Actually, I can live with that regardless of what kind of season the team has.

Should SMU have the information it needs, wants to end the relationship and decide if it is willing to negotiate a settlement, then fine. It would be a noble gesture to thank June for his time and helping bringing the school back. Publicly, that is a good PR move.

But the exit strategey and the replacement strategy must be moving with sustainable momentum before any move with June is made. If you want to call it "Letting June twist in the wind'' so be it.
He has no ability to dictate the tempo anymore. Whatever power struggle he was locked into with adminsitration has been lost.

For those who believe that this move was done by someone who wanted to advance his career and make the choice for he and his family, that's an acceptable point. However, if he did so on the aforementioned scenarios, then he manipulated a situation and jeopardized the health of the athletic department.

Hopefully, a resolution can be reached in an appropriate amount of time.

The SMU community needs closure.

[smupony94]

I completely agree with Mitch

[Dutch]

exactly. keep him on board until we hire his replacement. no pressure or time crunch like trying to get something done before recruit signing day. do proper diligence, and get the RIGHT guy. then demote jones to QB coach. make him quit.

[OR-See-Nee]

This is reasonable.

[Billy Joe]

Regardless of what happens I think SMU is in a really good position. Orsini mentioned he had lots of calls from coaches inquiring about the SMU job when news leaked of June meeting with ASU. If SMU is willing to continue to pay 2-2.5M for a coach then we will have plenty of qualified candidates that want to coach SMU.

[ponyinNC]

If June just becomes a one-year rent-a-coach, I have two primary questions/concerns.

1) Does SMU table the IPF so that the next coach can provide input into its features, placement, etc.

2) What do we do to monitor recruiting for the 2013 class? I'm a little worried that Eddie Printz will be hardest working recruiter for the 2013 class.

We are going to take a recruiting hit when JJ/Klemm/Reinbold leave, be that this year or next or 2014. I'd rather soften the blow by keeping this year's class that we have been working on for over a year now. This is honestly our best recruiting class since DP.

I assume the staff will do good work for the 2013 class. If they don't, and if our team isn't perfroming next year, we can always fire JJ at that point and have an informed search for our next HC. That next HC and his staff will likely bring recruits with him as well. I do not want to rush the search and lose this entire class. Nobody wins in that scenario.

[EastStang]

How naive. The coaching community is very small. Some of our target coaches may have Leigh Steinberg as their agent. We could not search for a coach without word getting out to JJ. Then he has the leverage. No, if he did break his contract in any way, we negotiate a buyout, now. Or we keep him on, get through recruiting season and fire him for cause in late February and then he won't have a job to go to. Problem with that is that then our potential targets may be locked down. And again, coaches won't want to come to a school that might be seen as petty and vindictive. After all, they want to have their cake and eat it too, like their brethren. I seem to remember that recruits can get out of their LOI's if the coach leaves after the deadline, but I could be wrong on that. Holding a recruit to an LOI if they don't want to be here especially after we've nuked JJ would be a dangerous plan. No right now if we have leverage we use it and dump him. If we don't have leverage, we grin and bear it.

[smubrooks]

Start interviewing HC's in secrecy and fire June after the recruits sign. I'm no lawyer, but I would imagine accepting another job falls under breach of contract and we don't owe him $h!t for a buyout!

[Hoofbeat83]

Serious question not being flippant: how do we "keep" this year's good recruiting class if they are signing on to June and he's lame duck? They'll never play a down for him right?

[NickSMU17]

They follow klemm...

guy can sell ketchup Popsicles to women in white gloves...

[ojaipony]

Good points, Mitch. Totally agree.

Maybe we'll get some news out of the meeting with JJ and SO today that could lead to a little closure one way or the other (he gets fired, we mend fences, or ??).

If June cared, and the meeting goes well, he should do a press conference and explain what went down and commit to SMU until the end of his contract. Then go call a team meeting and heal the wounds.

He doesn't strike me as someone who would want to do that, however. I think he believes he's doing what's best for him and this is a business and the players will understand. I think he believes he is a COACH and that's about it.

[Mexmustang]

Let's just judge June by what happens in the next six-ten months.

I don't believe we had a list of highly qualified coaches expressing interest. Orsini knows it takes a special person to fit in at SMU, not just X's and O's. We can't even speculate on a list!

The talk about cross recruiting for ASU is unproven and I believe non-sense.

Ask any assistant coach (except Jeff) and they will tell you they knew nothing about the situation until they were called off the road (recruiting for SMU) and told it was 95% done deal. June is just too closed-mouth to have discussion with his coaches any earlier.

Just when did the ASU recruiting start? June didn't have time to even discuss taking specific coaches with him, look back at the time-line. If it weren't for his agent, none of us would have known how close the deal had come down to closing.

Up to that point June handled the situation properly with Orsini, who knew what was going on which is why this thing has a chance to work.

Do you really think a recruiting coach, who has no idea what his future will be, or where he might be next year starts recruiting for another school at 1:00PM on Wednesday and then reverses course at 4:00PM?

OK, your the defensive co-coordinator, you have a daughter at SMU and a home in Dallas. Can you imagine in the span of three hours, telling your wife to call the moving company, telling your daughter she is transferring to ASU and calling all your defensive recruits to change commitments when you don't have a clue of ASU's needs, available scholarships or sales points? You don't even have a clue if you will be offered a position as: a) interim coach at SMU; b) head coach at SMU; c) head coach at anther school; d)defensive co-coordinator at an SEC school or d) a chance to go with June to ASU; or d) what you and your family want to do?

[Mitch McConnell]

Let's just judge June by what happens in the next six-ten months.

I don't believe we had a list of highly qualified coaches expressing interest. Orsini knows it takes a special person to fit in at SMU, not just X's and O's. We can't even speculate on a list!

The talk about cross recruiting for ASU is unproven and I believe non-sense.

Ask any assistant coach (except Jeff) and they will tell you they knew nothing about the situation until they were called off the road (recruiting for SMU) and told it was 95% done deal. June is just too closed-mouth to have discussion with his coaches any earlier.

Just when did the ASU recruiting start? June didn't have time to even discuss taking specific coaches with him, look back at the time-line. If it weren't for his agent, none of us would have known how close the deal had come down to closing.

Up to that point June handled the situation properly with Orsini, who knew what was going on which is why this thing has a chance to work.

Do you really think a recruiting coach, who has no idea what his future will be, or where he might be next year starts recruiting for another school at 1:00PM on Wednesday and then reverses course at 4:00PM?

OK, your the defensive co-coordinator, you have a daughter at SMU and a home in Dallas. Can you imagine in the span of three hours, telling your wife to call the moving company, telling your daughter she is transferring to ASU and calling all your defensive recruits to change commitments when you don't have a clue of ASU's needs, available scholarships or sales points? You don't even have a clue if you will be offered a position as: a) interim coach at SMU; b) head coach at SMU; c) head coach at anther school; d)defensive co-coordinator at an SEC school or d) a chance to go with June to ASU; or d) what you and your family want to do?

Mex, I don't have a problem with him staying if the SMU adminsitration is satisfied once it has done its due diligence regarding this. I think the university has to take seriously if any of any alleged recruiting for ASU was done as he was working for SMU. Obvioulsy, with verbal commitments, it's likely a gray area, so I would suspect that a soliciation argument is going to be tough to make.

I think SMU owes it to itself to review everything in connection to this matter. And if it doesn't, then shame on us.

[birddogger]

Does the school can JJ mid-season (if lackluster play) and promote Mason or someone else from within to run on an interim/trial basis, keeping remainder of staff in place? I could sure see that as an option. Doesn't allow staff to follow JJ en masse, and wouldn't undermine recruiting as much.

[BRStang]

Buyout doesn't run until after 2012, and I don't think SMU will want to pay him to leave. To me, if there are grounds to fire him for cause, without having to pay him, now is the time to do it. Not tomorrow. Now. However, that does not appear to be what is going to happen given GT and SO's sentiments.