Washington St. Leads for Gabriel Marks

[ponyinNC]

has Leach ever coached in the League?? i don't think so.

JJ was HC for 2 teams and has NFL contacts. Gotta think SMU is where it's at for WRs who want to get to the next level. WSU?? Not so much.

Plus you might get locked in a storage shed if you're not careful!!!!!!!!!!!

[Mitch McConnell]

I don't know what it is but I have such a meh reaction to both Marks and Lewis.

Marks, a 4-star, is being chased by the likes of Vanderbilt, Kentucky, Washington St. and SMU. That usually isn't the kind of list pursuing this type of player.

Are there red flags?

Academics to where the major programs have backed off?

An injury that has more than it share of big name programs moving in another direction?

Body frame in which the big name programs don't believe he will evolve into a real physical presence?

I'm going by what's listed 6-0, 175.

It would be nice to get him to sign, but I'm not losing sleep over Marks or Lewis either. To me, something isn't adding up.

[SMU 86]

Well if SMU is so much better than what Leach is offering then we should have Marks in the bag. That is unless we have an inflated view of ourselves.

[ponyinNC]

unfortunately 86, there are other factors that these kids have to consider - proximity to home, Pac 12 vs Big East, friends/girlfriends, playing time, coaches, etc.

But if the decision were based on just getting to the NFL as a WR...I gotta give the nod to JJ

[Webmaster]

Plus, June won't lock you in a closet.

[Rebel10]

I read somewhere that Marks recently said that he wants to go to a place where the coaching environment is stable. He thinks June might leave in a couple of years even though June is saying the opposite. I guess I don't blame Marks. The ASU thing with Jones. I would not expect Marks to come to SMU.

[SMUer]

Yeah, June can't sell recruits anymore on stability and that is a major major problem. It will absolutely cost us recruits going forward. Before they were already thinking "Why the heck is June at SMU?" but all of the assurances, the talk about building a program, where we will be in year 4 and 5, etc., his story about the religious reasons he was here all pretty much quieted the doubt. The wool is not thick enough to fool recruits anymore: June is entertaining offers for other schools and is 100% ready to jump should a bigger offer come. Good news, we get guys that really want to be at SMU because it's SMU. Bad news, we don't get guys that really really want to play for a June Jones offense because there is no guarantee he's going to be here and it looks likely he won't. It is 100% essential either we lock him in a 4-5 year contract with a MASSIVE buyout or make plans for parting ways. June should've kept this close to the vest, now the cat's out of the bag.

[SMU 86]

Yeah, June can't sell recruits anymore on stability and that is a major major problem. It will absolutely cost us recruits going forward. Before they were already thinking "Why the heck is June at SMU?" but all of the assurances, the talk about building a program, where we will be in year 4 and 5, etc., his story about the religious reasons he was here all pretty much quieted the doubt. The wool is not thick enough to fool recruits anymore: June is entertaining offers for other schools and is 100% ready to jump should a bigger offer come. Good news, we get guys that really want to be at SMU because it's SMU. Bad news, we don't get guys that really really want to play for a June Jones offense because there is no guarantee he's going to be here and it looks likely he won't. It is 100% essential either we lock him in a 4-5 year contract with a MASSIVE buyout or make plans for parting ways. June should've kept this close to the vest, now the cat's out of the bag.

We don't want to sign him to a massive contract because then we can't fire him without a large financail penalty which is what Jones would want now. Also, if we just get kids that want to come to SMU because it's SMU then we won't be getting as much talent as we need (see the last 25 years). I know it is hard to believe to some but SMU is still not thought of as highly among top recruits as some would like to believe. But we can fill up the roster with kids from Jesuit HS that really want to come to SMU while not getting many from Eisenhower, Galen Park Northshore or Skyline. I do see your point though. Should be an interesting upcoming year.

[SMUer]

Oh, I agree. SMU is still Tier 3 in many HS athlete eyes and in the end we want kids who are sold on SMU's potential, not just sold on SMU. My "good news" was mildly sarcastic.

I think SMU just needs to decide how long they want June. I think when he was hired, we had 6-7 years in mind. We have a power-hand to play, so make him remain the 6-7 years with a high buyout contract. At then end? Sayonara and thanks June! I think so far the administration has been very happy with the year-to-year progress, all the signs of us turning the program around so why wouldn't they want him to continue on the original plan. So what we can't fire him? Ultimately we don't want to fire him, we just want him to be able to sell stability to recruits. Meanwhile, start looking for young coaches who have the potential to be SMU's next great coach and no-so-politely ask June to add them to his staff. If June decides he wants to go early...$$$ to SMU and slush-fund for a new coach, plus a backup hot-shot assistant to take over. If June stays to the end of his contract...great! Thank you so much, good luck and all, meanwhile we have this guy on your staff...plus, any available coaching prospects...to fill your place.

[SMU 86]

Oh, I agree. SMU is still Tier 3 in many HS athlete eyes and in the end we want kids who are sold on SMU's potential, not just sold on SMU. My "good news" was mildly sarcastic.

I think SMU just needs to decide how long they want June. I think when he was hired, we had 6-7 years in mind. We have a power-hand to play, so make him remain the 6-7 years with a high buyout contract. At then end? Sayonara and thanks June! I think so far the administration has been very happy with the year-to-year progress, all the signs of us turning the program around so why wouldn't they want him to continue on the original plan. So what we can't fire him? Ultimately we don't want to fire him, we just want him to be able to sell stability to recruits. Meanwhile, start looking for young coaches who have the potential to be SMU's next great coach and no-so-politely ask June to add them to his staff. If June decides he wants to go early...$$$ to SMU and slush-fund for a new coach, plus a backup hot-shot assistant to take over. If June stays to the end of his contract...great! Thank you so much, good luck and all, meanwhile we have this guy on your staff...plus, any available coaching prospects...to fill your place.

I guess I should have clarified my reason for terminating him. Suppose he started losing badly in the Big East and proves not to be a good BCS coach? Then we are stuck with a big Charlie Weiss Notre Dame type buyout for an overpaid underperforming coach?

[SMUer]

I think you take this risk if you are SMU. I'm not thrilled with the Run-and-Shoot's progress or his enthusiasm coaching last year either but we kinda need June to keep affirming our effort in turning this program around. We need his offense with the "guaranteed" gaudy stats and NFL connections to continue to sell recruits. Poor case scenario: he goes 7-5 in C-USA next year and everyone will think, oh well, we're still building and after-all, he took us to a fourth bowl. Recruits keep coming in. If we go 3-9 and 2-6 in the Big East conference our first two years, people will say, oh well, the Big East is harder than C-USA but SMU is on the right track. It's a bummer, and it sucks for us fans who have waited so long but not the most terrible outcome in the world. If he does better than 7-5 in 2012 and better than a disaster in the Big East in 2013, 2014, then that's all the better. Speeds up progress, increases our demand with recruits, continued accolades about how we are building, etc. Either way, we better get a hot shot, young coach with head coaching potential ready to go ASAP. I just don't see much downside to keeping June at SMU 3 more years, maybe you can save some of your top recruits from 2012, 2013 recruiting classes with a contract assurance. If June goes <6-6 next year and posts 0-1 win seasons in 2013/4, then we lost that bet, but I don't think think that's very likely.

[SMU 86]

It will be an interesting 3 years to say the least.

[The PonyGrad]

Impact next year of ASU will be much less unless he ends up in the coach search news again.

Let's hope we hear of a strong recruiter being added to the staff real soon!

[well travelled pony]

Sounds like JJ isn't going anywhere, and the kids all echoed that. Plus, they all love playing for him. This isn't about JJ leaving now, but about a kid like Marks supposedly looking for coaching stability. Plus, as a recent tweet from JR reminds, SMU has SEVEN 1,000 yrd. receivers in last 5 years.

Right now, I am enjoying watching ES play for the Steelers.

Go Ponies!

[SMUfiji43]

Impact next year of ASU will be much less unless he ends up in the coach search news again.

Let's hope we hear of a strong recruiter being added to the staff real soon!

Hopefully we get the Jason Phillips announcement that we have all been waiting for. I assume they have already hired someone, but were waiting until after the bowl game to announce.