Reading Tea Leaves

by **Statler** » Fri Nov 29, 2013 6:26 pm

He sold his house and the geldings did not make an appearance this year.

Is JJ gone?

by **MV pony** » Fri Nov 29, 2013 6:32 pm

Sadly, I think he'll be back.

by **gostangs** » Fri Nov 29, 2013 6:46 pm

i am very afraid we have him one more year. Yuk

by **ponyscott** » Fri Nov 29, 2013 7:06 pm

Nah...he has been trying to sell his house for some time but think that is just a precursor for his exit.

by **JasonB** » Sat Nov 30, 2013 1:10 am

Is June's contract next year an option or fixed?

How long are the contracts for the assistants good for?

by **TidePony** » Sat Nov 30, 2013 10:12 am

My wishes (some you will disagree with) for a new coach if we are fortunate enough to get one...

1. Recruit Recruit Recruit!!! (new HC and staff work as a TEAM with all hitting the road)
2. Build relationships with Texas and other regional high school head coaches
3. On Defense, Recruit huge, fast, and smart kids
4. On Offense, stress the running game with play action passing, play two big tight ends along with a strong physical line
5. An institutional leader
6. A coach that has mastered media skills
7. A coach that embraces tradition, but understands the trends that recruiting classes are looking for (and if that means one tricked up gray/black/space alien green uniform a year so be it).
8. A coach that wants to build our fan base in this order: current students (both under grad and grad), alumni, regional Methodists who graduated from other far away universities that can make SMU their regional affiliation through field trips and other ideas, and sidewalk DFW fans.

I need to get off the Crown, but it is Christmas time and I can wish! Okay, now that I've vented and provided my 2 cents, now to the business of the day!
[ELEPHANT][ELEPHANT][ELEPHANT] Roll Tide and Beat Aubie!

by **Treadway21** » Sat Nov 30, 2013 12:54 pm

Basically Larry Brown.

Really the football equivalent. It is a tall order, but I would take a fraction of your list and be happy.

by **East Coast Mustang** » Sat Nov 30, 2013 5:49 pm

TidePony wrote:My wishes (some you will disagree with) for a new coach if we are fortunate enough to get one...

1. Recruit Recruit Recruit!!! (new HC and staff work as a TEAM with all hitting the road)
2. Build relationships with Texas and other regional high school head coaches
3. On Defense, Recruit huge, fast, and smart kids
4. On Offense, stress the running game with play action passing, play two big tight ends along with a strong physical line
5. An institutional leader
6. A coach that has mastered media skills
7. A coach that embraces tradition, but understands the trends that recruiting classes are looking for (and if that means one tricked up gray/black/space alien green uniform a year so be it).
8. A coach that wants to build our fan base in this order: current students (both under grad and grad), alumni, regional Methodists who graduated from other far away universities that can make SMU their regional affiliation through field trips and other ideas, and sidewalk DFW fans.

I need to get off the Crown, but it is Christmas time and I can wish! Okay, now that I've vented and provided my 2 cents, now to the business of the day!
[ELEPHANT][ELEPHANT][ELEPHANT] Roll Tide and Beat Aubie!

Agree with everything you said- but some of it is easier said than done. Namely, recruiting guys on defense who are huge, fast, and smart. Other schools tend to be interested in them as well, and sell out 80,000 seat stadiums every week

by **JasonB** » Sat Nov 30, 2013 10:39 pm

Treadway21 wrote:Basically Larry Brown.

Really the football equivalent. It is a tall order, but I would take a fraction of your list and be happy.

It isn't just Larry Brown. It is Larry Brown and an all-star assistant coaching staff.

I would love to see a comparison of how much that costs to put together in bball versus football.

by **Treadway21** » Sun Dec 01, 2013 12:01 am

I agree with you 100%. I should have said the Larry Brown model. Not an easy thing to accomplish in either FB or BB for that matter. We really got lucky in LB.

He was able to put a lot if pieces together because of who he is and I am not sure we have a target in football who could do the same. But we could do well with a coach that hits on some of those same points.

by **JasonB** » Sun Dec 01, 2013 12:48 am

In basketball, we basically have a great coach and talent evaluators who can close the deal, and then we have assistants who are great recruiters who build relationships.

In football, if your coach plays that role (and yes, I know LB is out at tourneys in the summer), how many really good recruiting assistants do you need? If we still had Klemm, would the Klemm and Phillips combo be enough? Or do you need a third person?

I know we are all disappointed with the current season, but are we one recruiter short or two? Mason and Odum are decent on the defensive side recruiting, so if we brought in a really good recruiter as a LB coach, move Chang to QB coach, Suan back to RB and hire a really good recruiter as an OL coach, are we there?

This is all hypothetical of course, because I doubt many if any of the staff are coming back next year, but I am curious how many good recruiting assistants it takes.

Also, I kind of wonder if Jones really chose to hire the grad assistants as LB and ST coaches, or if his budget was limited because he was being forced out.

by **East Coast Mustang** » Sun Dec 01, 2013 12:54 am

JasonB wrote:In basketball, we basically have a great coach and talent evaluators who can close the deal, and then we have assistants who are great recruiters who build relationships.

In football, if your coach plays that role (and yes, I know LB is out at tourneys in the summer), how many really good recruiting assistants do you need? If we still had Klemm, would the Klemm and Phillips combo be enough? Or do you need a third person?

I know we are all disappointed with the current season, but are we one recruiter short or two? Mason and Odum are decent on the defensive side recruiting, so if we brought in a really good recruiter as a LB coach, move Chang to QB coach, Suan back to RB and hire a really good recruiter as an OL coach, are we there?

This is all hypothetical of course, because I doubt many if any of the staff are coming back next year, but I am curious how many good recruiting assistants it takes.

Also, I kind of wonder if Jones really chose to hire the grad assistants as LB and ST coaches, or if his budget was limited because he was being forced out.

They all need to get the [deleted] out, with the possible exception of Phillips. He's done good work on the Houston/Lamar pipeline.

by **Stallion** » Sun Dec 01, 2013 4:22 am

You need 5-6 good recruiters, not Kleem and not 2-3recruiters. Now very often you will have coordinators who are not road warriors but they are involved in selection. The entire staff needs to play a big role in recruiting whether in evaluation or off campus recruiting. See UCLA which is the ideal recruiting staff with a Head Coach with LA ties and 3-4 assistants with strong recruiting ties. The entire staff contributes. How do we build a staff with those DFW ties

by **PerunaPunch** » Sun Dec 01, 2013 9:08 am

JasonB wrote:Also, I kind of wonder if Jones really chose to hire the grad assistants as LB and ST coaches, or if his budget was limited because he was being forced out.

That was basically my assumption as well. I figured June used up a lot of his budget on Hal, so promoting the GAs was an inexpensive solution to round out his staff.

by **PerunaPunch** » Sun Dec 01, 2013 9:19 am

Stallion wrote:You need 5-6 good recruiters, not Kleem and not 2-3recruiters. Now very often you will have coordinators who are not road warriors but they are involved in selection. The entire staff needs to play a big role in recruiting whether in evaluation or off campus recruiting. See UCLA which is the ideal recruiting staff with a Head Coach with LA ties and 3-4 assistants with strong recruiting ties. The entire staff contributes. How do we build a staff with those DFW ties

I actually like a lot of what June has done. But I think to be successful long-term on the Hilltop with our situation (high academics and high cost/small school, so limited walk-ons) you'd have to build the staff as Stallion suggests because every scholarship counts.

Having local ties and being viewed as part of the community would probably help attendance some over time as well. We need to work on SMU's coolness factor,