DMN: SMU is lucky to have June Jones - he's going to win

[feelthehorsepower]

http://www.dallasnews.com/sports/column ... to-win.ece

UNIVERSITY PARK — SMU is lucky to have June Jones.
I say that with full knowledge that SMU’s streak of four consecutive bowl bids could come to an end Saturday. The Mustangs are 5-6 and need a victory in their finale against Central Florida to become bowl eligible.
That would constitute a colossal upset by SMU. Central Florida is 10-1 and 16th in the BCS rankings — and the Mustangs probably would have to pull the upset with a backup quarterback. Garrett Gilbert remains iffy at best with a sprained knee.
But back to Jones. He revealed this week that he has a contract extension in hand and is likely to re-up with the Mustangs at some point this off-season. Wise move by athletic director Rick Hart.
In his six years on the job, Jones has posted a 36-40 record with three bowl wins. That’s not worthy of an extension — until you study the history of the program. At least the history of the program since the death penalty.
Forrest Gregg, Tom Rossley, Mike Cavan and Phil Bennett all coached the Mustangs. None could win. Few could compete. There were no bowl bids during that 19-year stretch and only one winning season — a 6-5 mark by Cavan in 1997. In seven of those seasons, the Mustangs mustered one win or fewer.
Even Jones suffered a 1-11 season in his SMU debut in 2008. But once he got his offensive system up and running with players he was able to recruit, SMU started winning.
Keep in mind that in the academic stratosphere SMU fancies itself, it’s been tough for Jones to get kids into school. Once in, it’s tough to keep them in school. And when Jones loses a player, he can’t plug in a walk-on. Not when walk-ons must pay almost $60,000 annually to attend SMU. Chasing a dream isn’t supposed to be that expensive.
“What we’ve done here so far has been quite miraculous with the hand we’ve been dealt,” Jones said. “The school is 180 degrees internally from where we were when I came here. Dr. (Gerald) Turner and the admissions people have made changes, but we’re still not where we need to be to really get over the hump. But I think those are coming. I’ve been told they’re coming. Hopefully they will.”
What SMU has done thus far under Jones is stay afloat. Central Florida becomes the 10th ranked team that SMU has played in the Jones tenure. The Mustangs are 1-8 in those games.
Subtract the 1-11 in his first season and the 1-8 against ranked teams, and the Mustangs would be 34-22 under Jones. Now that would be worthy of a contract extension.
“Could we have won more here since I’ve been here?” Jones said. “There are maybe a couple games we could have won with a play here or there. But really, we’ve won the games we’re supposed to win. If you look at the athleticism and talent of everyone we’ve played, we’ve won the games when we had equal talent.”
Despite the six losses this season, the Mustangs might not be that far away from turning the corner as a program. And they can thank Gilbert.
There wasn’t a better prep quarterback in the land than Gilbert in 2008. Gatorade and Parade named him their national player of the year, and USA Today tabbed him as its offensive player of the year. Gilbert is from Austin and elected to stay home and play for the University of Texas.
But after spending three years at Texas and earning a degree, he fell out of favor there and transferred to SMU. Gilbert arrived in August 2012 and, with no prep work with the offense, passed for 2,932 yards and 15 touchdowns.
But given an off-season to work with his teammates, Gilbert turned in a masterful season in 2013. He ranks second in the NCAA in total offense and ninth in passing yards despite sitting the last six quarters with his injury.
Jones has been able to throw the ball and win games at SMU with the likes of Bo Levi Mitchell, Kyle Padron and J.J. McDermott at quarterback. When Jones finally landed a passer who could rival his Hawaii record-setters Colt Brennan and Timmy Chang, Jones was able to take his SMU offense to a new level.
The Mustangs averaged almost 42 points per game with Gilbert, who has played himself back into the NFL draft.
“Getting Garrett was a plus all the way around because he’s from Texas, and kids see the success he’s had with us since coming here,” Jones said.
“We’re getting a lot of looks from all around the country of kids who want to come home — kids who went to a top program elsewhere but now want to come back. They call us first.
“Also, just the fact that the Texas high school kids see a big-time name doing well at our school … it’s all been positive.”
There is no more fertile territory for quarterbacks than Texas. Jones and his offense should be able to attract more quarterbacks, better quarterbacks now. That gives SMU a chance to make a long-awaited breakthrough back into the big-time.
That’s why you extend June Jones. He’s going to win. He could win big.
Follow Rick Gosselin on Twitter at @RickGosselinDMN

[fifty]

"He's going to win. He could win big." What the hell does that mean?

[ftworthmustang]

[SMUPhil]

Argh, this is all so frustrating. The same facts that lead us all to believe June needs to be gone somehow get twisted into reasons for him to stay.

"Even Jones suffered a 1-11 season in his SMU debut in 2008. But once he got his offensive system up and running with players he was able to recruit, SMU started winning." Oh really? His second year roster was full of players HE recruited? More like the crappy 5-6 current season is full of players he recruited.

And the most important position in the run-and-shoot, the QB? Well he ran off 3-4 of them before getting a gift in Gilbert, who could only play 2 years for us anyway. Not knocking Gilbert at all, instead I hate how this guy makes it sound like it's all part of June's system.

Final point...I hate the statistics of playing 'ranked' teams. If aTm is Top 10 the week we play them, but falls to about #40 by the end of the season, you can't still claim that "well, we lost to a good top 10 team".

[ftworthmustang]

I've heard the number of game films coming in for evaluation has doubled!!!!! The staff will be working overtime "recruiting" those films.

[GiddyUp]

As you can tell, Rick has no clue what he is talking about

[SMUPhil]

Why can't anyone outside of Ponyfans call it like it is and write an article about how we were competitive with our SWC brothers for a decent amount of 80 years, but even after "4 bowl games in 5 years" we aren't even close to that again...that's where we want to be, those are the teams we want to beat or at least COMPETE with. It's like the media still has a stigma about SMU being that cheatin' little preppy school in Dallas that only won by paying players, and now we should be so happy to just be able to say we have a winning season. They all seem to just pour praise on Jones without ever asking those deeper questions.

Also sick of hearing how our academics mean we can't compete with other schools...Duke must be an effing team of miracle workers if they can win with their academic reputation.

[redpony]

Incredible. I wonder who RGT and casper got to write that bs. because that is what it is.

[Stallion]

It will be about 2030 before this Urban Myth of SMU's academic standards will be eliminated. This guy is a lifetime NFL beat writer who knows jack about College Football. This Myth does us no favors. It probably runs off 10 times more players than any players that can't get into SMU. Its part of the perception of SMU that puts off some recruits to SMU's image. I would love for SMU to release the exact profile of SMU's recruits in the June Jones era. We are handicapped by inability of walkons but there is nothing we can do about that.

[Statler]

It is a fact - except for recruits with criminal records, admissions is not an issue.

[ftworthmustang]

"He's going to win. He could win big." What the hell does that mean?

Sounds like June will schedule New Mexico State, SW Louisiana State, Georgia state and university of phoenix for the OOC schedule. Win big baby win big!

[Big Hoss]

Also sick of hearing how our academics mean we can't compete with other schools...Duke must be an effing team of miracle workers if they can win with their academic reputation.

Exactly. Heard on ESPN a few weeks ago about how Stanford, Notre Dame, and Northwestern all finished in the top 15 in football rankings last year as well as in the top 15 in college rankings.

Will we be able to compete for a national championship every year? Not likely. But we certainly should be able to get enough talent to compete in a mediocre conference like the AAC and get ranked in the top 25.

[ponyinNC]

I love the revisionist history and fuzzy math! Not counting the 1-8 record against ranked teams?? Really?? So those games don't count now??

Good to know.

I cannot wait to comment in this article and debunk the myths and the writing of this idiot!!

[Stallion]

Plus they graduate 80-90-100% of their players. SMU is sitting right there with the schools in the Big 12 and similar schools in APR and graduation rates. SMU's APR over last 4 reporting periods ranges from about 939-947 (5 year look-back) which is average just like most other Texas schools not named Rice

[GiddyUp]

Everyone twitter bomb this fool