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

[Rebel10]

I agree with last half of your post. C of C threw SMU a lifeline-we need the fanbase to pull. We blame June Jones for recruiting but all those decent recruits are turned off by our small fanbase. If you are waiting for SMU to win 9-10+ games in perpetuity-then you got it back-ass backwards. 4 straight bowl games and 3 wins should have resulted in solid attendance gains

I was very disappointed when we couldnt sell tickets for the UCF game that last time they came to town. We just beat TCU, received top 25 votes, and we were going up against the defending C-USA champ. No one in Dallas cared except for the die hard types like us.By the way, the weather was post-card perfect that day.

I was at that game and attendance was not bad.

[Rebel10]

We will attract some quarterback and wide receiver talent but we won't recruit on par at most other positions with the old SWC schools until we move into a more favorable conference. That may not happen in my lifetime. I agree with Rick that Jones has kept the program afloat, and a lot of people are angry with me for saying this, but our fanbase hasn't responded at all to the improvements and that hurts our chances of getting to play with, and thereby recruit on par with, the big boys. No, I'm not dumping on our fans, its just that there is not a lot of general interest in this program on or off campus.

In order to increase non alumn fans you have to have a head coach that is visible in the city. Obviously you are buying this stuff that June is feeding you and so be it. We are not even recruiting on the same level as USF and they are in our conference having a bad year with low attendance. Recruiting has a lot to do with building relationships with high school coaches and it might help June if he at least drove out to Cedar Hill to meet the coaching staff.

Ron Meyer and Hayden Frye were two of the most charismatic people you will ever meet and they were all over Dallas media whenever they had a chance. Both were successful, but neither one could raise our attendance to respectable levels. Our crowds were small then except when we played big state school rivals that could bring in the fan base.

You said nothing about the part where USF has had a bad season and low attendance yet still recruiting well. I think it might have to do relationships with high school coaches with June is not doing very well.

[mr. pony]

I noticed the intrepid columnist hasn't responded to the deluge of comments...

Here's most of our email thread:
(My note first)
June Jones is a fraud and his welcome is long gone among most SMU fans.
Too bad no one at The News realizes that SMU deserves much better. Our goal is get back into a top conference and compete with A&M, Baylor, Tech and Texas.
"Win-6" Jones should've been fired after the ASU scam.

Gosselin:
SMU wins 27.2 percent of its games over a 19-year span, regularly drawing crowds in the 11,000, 12,000 and 13,000 range. Jones show up and takes SMU to four bowl games in five years and you want to fire him. It's tougher to win and recruit there than you think. If SMU was still a destination program for kids -- able to compete on and off the field with Big 12 schools -- it would be in the Big 12, not the American Athletic Conference.

Me:
Not just I want to fire him. Walk the Boulevard sometime.
Jones has no intention of taking SMU any further - and probably never did. He's been collecting a check for about three years now.
We have bigger goals. Much bigger.
Yes, the DP was a killer -- too bad other schools who've richly deserved it since didn't get a taste as well.
As for, "If SMU was still a destination program for kids -- able to compete on and off the field with Big 12 schools -- it would be in the Big 12, not the American Athletic Conference": Jones was brought here and paid handsomely to change that.
He failed.

Gosselin:
I stood for two hours watching SMU practice Thursday morning from 7-9 am at Ford Stadium in brutal winds and cold. If SMU wants to be a big-time football program, wouldn't they have an indoor facility like the other big-time football programs? Those facilities, by the way, are recruiting perks that other schools have that SMU does not. I've been to the weight rooms of Texas, Baylor, TCU, Oklahoma...again, SMU can't hold a candle to them. Again, a recruiting perk. Those deficiencies make it tough to compete on the recruiting trail. I suggest SMU make the full commitment -- go all in -- before you can decide if a particular coach is the right or wrong person for the job. Judge him when he's on equal footing facility-wise with the programs you aspire to be.

Me:
Agreed, more upgrades are needed.
Indoor facility has been on list for some time and will happen.
(We moved the fricking stadium lights for JJ, though!)

THE END

[redpony]

I was very disappointed when we couldnt sell tickets for the UCF game that last time they came to town. We just beat TCU, received top 25 votes, and we were going up against the defending C-USA champ. No one in Dallas cared except for the die hard types like us.By the way, the weather was post-card perfect that day.

I was at that game with daughter, son-in-law and grand-kids. We sat on the west side and I really didn't think that attendance was that bad. The east side was very sparse but then again UCF doesn't travel so what could we expect. I think jj's expectations at that time were a bit unrealistic. Yes, we had just beaten tcwho but not many people were paying attention to us at that time.. JMHO

[SMUer]

I think that games was the first time June realized just how small our alumni base was. It really wasn't poorly attended. Only UTEP had noticeably more Just like any other CUSA opponent we've ever hosted that nobody in Dallas pays attention to...

[redpony]

I was also at the UTEP game where we won in the last minute or so and it was significant for us. Had tears of joy in my eyes that day.

[feelthehorsepower]

I noticed the intrepid columnist hasn't responded to the deluge of comments...

Here's most of our email thread:
(My note first)
June Jones is a fraud and his welcome is long gone among most SMU fans.
Too bad no one at The News realizes that SMU deserves much better. Our goal is get back into a top conference and compete with A&M, Baylor, Tech and Texas.
"Win-6" Jones should've been fired after the ASU scam.

Gosselin:
SMU wins 27.2 percent of its games over a 19-year span, regularly drawing crowds in the 11,000, 12,000 and 13,000 range. Jones show up and takes SMU to four bowl games in five years and you want to fire him. It's tougher to win and recruit there than you think. If SMU was still a destination program for kids -- able to compete on and off the field with Big 12 schools -- it would be in the Big 12, not the American Athletic Conference.

Me:
Not just I want to fire him. Walk the Boulevard sometime.
Jones has no intention of taking SMU any further - and probably never did. He's been collecting a check for about three years now.
We have bigger goals. Much bigger.
Yes, the DP was a killer -- too bad other schools who've richly deserved it since didn't get a taste as well.
As for, "If SMU was still a destination program for kids -- able to compete on and off the field with Big 12 schools -- it would be in the Big 12, not the American Athletic Conference": Jones was brought here and paid handsomely to change that.
He failed.

Gosselin:
I stood for two hours watching SMU practice Thursday morning from 7-9 am at Ford Stadium in brutal winds and cold. If SMU wants to be a big-time football program, wouldn't they have an indoor facility like the other big-time football programs? Those facilities, by the way, are recruiting perks that other schools have that SMU does not. I've been to the weight rooms of Texas, Baylor, TCU, Oklahoma...again, SMU can't hold a candle to them. Again, a recruiting perk. Those deficiencies make it tough to compete on the recruiting trail. I suggest SMU make the full commitment -- go all in -- before you can decide if a particular coach is the right or wrong person for the job. Judge him when he's on equal footing facility-wise with the programs you aspire to be.

Me:
Agreed, more upgrades are needed.
Indoor facility has been on list for some time and will happen.
(We moved the fricking stadium lights for JJ, though!)

THE END

What the hell is he talking about?

TCU Weight Room http://gofrogs.cstv.com/facilities/tcu- ... enter.html


SMU Weight Room http://www.smumustangs.com/facilities/s ... enter.html




Our weight room is as good as TCU's so I don't know what he's talking about

[feelthehorsepower]

But I agree 100% on the Indoor Practice Facility. In this weather our team would have been able to practice! WE NEED AN IPF!! HART, SID, WE NEED THAT IPF!!

[ftworthmustang]

I noticed the intrepid columnist hasn't responded to the deluge of comments...

Here's most of our email thread:
(My note first)
June Jones is a fraud and his welcome is long gone among most SMU fans.
Too bad no one at The News realizes that SMU deserves much better. Our goal is get back into a top conference and compete with A&M, Baylor, Tech and Texas.
"Win-6" Jones should've been fired after the ASU scam.

Gosselin:
SMU wins 27.2 percent of its games over a 19-year span, regularly drawing crowds in the 11,000, 12,000 and 13,000 range. Jones show up and takes SMU to four bowl games in five years and you want to fire him. It's tougher to win and recruit there than you think. If SMU was still a destination program for kids -- able to compete on and off the field with Big 12 schools -- it would be in the Big 12, not the American Athletic Conference.

Me:
Not just I want to fire him. Walk the Boulevard sometime.
Jones has no intention of taking SMU any further - and probably never did. He's been collecting a check for about three years now.
We have bigger goals. Much bigger.
Yes, the DP was a killer -- too bad other schools who've richly deserved it since didn't get a taste as well.
As for, "If SMU was still a destination program for kids -- able to compete on and off the field with Big 12 schools -- it would be in the Big 12, not the American Athletic Conference": Jones was brought here and paid handsomely to change that.
He failed.

Gosselin:
I stood for two hours watching SMU practice Thursday morning from 7-9 am at Ford Stadium in brutal winds and cold. If SMU wants to be a big-time football program, wouldn't they have an indoor facility like the other big-time football programs? Those facilities, by the way, are recruiting perks that other schools have that SMU does not. I've been to the weight rooms of Texas, Baylor, TCU, Oklahoma...again, SMU can't hold a candle to them. Again, a recruiting perk. Those deficiencies make it tough to compete on the recruiting trail. I suggest SMU make the full commitment -- go all in -- before you can decide if a particular coach is the right or wrong person for the job. Judge him when he's on equal footing facility-wise with the programs you aspire to be.

Me:
Agreed, more upgrades are needed.
Indoor facility has been on list for some time and will happen.
(We moved the fricking stadium lights for JJ, though!)



This is same exact thing he said to me. I guess he sends out the same response to everyone. Easy way to respond to many without putting a lot into it.

[lwjr]

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.

We will attract some quarterback and wide receiver talent but we won't recruit on par at most other positions with the old SWC schools until we move into a more favorable conference. That may not happen in my lifetime. I agree with Rick that Jones has kept the program afloat, and a lot of people are angry with me for saying this, but our fanbase hasn't responded at all to the improvements and that hurts our chances of getting to play with, and thereby recruit on par with, the big boys. No, I'm not dumping on our fans, its just that there is not a lot of general interest in this program on or off campus.

In order to increase non alumn fans you have to have a head coach that is visible in the city. Obviously you are buying this stuff that June is feeding you and so be it. We are not even recruiting on the same level as USF and they are in our conference having a bad year with low attendance. Recruiting has a lot to do with building relationships with high school coaches and it might help June if he at least drove out to Cedar Hill to meet the coaching staff.

So what you are saying, you have been having a discussion of different opinions with a kind of
auto-reply machine?

[ftworthmustang]

RoboRick

[SoCal_Pony]

From the time SMU entered the SWC in 1918 until the DP in 1986 (that's 69 years), the only two SWC schools* with had a higher winning percentage than SMU were UT & Arkansas.

* - had to be a SWC member for more than 12 years to qualify.

Oh, and for you or any other poster that wants to single out SMU for cheating during the Pony Express days, that gold Trans-Am was originally the property of A&M, not SMU.

Thank you for correcting revisionist history. You can't pick and choose the baseline. Yes we had periods of mediocrity but those periods coincided with bad choices for our Fball coaches. I am not saying Jibes is bad, but when the right coach was in place we won championships.

So, okay, we were competitve within the SWC - you are right on that. But after UT and Arky there was really nobody in the SWC that was consistently great. We were a decent team within a mediocre conference, one everybody knew was destined to break up.

A few points.

1) I think we can all agree that over the history of college FB, there has been 5 dominant conferences, the SEC, Big 10, Big 12, SWC & PAC. During those 69 years, the SWC was hardly mediocre.

2) You state that after UT and Arky there was really nobody consistently great. I say you can make the same argument about the Big 10 (sans Michigan & Ohio State), Big 12 (OU & Nebraska) and PAC (USC & UCLA). Sole exception is SEC which has had mutiple dominate teams (Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia & LSU, with even Mississippi, Florida and Auburn having their moments).

3) I am talking a 69 year time horizon. Your comment about the SWC destined to break up only became serious post-DP, so it is a moot point.

Don't mean to get into a pi$$ing match with you Leopold, just think for a small private school, SMU's football history in its entirety is something we can all be proud of. A big part of this success is because of our location in football crazy Texas. Same reason SEC does so well, because of its location. That has not and will not change. SMU can be great again, even if that means against non-BCS opponents. We should be the UT of the non-BCS world.

[SoCal_Pony]

Gosselin says:
"It's tougher to win and recruit there than you think. If SMU was still a destination program for kids -- able to compete on and off the field with Big 12 schools -- it would be in the Big 12, not the American Athletic Conference."


While I think we should be doing much better against Big 12 schools (butt whippings seem to be the norm), I won't agrue with him regarding our ability to compete against these programs.

But here is where Rick gets it all wrong.

SMU will most likely lose today against UCF. If we do, that means JJ will be 6-30 against teams with winning records.

Here's the thing.

We will be 3-15 against OOC opponents (mostly against above mentioned former SWC schools) but we will ALSO be 3-15 against C-USA / AAC opponents as well. So it's not that we can't compete against former SWC mates, it's that we can't even compete against our lowly conference mates, and as we all know, C-USA & AAC are LOWLY.

Oh, and one final note. Include future conference mate Navy and SMU's record against C-USA & AAC opponents with winning records becomes 3-18. Totally unacceptable.