Cowlishaw: June Jones is SMU's Tony Romo

[ponyboy]

http://www.dallasnews.com/sports/colleg ... th-who.ece

[sbsmith]

Hilarious that Cowlishaw couldn't even refute the 10 minutes remark. Probably because it's true.

[ponyinNC]

not a bad comparison

[StallionsModelT]

I submitted that question.

I also think its hilarious that he won't acknowledge that in the past few weeks writers like Rick Gosselin and others have written articles about how lucky SMU is to have June Jones when they literally haven't watched a full SMU game in years. Also, the super lame comeback of "who are they going to get" is stupid. SMU got June Jones when it was arguably the worst college program in America. We are now viewed as a much better job, in part, because of Jones' success. The program is in a better conference and will have greater visibility. The SMU job is 10000x better in 2013 than it as in 2007 when we got Jones.

[mrydel]

Arkansas State has hired their 4th coach in 4 years. They have been to 3 consecutive bowls and won 3 consecutive conference championships. They did it by having coaches that could recruit. Their new coach will be paid $700,000 a year for 5 years with a $3 million buy out for years 1-3 then $2 million in the 4th and $1 million in the 5th. They will most likely move into CUSA soon and continue to move upward. They have played some of the top teams in the country and taken them down to the wire. I never thought that I, as an SMU fan, would ever be jealous of Arkansas State.

[Arkpony]

And also note mrydel, Arkansas State has attracted some really top notch assistants who went on to head coaching jobs at prestigous football universities (Auburn, Boise State, etc). If THEY can do it, why not US????

[ponyinNC]

Arkansas State has hired their 4th coach in 4 years. They have been to 3 consecutive bowls and won 3 consecutive conference championships. They did it by having coaches that could recruit. Their new coach will be paid $700,000 a year for 5 years with a $3 million buy out for years 1-3 then $2 million in the 4th and $1 million in the 5th. They will most likely move into CUSA soon and continue to move upward. They have played some of the top teams in the country and taken them down to the wire. I never thought that I, as an SMU fan, would ever be jealous of Arkansas State.

didn't they beat us by like 20 points in 2007???

[mrydel]

They beat us badly with Steve Roberts. Since then they had Hugh Freeze who they sent to Ole Miss, Gus Malzahn they sent to Auburn, and then Harsin to Boise. Common factor is each coach was able to sustain recruiting to allow the program to continue rather than having to start from scratch. They also have a very good DC in John Thompson who keeps being passed over as a head coach. Do not know if he remains after this time. He was specifically told they would never hire him because he was defensive minded and they wanted an offensive guy. He would be a good hire for us as DC if we were to lose Mason.

[ponyboy]

We are now viewed as a much better job, in part, because of Jones' success. The program is in a better conference and will have greater visibility. The SMU job is 10000x better in 2013 than it as in 2007 when we got Jones.

Good to see you say that. Now we're getting somewhere.

My response to all of this is that those same writers were shocked when JJ then LB came here. Why can't we do it again with the next football hire?

[StallionsModelT]

While I am furious and embarassed by JJ's actions during the ASU fiasco and in regards to recruiting, there is no question that he has elevated SMU from when he got here. He has proven that even with minimal effort you can win at SMU. Now if the next coach can build on that foundation to get us to the next step (8 plus win seasons, conference titles, winning key OOC games) then we will be on track. Also, we need a relentless marketer of this program. Jones just simply is not that.

[SMUer]

He has proven that even with minimal effort you can win at SMU.

Bingo. There's the sunshine of this situation!

[ponyboy]

Please explain. That doesn't make the slightest sense to me. All we needed was a warm body to turn this program around?

[StallionsModelT]

Pretty much! When the administration decided it was going to accomodate minimal qualifiers and even partial qualifiers upon Jones' arrival, guess what? We started winning. Jones wahas even admitted that his predecessors didn't have a chance to win. Therefore the argument that Jones was some kind of savior is flawed.

Jones was the right guy to take us from horrible to mediocre. He is WITHOUT QUESTION not the guy to take us from mediocre to good/great. There is really no way anyone can argue against that.

[ponyboy]

That first paragraph seems odd seeing how he's a well known turnaround artist.

The second paragraph is *probably* true, though not without question. Hawaii didn't enter the rankings until JJ"s eight year.

[SMUer]

I think an aggressive DC has helped. I don't think we get to HI the first year or last year without tremendous D efforts in spite of our struggling offense.