"there is no place i'd rather be"

by **feelthehorsepower** » Tue Dec 24, 2013 2:52 pm

Webmaster wrote:I found that press release announcing Jones' contract to be fairly interesting on several points.

First, it's a 3-year deal instead of the (minimal) 2-year that I think most were expecting. I assume this was to give some assurances of more stability for the program.

Hart: "We look forward to partnering with Coach Jones as we now set our sights on the next phase of our rise to prominence: establishing SMU football as a championship program. Coach Jones and his staff share and embrace the high expectations for our program and the challenge of taking SMU football from good to great."
Translation: The PonyNation is dissatisfied with 6 wins. I hear you and we expect more going forward.

"There is no place I'd rather be than here at SMU," said Jones. "I am proud of the progress we have made thus far, but many goals remain unfinished, including restoring SMU football's championship tradition."
Translation: Sorry about ASU; won't happen again. My boss has made it clear I need to win conference titles in addition to going to Hawaii.

"Athletics is and always will be an integral part of the SMU experience," said SMU President R. Gerald Turner. "As we take the next step in our quest to establish SMU football as a championship program, it will require increased effort from the entire university community, and I can affirm the campus-wide commitment to this goal."
Translation: We understand that half-assed doesn't work. I'm tired of hate mail. I'm in of you guys are, however, if you want the university to go all-in, you'll need to give us us a chance and you'll also need to open your checkbooks.

Wow, I agree with this! Let's just give them all a chance. At least they listen to us! It was probably the only way to go right now. Maybe June will get his [Deleted] together and start recruiting!

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by **Rebel10** » Tue Dec 24, 2013 3:13 pm

feelthehorsepower wrote:
Webmaster wrote:I found that press release announcing Jones' contract to be fairly interesting on several points.

First, it's a 3-year deal instead of the (minimal) 2-year that I think most were expecting. I assume this was to give some assurances of more stability for the program.

Hart: "We look forward to partnering with Coach Jones as we now set our sights on the next phase of our rise to prominence: establishing SMU football as a championship program. Coach Jones and his staff share and embrace the high expectations for our program and the challenge of taking SMU football from good to great."
Translation: The PonyNation is dissatisfied with 6 wins. I hear you and we expect more going forward.

"There is no place I'd rather be than here at SMU," said Jones. "I am proud of the progress we have made thus far, but many goals remain unfinished, including restoring SMU football's championship tradition."
Translation: Sorry about ASU; won't happen again. My boss has made it clear I need to win conference titles in addition to going to Hawaii.

"Athletics is and always will be an integral part of the SMU experience," said SMU President R. Gerald Turner. "As we take the next step in our quest to establish SMU football as a championship program, it will require increased effort from the entire university community, and I can affirm the campus-wide commitment to this goal."
Translation: We understand that half-assed doesn't work. I'm tired of hate mail. I'm in of you guys are, however, if you want the university to go all-in, you'll need to give us us a chance and you'll also need to open your checkbooks.

Wow, I agree with this! Let's just give them all a chance. At least they listen to us! It was probably the only way to go right now. Maybe June will get his [Deleted] together and start recruiting!

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I think I am starting to see why some people think you area a troll.

by **blackoutpony** » Tue Dec 24, 2013 4:09 pm

Reb, he changes his stance literally every day

by **feelthehorsepower** » Tue Dec 24, 2013 4:18 pm

Rebel10 wrote:
feelthehorsepower wrote:
Webmaster wrote:I found that press release announcing Jones' contract to be fairly interesting on several points.

First, it's a 3-year deal instead of the (minimal) 2-year that I think most were expecting. I assume this was to give some assurances of more stability for the program.

Hart: "We look forward to partnering with Coach Jones as we now set our sights on the next phase of our rise to prominence: establishing SMU football as a championship program. Coach Jones and his staff share and embrace the high expectations for our program and the challenge of taking SMU football from good to great."
Translation: The PonyNation is dissatisfied with 6 wins. I hear you and we expect more going forward.

"There is no place I'd rather be than here at SMU," said Jones. "I am proud of the progress we have made thus far, but many goals remain unfinished, including restoring SMU football's championship tradition."
Translation: Sorry about ASU; won't happen again. My boss has made it clear I need to win conference titles in addition to going to Hawaii.

"Athletics is and always will be an integral part of the SMU experience," said SMU President R. Gerald Turner. "As we take the next step in our quest to establish SMU football as a championship program, it will require increased effort from the entire university community, and I can affirm the campus-wide commitment to this goal."
Translation: We understand that half-assed doesn't work. I'm tired of hate mail. I'm in of you guys are, however, if you want the university to go all-in, you'll need to give us us a chance and you'll also need to open your checkbooks.

Wow, I agree with this! Let's just give them all a chance. At least they listen to us! It was probably the only way to go right now. Maybe June will get his [Deleted] together and start recruiting!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I think I am starting to see why some people think you area a troll.

Is your betshen and moanin going to change their mind about renewing June? Nope! He's the coach so just move on and stop throwing accusations about trolling. It's getting old.

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by **feelthehorsepower** » Tue Dec 24, 2013 4:19 pm

blackoutpony wrote:Reb, he changes his stance literally every day

When have I changed my stance? June was extended, much to my detriment but that's that and we can't change it. I'm not stressing about it, SMU is my team and I'm rolling with them to AAC championships!

We are mad at June now, same way BU fans were really mad at Art Briles...now for some reason everyone loves Briles...lol

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by **Webmaster** » Tue Dec 24, 2013 4:29 pm

Oh, I most definitely think this is PR-speak. Having written several hundred of them myself, I know how carefully crafted Press Releases are. Especially communications when managing crises. Coincidence that these quotes just happen to address the PonyFans Top 10 [deleted] list? I think not.

At this point the only thing I'm relatively certain of is that RGT, Hart and Jones are aware of the gripes, and are at least giving lipservice to addressing the issues. I guess we'll have to wait and see if any action backs this up.

by **SMU2007** » Tue Dec 24, 2013 4:37 pm

Pony4Life wrote:Slow down. Believing something and finding parts of a press release to be "interesting" are far from the same thing. There definitely is some PR-speak, but he also raises some ideas that merit serious consideration.

Disagree. Just typical ponyfans mentality of trying to be optimistic for no apparent reason.

by **SMU2007** » Tue Dec 24, 2013 4:38 pm

Stallion wrote:June Jones has ZERO job security after 2014. ZERO. It actually might be interesting how he approaches the 2014 season with his coaching future (above the Sun Belt line) hanging in the balance. 2017-yeah right. It ain't going to cost SMU jack to get rid of this guy in 2014

How do we know what the buyout terms are? That's all that really matters. Right?

by **mavsrage311** » Thu Dec 26, 2013 3:39 am

SMU2007 wrote:
Stallion wrote:June Jones has ZERO job security after 2014. ZERO. It actually might be interesting how he approaches the 2014 season with his coaching future (above the Sun Belt line) hanging in the balance. 2017-yeah right. It ain't going to cost SMU jack to get rid of this guy in 2014

How do we know what the buyout terms are? That's all that really matters. Right?

I doubt they'd want the details to leak out. After all, if it's revealed that the buy out is minimal/0 after one year, that can be used against us in recruiting, defeating the purpose of the "3 year" extension.

by **stc9** » Thu Dec 26, 2013 7:58 am

mavsrage311 wrote:
SMU2007 wrote:
Stallion wrote:June Jones has ZERO job security after 2014. ZERO. It actually might be interesting how he approaches the 2014 season with his coaching future (above the Sun Belt line) hanging in the balance. 2017-yeah right. It ain't going to cost SMU jack to get rid of this guy in 2014

How do we know what the buyout terms are? That's all that really matters. Right?

I doubt they'd want the details to leak out. After all, if it's revealed that the buy out is minimal/0 after one year, that can be used against us in recruiting, defeating the purpose of the "3 year" extension.

I just don't have enough faith in SMU to actually negotiate a buy out clause in their favor. I don't have enough faith in SMU to negotiate in behavior modifying clauses/language. I have plenty of faith that the SMU administration bent over and happily took it in the shorts. JJ is the guy our big money donors wanted, so our AD rolled over like a good puppy so JJ could scratch his belly and call him a good boy.

I agree with Webmaster that the staffer that wrote the press release wanted to help smooth the anger and concerns of the fans.

by **ftworthmustang** » Thu Dec 26, 2013 8:13 am

mavsrage311 wrote:
SMU2007 wrote:
Stallion wrote:June Jones has ZERO job security after 2014. ZERO. It actually might be interesting how he approaches the 2014 season with his coaching future (above the Sun Belt line) hanging in the balance. 2017-yeah right. It ain't going to cost SMU jack to get rid of this guy in 2014

How do we know what the buyout terms are? That's all that really matters. Right?

I doubt they'd want the details to leak out. After all, if it's revealed that the buy out is minimal/0 after one year, that can be used against us in recruiting, defeating the purpose of the "3 year" extension.

Logically this makes sense, but with over half the commits with either no other offers or just one other offer, the actual impact of a leak wouldn't be that bad.

Unless there is an improvement in recruiting, we probably won't have a good 2015 class either, regardless of whether JJ is here or not after 2014.

At this point, all we can do is see how this plays out.

by **SMU2007** » Thu Dec 26, 2013 8:45 am

Clearly, if the buyout terms are the same as they are now, June has 100% job security for 3 more years and isn't leaving against his will under any circumstance. I'd be surprised if smu negotiated favorable buyout terms, but I guess no one really knows.

Also, agree that the impact on recruiting of recruits knowing jj is potentially leaving is next to zero...

by **StallionsModelT** » Thu Dec 26, 2013 12:45 pm

Its gonna be funny when June's "There is no place I'd rather be" is coaching in front of 2,500 when we start conference play 0-4.

by **jpe747** » Thu Dec 26, 2013 5:56 pm

Now that this contract is over and done, I hope recruiting efforts become more apparent. Parker Collins' coach pretty well confirmed what most everyone was thinking - not enough contacts being made. Coach Jones please find a young aggressive coach that can sell SMU to kids. I believe such a change would make a huge difference in your effectiveness. And coach Jones, we are all ready to move forward to the next level too. I for one think you have all of the right tools to lead us if you will aggressively recruit. See what you can do..please.

by **SMU_Alumni11** » Fri Dec 27, 2013 2:01 am

I just don't understand why we care about making him not look like a lame duck coach... To preserve our magnificent 84th ranked recruiting class... I mean we are below middle Tennessee for crying out loud. We might as well as do a "try out" among the flag football players. Our 71st rank last year had a few interesting recruits but nothing to jump for joy over, so worrying about people transfer isn't really a factor... So unless this contract pretty much says here's one year (that you were going to get anyways) and if you can't get us an 8 win season you are fired then I hope a car hits the person who thought that 3 years with June was a good idea.

And there's my rant for the day.