Searching for optimism...

[mrydel]

waiting for godot...

I am more interested in waiting for Good O.

[Rebel10]

I bet we go bowling in 2014. June's an odd dude.

We'll probably be 6-6 as the conference schedule will be weaker. After we go 6-6 you can then proclaim his greatness.

[malonish]

Back to 6-6 in C-USAAC

[blackoutpony]

June will be bowling in Hawaii. Doubt the rest of the team will.

He probably also has designs for a super bowl

[ponyboy]

I bet we go bowling in 2014. June's an odd dude.

We'll probably be 6-6 as the conference schedule will be weaker. After we go 6-6 you can then proclaim his greatness.

Right. Bowl game.

Here's my take on June Jones in sixty seconds or less:

1) We were a legitimate top five most sucky team in America for the previous two decades. Tap, tap. That's TWO DECADES. We defined suck, had a whole page in the S section in Websters.

2) June Jones came aboard to our astonishment that we could be so lucky.

3) Cleaned house in year one and reset expectations, including running off a star quarterback with a penchant for slamming his hand in car doors.

4) Took us to a bowl game in YEAR FREAKING TWO, an absolute pounding of Kaepernick's Nevada squad. Yes, that Colin Kaepernick.

5) Took us to our second consecutive bowl, a feat we found astounding at the time given where we'd come from. Laid a bit of an egg in the game.

6) JJ accepted a verbal offer from ASU, a contract that had just a few minor things to iron out before it was official. We were hurt that he'd leave us -- even though he'd completed the promised turnaround -- a hurt that would turn to sheer pettiness when the ASU deal amazingly was reneged by the Sun Devils. JJ took us to the Compass Bowl, our third consecutive bowl, where we absolutely obliterated Pitt.

7) JJ helped some wild Mustangs. That pissed off the Peruna cult. And he didn't wear socks. And he liked to honor his home state of Hawaii by wearing a lei on occasion. No polos or slacks in sight.

8 ) JJ took us back to the Hawaii Bowl, the scene of the Mustang Renaissance in 2009. Our fourth straight bowl, we eviscerated a shocked Fresno State squad.

9) SMU misses a fifth consecutive bowl game and proceeds to get crucified by an enormously amnesic pack of hate lemmings.

[sbsmith]

We'll probably be 6-6 as the conference schedule will be weaker.

All we know right now is that we'll play ECU on the road and miss Temple. The schedule won't be definitively weaker unless we miss one of the top teams in the conference (Cincy or UCF). And even if it were, you really think this team can win 5 or 6 conference games (assuming a 1-3 or 0-4 start) after losing several key players (with no clear upgrades)?

[Rebel10]

Here's my take on June Jones in sixty seconds or less:

6) We were hurt that he'd leave us.

No, we were ticked off that he tried to recruit players to ASU while still at SMU. And messed up one of the biggest recruiting weekends since the DP.

He also down talked the school during his contract extension talks this year. He has very little respect for his employer.

Only a fool with a batter spouse syndrome would take that kind of treatment since the restrictions other coaches were under were lifted right before JJ got here.

[malonish]

Response:

1) We were a legitimate top five most sucky team in America for the previous two decades. Tap, tap. That's TWO DECADES. We defined suck, had a whole page in the S section in Websters.
Me) Agreed

2) June Jones came aboard to our astonishment that we could be so lucky.
Me) Agreed

3) Cleaned house in year one and reset expectations, including running off a star quarterback with a penchant for slamming his hand in car doors.
Me) Ran off a record setting QB instead of setting new ground rules on behavior.

4) Took us to a bowl game in YEAR FREAKING TWO, an absolute pounding of Kaepernick's Nevada squad. Yes, that Colin Kaepernick.
Me) Agreed

5) Took us to our second consecutive bowl, a feat we found astounding at the time given where we'd come from. Laid a bit of an egg in the game.
Me) Agreed

6) JJ accepted a verbal offer from ASU, a contract that had just a few minor things to iron out before it was official. We were hurt that he'd leave us -- even though he'd completed the promised turnaround -- a hurt that would turn to sheer pettiness when the ASU deal amazingly was reneged by the Sun Devils. JJ took us to the Compass Bowl, our third consecutive bowl, where we absolutely obliterated Pitt.
Me) Accepted offer to ASU and recruited for them while being payed to recruit for SMU. Lost recruits due to this.

7) JJ helped some wild Mustangs. That [deleted] off the Peruna cult. And he didn't wear socks. And he liked to honor his home state of Hawaii by wearing a lei on occasion. No polos or slacks in sight.
Me) How about wear some red and blue more than once a month?

8 ) JJ took us back to the Hawaii Bowl, the scene of the Mustang Renaissance in 2009. Our fourth straight bowl, we eviscerated a shocked Fresno State squad.
Me) Lost to Tulane and ran off field tail tucked between legs. Only person to stop for Varsity was McJunkin. Did the little [deleted] escape before Varsity multiple times.

9) SMU misses a fifth consecutive bowl game and proceeds to get crucified by an enormously amnesic pack of hate lemmings.
Me) Recruiting chicken comes home to roost. Without our lord and savior GG we don't win 3.

[SMU2007]

I bet we go bowling in 2014. June's an odd dude.

our schedule is harder than last year. we lose the point man for our offense and the best player on our team. hard to imagine we win more games next year... I'm going to go out on a limb and say no way do we go bowling.

[ponyboy]

Only a fool with a batter spouse syndrome would take that kind of treatment since the restrictions other coaches were under were lifted right before JJ got here.

Though there were changes before he even heard of SMU, June CAUSED many restrictions to be lifted. He said I'm not going there until these 10,000 things, some small, some not small, are corrected to allow us to compete. He CAUSED those things, thereby setting us up for success. He made analogous demands at Hawaii and got crickets -- which is why he even considered coming here.

The guy SAVED our program and he gets petty sniping day and night. Guess it's just human nature to be petty, to search with all our hearts and souls for a reason to be thankless and amnesic -- which is the reason why he now considers this job a business proposition and a paycheck, and why he tried to leave. I don't blame him, this is a soulless place in many ways. I'm thankful for the degree in which he changed the culture.

[Stallion]

Ha! Ha! Ha!
You're so full of [deleted].
You spent a decade arguing against anyone pointing out the exact changes that had to be made
Get this through your damn head.
In June's first 2 recruiting classes there irrefutable published profiles on his recruiting classes that demonstrate quite clearly that the changes were made immediately just like Turner said and June Jones admitted immediately after taking the jon

[Rebel10]

Only a fool with a batter spouse syndrome would take that kind of treatment since the restrictions other coaches were under were lifted right before JJ got here.

Though there were changes before he even heard of SMU, June CAUSED many restrictions to be lifted. He said I'm not going there until these 10,000 things, some small, some not small, are corrected to allow us to compete. He CAUSED those things, thereby setting us up for success. He made analogous demands at Hawaii and got crickets -- which is why he even considered coming here.

The guy SAVED our program and he gets petty sniping day and night. Guess it's just human nature to be petty, to search will all our hearts and souls for a reason to be thankless and amnesic -- which is the reason why he considers this job a business proposition and a paycheck. I don't blame him, this is a soulless place in many ways. I'm thankful for the degree in which he changed the culture.

They lifted the restrictions for the next coach not for June in specific. They were lifted regardless of if they would have hired Paul Johnson or June Jones. The Orsini, Turner, and the CoC had that done when they raised the 10 million for the coach. Jones had nothing to do with that. And Jones publicly degrading SMU like he has done is bad. June did not save out program but the Coc and others that put in place the measure which allowed any coach to have a fair chance were the ones that saved the program. June himself said that the other coaches never had a fair opportunity. But you have got your nose stuck so far up June's behind until you can't see that. June is here for the money and his continued degrading of SMU around contract time is shameful.

[GiddyUp]

I'm sorry there isn't any. The only sunshine is in bball. Nothing to see here...come back in 2016

[ponyboy]

So that I understand your position, Reb, just any Joe Blow off the street could have turned this program around and JJ's reputation for being a turnaround artist is mere fairy dust. Interesting position. So we could have hired Todd Dodge after all.

[Rebel10]

So that I understand your position, Reb, just any Joe Blow off the street could have turned this program around and JJ's reputation for being a turnaround artist is mere fairy dust. Interesting position. So we could have hired Todd Dodge after all.

Not any Joe Blow or high school coach but any decent coach college could have while at least building relationships with local coaches. And they would not have publicity degraded the university. Sorry, I don't have the battered spouse syndrome.