Searching for optimism...

[ponyboy]

You dwell on petty things. The guy accomplished EXACTLY what we paid him to do. He changed the losing culture at SMU. Our expectations are different because of him. He IS a turnaround artist. He turned us around.

[Rebel10]

He is here for the money. He publicly degraded the school which hurts recruiting in all sports. Publicly degrading your school is not petty unless you have battered spouse syndrome. Apparently you do.

[ponyboy]

Yes, he's now here only for the money now. And the relationships with his players, coaches, and a few within the SMU community. We are a materialistic community by and large. Dallas has no natural beauty -- unless you like glass and steel. It's not a good cultural fit. But he did exactly what we asked him to do. I like the guy and am thankful for the little bit of soul he's brought us. Oh, and the winning.

[fifty]

I agree. No one remembers June publicly degrading the university along with all of his other apparently demonic doings except people who log into ponyfans before 9am each morning. Most of the world at large likes him.

If ponyfans.com existed during the Phil Bennet era, I'm sure glad I missed it.

[couch 'em]

Nobody denies that June did good things in the beginning. However it all went south and his recruiting has caught up with him.

[couch 'em]

And he was openly hostile to SMU both directly and through others, like the players writing to the DC. I don't appriciate that.

[malonish]

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.

Sweet straw man bruh.

[GiddyUp]

And whining to local & nat'l media - what a wuss

[SMU 86]

And whining to local & nat'l media - what a wuss

Going to the media like that could have damaged basketball recruiting as well. Especially the stuff about the academic support. I do wish he had not done that.

[ponyboy]

Nobody denies that June did good things in the beginning. However it all went south and his recruiting has caught up with him.

How has his lack of recruiting caught up with him? He missed a fifth bowl by a touchdown. I do believe the lack of recruiting will cause a hole the next guy's gotta dig out of.

[sbsmith]

How has his lack of recruiting caught up with him? He missed a fifth bowl by a touchdown.

You answered your own question.

[ponyboy]

That seems a little simplistic. If I had pulled you or any of us aside in early 2008 and explained that JJ was coming to town, that he was very unconventional on the recruiting front, but that he'd take us to four straight bowl games beginning in 2009 but miss a fifth straight bowl game in 2013 by a touchdown, we'd have done standing backflips. Have a broader view of what he's done here -- i.e. the same broad view that nearly EVERYONE outside this program has. I kid about building him a statue just to poke a stick in the anthill. But we do need to recognize that this guy may have literally saved all of SMU athletics from the Sun Belt 2.0. If SMU football doesn't go to those bowl games, if we don't have name recognition in June Jones, we're doomed to sharing a conference with UTSA. No Larry Brown, no AAC -- none of it. Let that sink in a bit.

[Stallion]

Once again ponyboy-you don't get it. He hasn't done anything in 6 seasons that coaches at these schools haven't done during his tenure-they will not get a statute either even though they actually won 9+ games in a season:

Rice(multiple)
NTSU
Tulsa(multiple)
Southern Miss
Houston(multiple)
ECU(multiple)
UCF(multiple)
Arkansas St.
Hell his successor at Hawaii Greg MacMakin even won 10 games
----------
Not to mention these schools recruiting but also playing schedules at the BCS level
Baylor(multiple)
TCU(multiple)
Texas(multiple)
A&M(Multiple)
Tech(multiple)

You act like he has performed some miracle and I just pointed to about 30 seasons better than June Jones has ever had at SMU. Nobody wants to hear about 1989-2008 because they weren't playing under the same Model -which June Jones concedes. He had 6 years and in years 5 and 6 he is a .500 Coach with a decling program

[sbsmith]

That seems a little simplistic. If I had pulled you or any of us aside in early 2008 and explained that JJ was coming to town, that he was very unconventional on the recruiting front, but that he'd take us to four straight bowl games beginning in 2009 but miss a fifth straight bowl game in 2013 by a touchdown, we'd have done standing backflips. Have a broader view of what he's done here -- i.e. the same broad view that nearly EVERYONE outside this program has. I kid about building him a statue just to poke a stick in the anthill. But we do need to recognize that this guy may have literally saved all of SMU athletics from the Sun Belt 2.0. If SMU football doesn't go to those bowl games, if we don't have name recognition in June Jones, we're doomed to sharing a conference with UTSA. No Larry Brown, no AAC -- none of it. Let that sink in a bit.

If you told me back when June was hired that he would have completed 6 full seasons without winning 10 games, or a conference title and was delivering recruiting classes ranked in the 90s I'd have been furious. We all expected more at this point including June. Outsiders think June is great because they don't follow and aren't invested in the program. Something tells me they wouldn't think so highly of June if they knew about his disdain for recruiting and his struggles against relevant competition.


June didn't save SMU Athletics, the CoC did. June also wasn't responsible for Larry Brown coming here or for the program getting invited to the AAC. The AAC invite was inevitable once the conference started hemorrhaging members (remember even lowly Tulane got an invite).

[ponyboy]

Stallion:

Of the 14 teams you mention above, only Baylor and Arkansas State have improved their win percentage lot more than SMU in the last five years as compared to the previous twenty. Baylor by 63 slots and Arkansas State by 55 slots. Both UCF and SMU have improved their win percentage ranking a full 52 slots.

UCF
1989-2008: #71 in the nation
2009-2013: #19

SMU
1989-2008: #113 in the nation
2009-2013: #61

Five of the teams you list have gotten worse in the last five years, win percentage wise. Rice was ranked 85 for twenty years and is 111 in the last five years. Southern Miss fell from 37 to 82!

Now let me cherry pick the teams on my side of the argument.