CBS Sports C-USA Outlook
Posted: Sun Aug 05, 2012 9:51 pm
http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/story/19712258/conference-usa-preview-houston-tulsa-still-best-in-everchanging-league
Has us third in the West
Has us third in the West
3. Southern Methodist: June Jones likes reclamation projects. At Hawaii, he inherited a team that had failed to win a game the year before his arrival, orchestrated the most dramatic single-season turnaround in NCAA history in his first year and eventually took the Warriors to the Sugar Bowl. At SMU, he inherited a team that won a single game the year before his arrival and hadn't been to a bowl game since the program was axed by the "death penalty" two decades earlier. Five years later, the Mustangs have played in three consecutive bowl games and have every reason to expect to make it four. In that context, Garrett Gilbert may be the perfect June Jones quarterback: A former five-star recruit from just outside of Austin, Gilbert spent one hugely disappointing season as Texas' starting quarterback in 2010 and was barely into a second when he was bounced from the lineup in favor of a wholesale youth movement. He wasn't literally banished from his hometown, but by the end it must have begun to feel that way. In Dallas, Gilbert has a second chance in an offense that will give him every opportunity to redeem his maligned arm, as well as a pair of All-C-USA seniors, tailback Zach Line and wide receiver Darius Johnson. Both are far more proven playmakers than anyone Gilbert shared a huddle with at Texas. What he will not have is an offensive line -- all five starters will be new in place of the most experienced front in the nation in 2011. Before we get too carried away with the redemption narrative, let's just hope he makes it out in one piece.