ESPN: Q&A with June Jones

[Harry0569]

http://espn.go.com/blog/ncfnation/post/ ... june-jones


SMU opens spring practice today with lots of holes to fill on both offense and defense. I had a chance to catch up with coach June Jones to ask him about some of the biggest questions surrounding his team.

You are losing so many starters. How do you envision the spring playing out for you, knowing you have to replace your productive guys while moving into a new conference?


JJ: There’s definitely a lot of unknowns. The competition we’re playing -- everybody’s getting better. The Big East plays a very good brand of football, the schools that are left in there are pretty good. We have some positions to replace, but we think we have on campus a lot of good, young players who have been waiting for an opportunity. We have some kids that maybe, two or three of the freshmen kids will be an upgrade from what we’ve had the last four or five years, too. I think we’ll be OK.

The biggest losses offensively: Darius Johnson, a very productive player for us. A receiver has to step up and take that lead. But Der'rikk Thompson has started for three years, and he’ll take that lead as we go forward. And then we have a transfer running back, Traylon Shead, that I think is going to be a really good player that was recruited by Texas, one of the best running backs in the state after his freshman year left and went to Navarro and he is with us and this spring will help him. But I think he’s a big-time runner off what I’ve seen on his JC tape. And so that solves our two questions. Those two kids have to step up. We have some other kids on campus. Prescott Line, Zach’s brother, looks like a prototype of his brother. He’s going to be a redshirt freshman so he understands what we’re doing. I think he’ll be productive. From that standpoint, I think we’re very good for filling it but until you do it game day you just never know.

The other question on offense surrounds your quarterback, Garrett Gilbert. How are you going to work with him to improve on his accuracy?

JJ: Any time you’re in a system more than one year you get better, you just get more comfortable with it. I think that will help Garrett. I really was happy with his competitiveness as a player. He did a lot of different things for us, running the ball, competing that way when things broke down to get first downs, things like that. He showed that he’s a competitive winner. So as long as he keeps getting better in the passing game, he’s got a shot to be a step up from where he was last year. We have a kid on campus, Neal Burcham, who is very accurate passer and will compete with Garrett. Both Garrett will make Neal better and Neal will make Garrett better. Competition does that.

Along the same lines, how are you going to work on just being a more consistent offense this spring?

JJ: You have to be or you’re not going to be very good. We have to be able to throw the ball more effectively. I’m not really worried about the run part of it. We will get the runs when we have them. The thing we have to be able to do if we’re going to be able to be successful, we have to throw the ball effectively. We’re in a pass offense. If you’re not completing 68 to 72 percent of your passes, that’s probably not getting the job done. That’s what we have to be able to do.

Defensively, you have to replace guys like Margus Hunt, Taylor Reed and Ja'Gared Davis. Who are the next guys up?

JJ: We have some kids on campus that played pretty well last year for us. We have a kid named Zach Wood and Beau Barnes that split time with Margus, they rotated in. Probably the most underrated guy we had was a guy name Torlan Pittman, and Darrian Wright will replace him. Darrian played as a true freshman and really played pretty well for us. We have some depth and we have some really good kids coming in. The best lineman we ever recruited named Zelt Minor from Lamar will compete right away for a starting job. He’s one of those kids that we’ve never had come to our school, since I’ve been here anyway, from a talent standpoint. We have some guys here, we have another kid, Elie Nabushosi that I think may be really, really great d-lineman. He redshirted last year. We couldn’t block him in practice.

We’re replacing two pretty productive linebackers in Taylor Reed and Ja'Gared Davis but we have some kids who might be bigger and more talented than them on campus right now, in a kid named Jarvis Pruitt and Lincoln Richard being the other guy. We’re going to be OK but they’ve got to learn the defense and play on game day. They’ll make mistakes but talent wise I think we’re going to be pretty good.

It sounds like you’ve got a lot of talent there, but you're young.

JJ: Everybody’s young. We open up with Texas Tech so obviously you better play pretty good to beat them, but at the same time I think once these kids get to Game 3 and 4 where they have a little game experience -- they’ll make plays while they’re learning -- but at the same time how you minimize your mistakes is really how you win the games. Who screws it up less is who wins games early so when you’ve got young kids, you’re making mistakes. We’ll make some big plays in there, too, because they are very talented.

What do you think when people say this is a rebuilding year and they’re not quite sure what they’re going to see out of you guys this year?

JJ: I don’t really pay too much attention to that. We were told when I was in Hawaii we were the worst team in the conference and we went 12-0. I think sometimes when people don’t expect you to be what you are, you have your best seasons. That’s just me. But I don’t worry. You’re coaching the kids up. You prepare them to win and they’ll learn how to win. We just have to hang together until they do. That’s how you turn it around.

[Harry0569]

a lot of young, inexperienced talent.

[StallionsModelT]

We are very young in our front seven. Only Darrian Wright, Stephon Sanders, and Randall Joyner have played significant snaps in their career. We've got a lot of young guys that will get their opportunity. I've also heard that Nabushoshi is going to be a special player for us. Zelt Minor and Mason Gentry will also get a chance to play up front starting with fall practice.

[mustangxc]

Anyone care to troll the ESPN boards? The Big East fans claim that SMU has no fans.

[PonyKai]

Less coach-speak here; June seems pretty confident. He is master of coach speak.

[PSCA]

Beau Barnes has a lot of snap exp on the DL and will be the starting at DE IMO come fall. He is dealing with some shoulder issues this spring ... not sure how much he will participate. I think the young man is good and still has a lot of upside to go.

[Water Pony]

Less coach-speak here; June seems pretty confident. He is master of coach speak.

It must be my issue, but for me his interview is more meaningless comments than Coach Speak. I must have bad ears.

[ponyboy]

Less coach-speak here; June seems pretty confident. He is master of coach speak.

Not sure what you're saying. Are you saying that though June is the master of coach speak, he is nonetheless not using as much in this interview? Or are you calling for less coach speak on his part?

I got a lot out of this interview. Very informative as far as these HC interviews go.

[ponyte]

I think it is a fair assessment. We do have positions to replace but we have some experience coming back. Shead and Line as well as other running backs should do fine. Perhaps not Zack Line but fine. Our receivers have no place to go but up. The Dline wasn’t stripped bare as we have several returning kids with playing experience and one heck of a recruit coming in. It’s nice to see the secondary is a huge concern for now. Once again we have some good players returning and some kids with a lot of experience. And he recognizes that we have to get better throwing (i.e. catching) the ball. Nothing unexpected and a nice analysis of talent available. Oh, and I do think it possible to have the best overall LB corps in decades.

[StallionsModelT]

It would be nice if Daijuan Stewart and Colin Lagasse showed their ability in the spring. Der'rikk Thompson is fast as hell but way too inconsistent.

[malonish]

Anyone care to troll the ESPN boards? The Big East fans claim that SMU has no fans.

Join me XC as we hit the board running.

[PonyKai]

Less coach-speak here; June seems pretty confident. He is master of coach speak.

Not sure what you're saying. Are you saying that though June is the master of coach speak, he is nonetheless not using as much in this interview? Or are you calling for less coach speak on his part?

I got a lot out of this interview. Very informative as far as these HC interviews go.

I found this interview to be both substantive and informative. I enjoyed hearing what June had to say and I think he seems confident, or at least more confident this year in the team. traditionally, June relies heavily on saying a lot of nothing in front of a mic, but I think this was a good interview with things to be gleaned from it.

[mustangxc]

Anyone care to troll the ESPN boards? The Big East fans claim that SMU has no fans.

Join me XC as we hit the board running.

I see that you posted on the page as viewable through Harry's link, but the real smack talk is on the page that is viewable from the Big East blog:

http://espn.go.com/blog/bigeast/post/_/ ... -1&errors=

[SMU89]

Good to have some football starting up.

[PonySnob]

We do what we do........