The Case for June Jones

by Rhapsode on Dec 5, 2007 4:13 PM PST

As everybody looks around the country for a suitable head coach to replace Dorrell, I would like to propose that we look to Hawaii.

June Jones' record speaks for itself. He has led his team to a 12-0 record and a 23-3 record over the last 2 years and a .655 winning percentage over 9 years. He runs what may be the best offense in college football and has never been accused of losing a game because he was afraid to make a gutsy call. Best of all, his teams get better as the season progresses, which means that we would never see a 6-0 team finish 6-6.

He is very popular, comes across well through the media, and is able to recruit quality players despite being saddled with terrible facilities and a recruiting budget of only $50,000. That means he gets only one recruiting trip to the mainland and has to recruit the rest of the team from Hawaii (which is not the richest talent base). Yet even with that, his teams always have a say about who wins the WAC and every couple of years he has an absolutely amazing team.

Brennan is the first quality QB that Jones has been able bring to Hawaii and he is setting records all over the place. Imagine what kind of players he could bring in with that offense and the UCLA name behind his recruiting pitch.

The big knock on Jones is that his defenses are never very good but I would blame that on his limited recruiting budget. Jones cannot go after highly sought after players at every position and he has focused his mainland recruiting on mostly offense, where he needs the most skill players. Being at UCLA should remedy this and allow Jones to compete for a PAC-10 championship every year.

Finally, there should not be the financial hurdles that you see with big name candidates like Spurrier because Jones only makes $800,000 a year. Plus, Jones' contract is up at the end of this season.

I know it is hard to leave the islands, but a big name program with a real budget and a pay raise can convince people to do strange things.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of BruinsNation's (BN) editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of BN's editors.

Tweet Comment 9 comments | 0 recs |

Do you like this story?

Comments

shoot

I like it. Only other question mark besides Defense (which you aptly adressed), is academics. Not sure how well Coach Jones has done/will do with the heavy(ier) harness the UC Regents will throw on him, but yeah -- I (for one) should have paid closer attention to Hawaii when I started lobbying so hard for their ex-OC (the UBER-qualified Coach Paul Johnson).

GO BRUIN BLUE.

by theREAL_LOGAN5 on Dec 5, 2007 6:19 PM PST reply actions

Sounds like he may be interested

June Jones was interviewed on The Jim Rome Show on Wednesday, and didn't exactly distance himself from the opportunity in Westwood. (This is my unofficial transcrpition of the audio stream)

Jim Rome: Are you good there [Hawaii]? Can you stay there forever and just do your thing?

June Jones: Well, I've always felt this would be my last job, and you know, but I, but at the same time, you never say never. There are certain things that are fantastic. I came back to HI not just because I played here but because I love the people here, and HI is a very special place. It's very unique and does have all different kinds of athletes on our team from Samoa, Tonga, from Los Angeles, from Dallas, (unintelligible) it says it all about HI, because it's very multicultural and multinational and I love being here.

Rome: I don't know June. LA has a lot of those things to offer, too. Last I checked they had a job offering here. How do you feel about that one?

Jones: Ha ha. Well, I'm worried about getting to the next game...I'm just trying to get through this game. I'm not interested in doing anything until the season's over and I'll analyze that at that time.

"...you never say never". A nervous laugh. "...until the season's over and I'll analyze that at that time". Sounds like he's willing to consider it. He didn't say he would be Hawaii's coach next year. He didn't criticize the suggestion. He didn't say that LA is "not a good fit" for him. Maybe I'm listening for stuff, but he sounds very different from what we've heard from Chris Peterson and Les Miles when asked about other jobs.

(after the interview, Rome mentioned that Hawaii's $50K total recruiting budget was equivalent to an SEC school's budget just for strippers alone for recruiting - LMAO!!)

greg in denver

by gbruin on Dec 5, 2007 7:57 PM PST reply actions

on somewhat of a tangent

I was listening to 570AM streaming online this afternoon - I think it was the Loose Cannons. They were talking with $C football player Lawrence Jackson. When asked if he was upset about $C not being in the BCS championship, he basically said they had the chance but can't complain about it because of their losses. I was actually impressed with the classy way he answered.

by AZBruin on Dec 5, 2007 9:24 PM PST up reply actions

I'm not a Rome fan by any means

but the "SEC strippers budget" is a good one. I wish I had said that.

by Fox 71 on Dec 5, 2007 9:25 PM PST up reply actions

You realize

That his current QB was expelled from Colorado for sexually assaulting a girl in her dorm room. I'm sorry, but his program has a lot of things in common with cheaty peety.

by joeb @ Bruins Nation on Dec 6, 2007 3:02 AM PST reply actions

You guys will be shocked

Yes it's me, dadof grad- the biggest Mariucci suporter on this board- and I LIKE JUNE JONES- believe it or not I think he would be a great fit here.

Nor being disloyal, but we have no guatrantees and we have to have plan A, B etc.

by dadofgrad06 on Dec 6, 2007 9:29 AM PST reply actions

June Jones and Hawaii issues

If you put yourself in his shoes, with the limitations that Hawaii puts on him, Jones has to take some bottom feeders to make up a football team. Otherwise, he wins no games or very few, and then is not a prospect for a job like UCLA. He is a former pro coach, knows his stuff, and would be a significant upgrade, IMO. We have been so conditioned the past 5 years about "cleaning up the program" that we forget that football is football and not the church choir. Some issues are to be expected, so I for one do not plan to wring my hands over some of the "small stuff".

Bill

BillSouthBay

by Mensgym on Dec 6, 2007 12:26 PM PST reply actions

If getting kicked off your team

for sexually assaulting a girl while wandering around naked and drunk is your idea of "some issues", then you belong across town where they don't care if rapists are on their team.

We pride ourselves by not having the thugs and the losers over here at UCLA. It would be a tad hypocritical to laud over June Jones while ignoring the criminal record of his team.

by joeb @ Bruins Nation on Dec 7, 2007 1:58 AM PST up reply actions

I recall UH being his dream job

I recall that when he was considered for the SD Charger headcoaching job (he was the incumbent OC for the Chargers at the time) he said that he would only stay with San Diego if he got the HC job. Otherwise he wanted to spend his last coaching days at UH. So I'd be surprised that he would really consider the UCLA job.

by SinnerBoy 99 on Dec 6, 2007 2:20 PM PST reply actions