The Case for June Jones
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.
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9 comments
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shoot
by theREAL_LOGAN5 on Dec 5, 2007 6:19 PM PST reply actions 0 recs
Sounds like he may be interested
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!!)
by gbruin on Dec 5, 2007 7:57 PM PST reply actions 0 recs
on somewhat of a tangent
by AZBruin on Dec 5, 2007 9:24 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I'm not a Rome fan by any means
by Fox 71 on Dec 5, 2007 9:25 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
You realize
by joeb on Dec 6, 2007 3:02 AM PST reply actions 0 recs
You guys will be shocked
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 0 recs
June Jones and Hawaii issues
Bill
by Mensgym on Dec 6, 2007 12:26 PM PST reply actions 0 recs
If getting kicked off your 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 on Dec 7, 2007 1:58 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I recall UH being his dream job
by SinnerBoy 99 on Dec 6, 2007 2:20 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

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