Posted by bambi2godzilla on 4/6/2008, 1:10 pm
63.249.102.18
June Jones article continued:
...When football came back in 1989 under coach Forrest Gregg, the Ponies went 2-9 and gave up 60 or more points three times, including 95 to Houston. He lasted two years before becoming athletic director.
Over the next 17 years, coaches came and coaches went.
Tom Rossley twice won five games in a season but was fired after the second time, in 1996. Mike Cavan coached five years and produced the Ponies' only post-Death Penalty winning season -- a fact he's not shy to point out -- at 6-5 in 1997 but couldn't recapture the magic. Phil Bennett lasted the five years of his contract, the record his last season worse than when he inherited the team.
When Bennett's contract was not renewed on Oct. 28, Orsini went looking for the next new savior. It figured to come from the usual suspects -- an up-and-coming young coach trying to make a name or a once-successful, recently fired coach trying to recapture glory.
Orsini waited 71 days to make a hire. For 71 days alums fretted, media criticized, recruits were puzzled. Orsini, thanks to a call from Dickerson, knew something nobody else did. Something even he found hard to believe.
"The day we told Phil we weren't renewing his contract, I had drawn up a list," Orsini said. "I knew who we could target; I knew who we could end up with. June Jones wasn't on that list."
Gary Cogill's eyes are weary from previewing dozens of films for an upcoming festival in Dallas. So, wearing a black wool overcoat and low-top white Chuck Taylor's, the celebrated movie critic for Dallas TV station WFAA goes for a change of scenery. He heads down the block to SMU's practice field, where his old high school teammate, June Jones, is trying for his own Hollywood ending.
Cogill watches the fast movement, no-time-to-waste attitude that permeates the practice and recalls how June succeeded him as class president at Ulysses S. Grant High School in Portland, Ore.; how he caught a no-hitter June threw and somehow still lost in PONY League baseball; how popular and athletically gifted his former classmate was -- and still is.
After some time, he's asked how he would pitch the June Junes movie treatment in typical Hollywood-speak (i.e. "Rudy" meets "Miracle on Ice"). It should be a fastball in his wheelhouse, but Cogill thinks for a long second and finally says, "It hasn't been written."
Cogill goes on. "Think about it. If you could've hired any coach to turn it around, you would have hired June. It's a rock star hire."
On the surface, though, it's Springsteen playing the local VFW Post. Why SMU? Why now? Why not the pros? Why not stay at Hawaii, keep winning big, and join the pantheon of island gods and goddesses? In a world of increasing virtual reality, why risk virtual immortality?
Put those questions to June Jones, as he sits in an office filled with unpacked boxes, stacked photos and, to the naked eye, general chaos, and he doesn't flinch.
"I think because I've had a lot of adversity, I think I know how to deal with it," Jones said. "I can turn things around."
On Feb. 22, 2001, he was nearly killed after losing control of his car and crashing into a concrete pillar at the Hickam exit at 60 mph. He drifted in and out of a coma for two weeks and doctors questioned whether he would ever live a normal life, much less coach again. He was ready in time for fall practice.
Jones attended three colleges -- Oregon, Hawaii and Portland State. He sat on the bench at the first two -- and then played at Portland.
He's not just an underdog, he's a lifer.
"Every position I've been in has been similar to this situation," he says of SMU. "When we put our offense in Canada, the Toronto Argonauts were 2-14. The next year we went to the Grey Cup. In the USFL it was the same thing -- an expansion team and we win 13 games and go to the playoffs. Then with the (Houston) Oilers, they hadn't won in 10 years, and we went to the playoffs the first year. I went to Detroit and we're in the (NFC) championship game in three years."
Jones said he's got other reasons for wanting a fixer-upper opportunity over the fully furnished mansion.
"When you're at Ohio State or Michigan or Georgia or someplace like that, when you try something different they say, 'That's not the way so-and-so did it,' " Jones said. "I like going to places you can do different. At SMU, they were 1-11. Different is good."
Different is also expensive. SMU won't release his salary because as a private school, it's not obligated to do so, but Orsini says he's got a top-25 deal in terms of money and years. Published reports put the figures at $1.7 million a year for five years.
In the days after Bennett's contract wasn't renewed, Orsini and University President R. Gerald Turner began putting together the Circle of Champions, a list of deep-pocketed alums who in two weeks pledged $10 million over five years.
One of them is Gerald J. Ford, a Dallas businessman whose name adorns the Mustangs' recently refurbished 32,000-seat stadium.
"For those of us long-suffering supporters of SMU football who believe in the school, as much as we've hoped it would happen before, we're enthusiastic he can make it happen," Ford said. "This is a low-risk proposition. At this time, I don't think there's anybody better for SMU."
The Ponies are counting on it. They've got the renovated stadium, two large practice fields, state-of-the-art locker rooms, offices and facilities.
"We're not on our hands and knees begging, because we believe we have the pieces together," Orsini said.
"Maybe the layman can't see that. But I believe June Jones is the one who can put it all together."
So far so good. Fundraising is already up 33 percent and season tickets, mired around 4,000 last year, are up almost 45 percent, Orsini said. On the field, Jones said the team's stronger than he expected at every position except quarterback, but that figures to change if 2007 starter Justin Willis returns from a disciplinary suspension that cost him the spring and new recruit Bo Levi Mitchell from Katy, Texas, is as good as advertised.
Once upon a time, the Mustangs battled the Cowboys for headlines in the Dallas newspapers. Now, they're lucky to get a couple of inside stories a week. Jones is doing his best glad-handing, chamber-of-commerce schmoozing to change that. He wore wireless microphones for all four major Metropolis television stations on the first day of spring ball -- though they've returned only sparingly since --- and was planning to hit the rubber-chicken circuit full time after yesterday's spring game.
"The vision is to become the big story," he said. "If we win they will come. They've come before."
Most of SMU's early campaign to return to the big time is not focused on wins, losses, recruits or how many hands Jones shakes.
"His hiring was the 'wow' factor we were trying for," Orsini said. "You know, the 'SMU hired June Jones? How can that be?' "
To capitalize on that the school has produced an 18-by-24-inch glossy, full-color season-ticket flyer. On one side is the slogan, "SMU has a new BIG NAME coach," a photo of the stadium, a seating chart, pricing and a personal plea from Jones to "Pony Up!"
The other side is a giant "Hello My Name is." tag with the name June Jones in giant blue marker.
There's one taped to the front of the SMU football head coach's office.
Just in case anybody's forgotten just who's taken over.
For years, June Jones kept a purple orchid in his Manoa office, a gift from close friend Wesley Park when he took over the Hawaii program. For nine years, it, like the Warriors program, grew and prospered. It never withered. It kept pace.
When Jones left for SMU everything got packed up. Framed photos of Clint Eastwood and Pete Rose. A model outrigger canoe. A line of five stone elephants. Proclamations from the Governor. A letter from President Bush. A toy Harley Davidson motorcycle. It was all duly packed, all duly delivered.
The orchid stayed behind. Weeks into Jones' tenure at SMU, Park sent him a replacement. It's small but hardy, with plenty of room to grow. It sits on an end table, next to a window in the SMU head coach's office.
June Jones hopes it, too, lives a long, long time.
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