SMU Mustangs hire June Jones as head coach

by PegNews wire

DALLAS — June Jones has been named the head football coach at SMU, Director of Athletics Steve Orsini announced Monday. Jones arrives on the Hilltop after nine years at Hawai`i, where he resurrected a downtrodden Warrior football program.

"The commitment made by this University, the groundwork laid by my predecessors, the facilities - everything we need to be successful is here," Jones said. "When I met with President Turner and Steve Orsini and the rest of the search committee, I saw the commitment from all of them to get back to the highest level of competition. If everyone's not on the same page, you're beat before you kick off. It's clear that everyone at SMU is on the same page. Everyone has that hunger."

Jones led his Hawai`i teams to 76 wins -- the most by any Hawai`i coach -- two Western Athletic Conference Championships and six bowl-game appearances. He developed six All-Americans and produced 16 NFL draft picks, with a school-record five in 2007. In the five years before Jones' arrival, Hawai`i combined for 12 wins and not a single draft pick or bowl game berth. In 1998, Hawai`i suffered its first-ever winless season. The following year, the first under Jones, the Warriors went 9-4, marking the biggest turnaround in NCAA history.

Originally from Portland, Ore., Jones graduated from New York State Regents College after playing quarterback at Oregon (1971-1972), Hawaii (1973-1974), and Portland State (1975-1976) and went on to play professionally for the Atlanta Falcons (1977-1981) of the NFL and the Toronto Argonauts (1982) of the Canadian Football League.

Source: SMU