June Jones resigns amid frustration from lack of support from UH Athletic Dept.

[SoCalBronco]

It's a miracle what June accomplished with ****ty facilities and a 50k recruiting budget, I understand where he is coming from. I feel bad for him because he loves Hawaii but knows they just cant give the program proper supprt.

Reports: Jones resigning as Hawaii's coach
Associated Press

Updated: January 6, 2008, 1:34 AM ET
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HONOLULU -- June Jones has resigned as Hawaii's football coach, reports said Saturday.

Kent Untermann, a former Hawaii player and member of Na Koa, the school's booster club, told KHNL that Jones' was leaving because of frustration with how the athletic department was run, not because he felt his salary was too low.




Jones

"He wants to be here but he has come to the point where he feels nothing is going to change," Untermann said. "He feels he has done his part but hasn't gotten the support and leadership from the administration."

Jones, 54, who just finished coaching the most successful season in Hawaii history, is being courted by SMU for its head coach opening.

Jones was en route to Dallas on Saturday to talk to SMU officials and could not be reached for comment.

The Dallas Morning News reported SMU has offered Jones between $1.7 million and $2 million a year.

Jones currently earns $800,016 a year under a five-year contract with Hawaii that expires June 30.

The Honolulu Advertiser, citing Jones' friend Al Souza, reported Jones resigned Saturday morning.

Jones said he would leave the university because of a lack of commitment from athletic department leaders, among other reasons, the paper said.

"This breaks his heart," Souza said.

Jones also sent letters to friends announcing that he is resigning, the Advertiser and television reports said.

He thanked his friends for their support in the letter, in which he listed several reasons why he would no longer coach at the school. Full details of the letter were not available.

Untermann held on to the hope Jones could still be persuaded to remain in Hawaii.

"I don't give up easily. Even if he semiofficially resigned, if he hasn't taken the job with SMU there's always a last-minute hope there's something we can do," Untermann said.

Reports of the resignation came even though Hawaii offered Jones a new contract that would make him the highest paid coach in the Western Athletic Conference.

Hawaii would not say how much it offered Jones. But figures provided by the university show Fresno State's Pat Hill, who earns an annual salary of $1,229,996, is currently the highest-paid WAC coach.

Hawaii athletic director Herman Frazier said he asked Jones to call him before deciding on SMU's offer.

The Warriors finished this season 12-0 before losing to Georgia in the Sugar Bowl -- the school's first bowl appearance on the mainland since 1992.

Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=3183007

[Rohirrim]

That's a shame. He really resurrected that program.

[bpc]

Here is Jones working the emotional heartstrings again.

Believe me, Jones has the best PR reps in the nation and he's pushing every button to get what he wants. He wants better athletes but he doesn't want to leave Hawaii because they treat him like god over there... If he were to go to UCLA or any other school there would be a lot more pressure for him to succeed year in and year out and people wouldn't really care about him, only about how he wins football games. You see Jones in Hawaii and he gets invited to everything from political parties to celebrity events. He is the toast of the town. He's living it up, the Madonna of the coaching fraternity.

Hawaii doesn't have the worst facility's in the nation. I played there for two and a half years. When I came in 1998, the locker room was brand new, they just rolled out the training table which was on par with the Pac 10. They had three football fields to practice on, one was astroturf albeit the crappy kind. The training room was also very good. The football offices are solid as well, maybe not spectacular but they get the job done. It's an office, what the hell do you want? There was more than enough space for the coaches up there to do what they did. They had a team auditorium that was perfect for meetings, a brand new student athlete learning center which was plush, blew away anything on campus for regular students and a weight room that rivals almost any in the pac 10.

There was some stupid rumor that he was sharing projectors with other coaches to break down film... do not believe this! I was there, I know how the whole thing is set up. OL, DL, LB's, WR's, HB's, and DB's all have their own meeting rooms, projectors and such.

I've been to various different universities in my time and Hawaii has some of the best facilities. Put them against Cal and they blow them away. It's not even close!

IMO, he's bi!ching and I knew he would throw a fit like this after UH got destroyed on the field against UGA. His system is under fire again and it pisses him off. He wants the same budget that they have in the Pac 10 and he's not going to get it. We don't have the same boosters or economical backing like they do. This is how Jones works though, through the media. Notice how he 'resigned'... didn't take another job but that he was 'heartbroken' however his little 'mole' friends dropping quotes all over the country like 'well he would be willing to come back...'

JJ will have to learn that this isn't FSU or LSU.

[Jens1893]

Wasn´t June Jones one of the main reasons why you left Hawaii? I just think I remember you saying that you didn´t really like him when you were at UH.

[bpc]

Wasn´t June Jones one of the main reasons why you left Hawaii? I just think I remember you saying that you didn´t really like him when you were at UH.

I would say the whole reason I left.

I laugh at these feel good articles about the guy because honestly, he's one of the worst people i've ever met or worked with. I'll call a apple an apple, a orange an orange. He's one of the best coach's i've ever had with x's and o's. As a people person though, no matter how much I describe it, nobody will really understand how arrogant this man is. He's screwed over a lot of players during his time in Hawaii.

[Northman]

Jones is just embarrassed that he got his 12-0 team exposed as frauds. Obviously its nice when the smaller schools can pull out a win vs a top dog but Hawaii just isnt one of them. They werent even competitive which is even more embarrassing. Hawaii has made a living off bottom fodder teams for years.

[Jens1893]

Here is Jones working the emotional heartstrings again.


I was laughing out loud when I read this piece on espn.com as it´s basically what you said yesterday

DALLAS -- June Jones went into the early hours of Monday trying to decide whether to accept an offer to coach SMU or return to Hawaii, where the governor is among those trying to keep him.

June Jones

Jones

"When he came here, it was clearly with the intent that if things went well -- and they did -- that we'd be moving to the next stage," agent Leigh Steinberg said as late Sunday turned to early Monday. "But this statewide outpouring has given him pause. He was clearly emotional today. Who wouldn't be faced with a torrent of love, guilt -- every type of emotion."

Jones spent Sunday in Dallas meeting with SMU officials and the search committee that has been working since late October to hire a replacement for Phil Bennett. As the day went on, more and more people from the island reached out to Jones, hoping to convince him to return to the Hawaii program he's guided to national prominence the last nine years. They were rallied in part by reports of a letter he'd sent friends saying that he was going to be resigning.

During a dinner with SMU officials Sunday night, Steinberg said he expected Jones to pick between the schools within a few hours. Around midnight, he called that prediction "unduly optimistic," mostly because of how emotional Jones had become. Steinberg said his client had tears in his eyes at times.

"Really, today could not have gone better from the standpoint of SMU. There were quality people, June loved the facilities, the support was terrific -- their actions were tremendous," Steinberg said. "On the other hand, there's been this torrent of e-mails and phone calls in the most dramatic fashion imploring him to stay.

"They talked about how unique his place is in the culture of the islands, what he means to the youth of the island, the economy, the morale and spirit, what a devastating impact it would have if he were to leave, how close he is to their heart and how much they love him. It's so unique. I haven't seen something quite like this."

Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle called to see what she could do, and the president who oversees the entire University of Hawaii system called with an updated contract proposal. It's the second in three days, but the first made by the school's overall leader.

A source told ESPN on Sunday night that Hawaii is offering Jones a five-year deal to remain at Hawaii. Under such an agreement, Jones would receive a compensation package that would begin at $1.5 million per year. Hawaii would also agree to increase the pay of Jones' coaching staff and address facility concerns that Jones has raised.

Steinberg said the latest offer included a slight raise but _ more importantly -- there was "a general statement of commitment to facilities and budgets.

"Their letter today spoke to a commitment to try to remedy those problems, with specific examples where they would move and move quickly," Steinberg said.

SMU likely can provide a higher salary and a bigger budget and better facilities. Jones also would have a more fertile recruiting base, albeit with the trade off of stiffer competition.

Then again, SMU also carries a culture of losing.

The once-proud program of Doak Walker, Don Meredith and Eric Dickerson received the NCAA's only death penalty in the late 1980s. Since returning in 1989, the Mustangs have only one winning season and no bowl berths. They went 1-11 this past season, 0-8 in Conference USA.

Jones, however, started near the bottom at Hawaii, too, inheriting an 0-11 club in 1999. They won nine games his first year, the largest turnaround in NCAA history.

With a record-setting passing attack in place, the Warriors became a perennial contender in the Western Athletic Conference. They went 12-0 this season before losing to Georgia in the Sugar Bowl.

Steinberg used the team's football banquet as an example of how Jones has changed things in Honolulu.

"The banquet had 200 people when he got there. This year it sold out at 1,500 and had the governor and the mayor there," Steinberg said. "They said, 'This is the proudest the state of Hawaii has ever been. This has finally shown the mainland we're on par with them, that things in Hawaii are not inferior.' So if you look at the whole thing, he's involved in the culture there. It's all interwoven."

Then why leave? Perhaps because even if Hawaii improves its football budget and facilities it probably will never reach the level of a football-hungry, booster-backed program like SMU. Or perhaps for the challenge. After all, Jones left a 12-year run in the NFL to take over a winless program at Hawaii.

Jones, who turns 55 next month, has gone 75-41 with the Warriors, including 4-2 in bowls. His teams finished first in the WAC twice and second two other times.

Bennett was the fourth coach to lead SMU since it came off the death penalty in 1989. The Mustangs are 58-153-3 in that span. The on-field struggles have been compounded by the long, slow hunt for Bennett's replacement.

The search has taken about 10 weeks, with SMU going from the first major college with a vacancy to the only one left without a coach. The school received permission to speak with Jones on Dec. 24.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=3184370

[bpc]

There was an article which said he cried 6 different times...

Trust me, my eyes were rolling.

All being said and now that he has left Jones did some very good things for the university of hawaii.

Since i've left, I haven't rooted for them based on Jones being there, because I know the situaton. As I stated before, Jones is a master of x's and o's. He thrived in Hawaiil because his system was full proof vs. lower echelon teams against big conferences and in the WAC. I am sad that the state of Hawaii is looking at losing a lot more unless they can get another coach to come in there and work with marginal talent and turn them into winners.

With that he's loving the fact that he essentially bumps into the top 15 of the highest paid coaches in college football at 2 mill a year along with moving to another marginal conference to turn another bad team around, which he'll probably do. 10-4 won that conference and none of the teams are great. He doesn't have to worry about getting exposed on offense as he would if he had moved to one of the upper echelon conferences like Georgia did to his offense.

[Doggcow]

Damn, Wish my school hadn't signed a coach before this happened :(

[bpc]

No way he would have went to the PAC 10. Especially not WSU, no disrespect intended.

He had an opportunity from what I understand for the UCLA job and passed it up... for SMU of all places.

[Doggcow]

No way he would have went to the PAC 10. Especially not WSU, no disrespect intended.

He had an opportunity from what I understand for the UCLA job and passed it up... for SMU of all places.

If you intended no disrespect you would have left that out lol

[bpc]

Little bit of a talent discrepency from UCLA to WSU in my opinion. That's all. I actually like WSU. I went to high school in Oak Harbor back in 94'... the Pallouse (sic) posse was amazing.

[Northman]

ESPN just confirmed that Jones is going to SMU. Hawaii made a last gasp to try and woo him back but nope.

[Doggcow]

Little bit of a talent discrepency from UCLA to WSU in my opinion. That's all. I actually like WSU. I went to high school in Oak Harbor back in 94'... the Pallouse (sic) posse was amazing.

More budget than anything. Well, location hurts us quite a bit as well. I expect Wolfe to be rather solid though, his gameplans should be much more effective than we've seen in recent years with Doba and his trademark draws on 3rd and 25 (especially when our passing game was so effective as of late).

[bpc]

More budget than anything. Well, location hurts us quite a bit as well. I expect Wolfe to be rather solid though, his gameplans should be much more effective than we've seen in recent years with Doba and his trademark draws on 3rd and 25 (especially when our passing game was so effective as of late).

Didn't know it but WAbronco is from Oak Harbor too which makes me wonder, how is Marshal Lobestael doing over there? He was the freshman QB who signed with the Cougs last Feb. I hope he does some great things for WSU.