Sports Illustrated sat down for a Q&A session with former SMU head coach June Jones and published a nice piece today where Jones talks about his health issues that led to his resignation following their slow start to 2014, as well as his coaching aspirations for the next few years, and how he's spent the past few weeks away from the sidelines.
Asked about the personal reasons behind his resignation, Jones explained that "he was trying run the whole thing, get everything right," and hadn't been sleeping hardly at all. We're talking like a few hours of sleep a night. Jones said, "I just kind of had a couple of weird things happen, but that was just because I hadn't been sleeping." Jones added that he he hadn't slept much over the past 20 years; but "then all of a sudden started sleeping about an hour every night."
I don't care how healthy you are, at 61 years old, that's a recipe for disaster.
One interesting note that Jones touched on directly related to SMU's search for a new head coach was his thoughts on SMU's shortcomings that may make the job tougher for whoever they tab as their next head coach.
"They’ve got to help the kids." Jones explained. "They’ve got to get some tutors, academics more toward the student-athletes. They’ve made strides in that area, but they’ve got to go a lot further … The campus is unbelievable."
"It’s just a tough gig. It will be tough for the next guy, too."
Jones went on to explain that he plans to coach for another five to eight years, hopefully as head coach, before hanging up his whistle for good.
Let's not forget that Jones took SMU to four straight bowl games for the first time in school history and is still highly regarded as an offensive mind. He's got a lot of good coaching years left ahead of him. There's no doubt in my mind that he lands on his feet somewhere either as a head coach or coordinator the question is simply where and at what level.