The journey to figure out the possibilities for Kansas’ next head football coach has been a rather difficult one. A rumor surfaces only to watch the coach involved head to other places. As Mike Leach and Larry Fedora have both gone on to accept other head coaching positions, a few choices still remain in the hunt. Yet one name that was floated early on might now be a candidate again due to some odd circumstances: June Jones.
Jones was recently the head football coach at SMU after a celebrated tenure at Hawaii before starting to talk with Arizona State. ASU had fired Dennis Erickson recently and media outlets even reported that a deal with Jones had been finalized. But Doug Haller writes, “Arizona State broke off talks with SMU coach June Jones’ representatives Wednesday afternoon. According to a source close to the negotiation, there is no plan to talk again anytime soon.”
Now Jones is left with a bit of mud on his face and he might be homeless. After all, how can he go back to coaching at SMU again? The school is heading to the Big East, so there are definitely some changes ahead anyway. Perhaps all will be forgiven and Jones can go right back to business, but how can recruits trust Jones to be there to guide them? The answer is that they cannot.
Matt Tait of KU Sports says Jones to KU is not a stretch and writes, “One thing we should all have learned from the June Jones situation is that anything is possible. Remember, two days ago, there were credible reports of him saying he was happy at SMU and wasn’t going anywhere. Then, he got to the freakin’ board room at ASU with a contract in front of him and negotiations broke off.”
So perhaps this means that Jones could become a factor again for the Kansas Jayhawks. They are waiting still with the opening created when they fired Turner Gill and yet no favorite has really stepped forward. Phil Fulmer reportedly wants the job and others like Dave Christensen and Brent Venables have been mentioned as logical possibilities. But it’s clear that anyone could take the torch at this point given the lack of a clear favorite.