In this Episode:
– You are considered a “turn around” specialist with transforming football programs into winning, bowl championship teams. What key things do you do to accomplish this?
– What are you most passionate about?
– What motivates you to do the work you do for the youth in Dallas?
– When have you clearly seen the Lord’s direction for your life/career at critical times?
How do you turn set backs into come backs? We all face disappointments in life, but how many of us willingly go into situations where someone or a program or organization is at it’s lowest point to turn things around for good? Our guest is one of those. There is a redemptive, hopeful tone when that strums a chord our hearts. Today’s show includes a rare interview – “Life Lessons from a Turn Around Specialist” – a two part special featuring Coach June Jones.
In 2012 the Southern Methodist University Mustangs became Hawai’i Bowl Champs after winning big over Fresno State, 43-10. After four seasons at the helm of the SMU football program, June Jones has proven again that he is master architect in building and rebuilding football programs. In 2008, Jones took over the SMU program that had not been to a bowl game in nearly a quarter century. Despite its rich tradition, SMU had struggled since the early 1980s and the days of the “Pony Express” (Eric Dickerson).
Jones and the Mustangs changed all that in 2009, however, snapping a 25-year bowl drought, claiming a Sheraton Hawaii Bowl Championship. Jones went to SMU after nine years at Hawaii, where he took a despairing Warrior football program and built it into one of the most exciting and competitive squads in the country. Jones led his Hawaii teams to 76 wins – the most by any Hawaii coach – two Western Athletic Conference Championships and six bowl-game appearances. He catapulted the Warrior program into the national rankings in his nine seasons, with Hawaii ranking in the top 40 in seven of his nine years, including a top-10 ranking in 2007, and 12-0 regular season and BCS Sugar Bowl appearance against the Georgia Bulldogs.
Before joining the Warriors in 1999, Jones enjoyed a 12-year coaching career in the NFL, including head coaching stops at Atlanta and San Diego. With the Falcons, Coach Jones guided the team to a playoff wild-card berth in 1995. Originally from Portland, Oregon, he graduated from New York State Regents College after playing quarterback at Oregon, Hawaii, and Portland State before playing professionally for the Atlanta Falcons and the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League.
Psalm 107:2 “Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom he has redeemed from trouble…”