Calinger: As we watch Manziel’s comeback story, June Jones’ revival bears watching, too
By J.W. CALINGER
ISL Correspondent
While most football fans in Hamilton, Ontario probably are focused on the comeback of quarterback Johnny Manziel, currently inching his way back into professional football as the backup for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, I’m still focused on the comeback that started last year. Head Coach June Jones started a comeback of his own in 2017, taking over a team that was 0-8 at the time, and leading them to a 6-4 record the rest of the season, and while “Johnny Football” is getting most of the attention at the moment, Jones’ story is more relevant to the team and, to me, more interesting.
Jones probably is best known as the man who made the US pay attention to Hawaii football. According to sports-reference.com, he took over as head coach of the Rainbow Warriors, as the team was known at the time, in 1999, and he built and refined his shotgun-spread offense until Hawaii became a contender within its conference and, eventually, earned the occasional national spotlight. While he was at it, he also changed the image of the team, dropping the “Rainbow” from the name and discarding the rainbow helmets in favor of dark green and black and a macho Pacific Islander “H”.
The high points of Jones’ career as a coach came roughly a decade ago. In 2007, the Warriors went 11-3, and the year after, they had an undefeated regular season before finally losing in the Sugar Bowl.
Jones became a beloved figure in the Aloha State, or so says Wikipedia, with ubiquitous tongue-in-cheek signs proclaiming him as a candidate for Governor and a salary, of which private donors paid half. Plus, in case anyone forgot, he was getting paid all this money to live and work in HAWAII.
🎥: @CoachJuneJones talks the run game, @Coach22O‘s role as a spotter, and Sean Thomas-Earlington’s position change.#Ticats | @nissancanada pic.twitter.com/WyjcwDT9Nl
— Hamilton Tiger-Cats (@Ticats) June 5, 2018
Thing is, no gig is perfect, even having a great job in Hawaii, and in Jones’ case, he was unhappy with a couple of things, including the facilities and what he considered broken promises. And so, despite Hawaii offering to double his salary, he took off for Dallas to coach Southern Methodist.
SMU, of course, is most famous for being the most recent recipient in football of the “death penalty”, a complete shutdown of the football program due to numerous NCAA violations. The Mustangs played zero games in 1987 and 1988, and they’ve been itching to rebuild their program ever since. Jones was confident he could be the coach who did that. In 2009, he returned to the Aloha State as coach of the Mustangs, for the Hawai’i Bowl. But, things didn’t go that well from there – the Mustangs went to four bowl games during his time there, but were never major contenders.
Jones left SMU in 2014, and though he did interview to come back to Hawaii, he ended up running a high school athletic department by 2016. And then, after spending so much time in warmer climates, Canada came calling. Depending on whose article a person reads, Hamilton hired him either as an assistant coach or a consultant. Either way, he once again was a head coach by midseason, and this year, he and Manziel began their story together, appropriately enough, on June 1.
The commentators during Friday night’s preseason game noted that CFL football, with its wide field and rules favoring the pass, are perfect for Manziel, and we can say the same for Jones as a coach. While the weather most certainly isn’t what Jones is used to – I still wonder if he looks out the window in Hamilton, basically Canada’s analogue to Pittsburgh, and thinks about the view he had 10 years ago – everything else about his job is a near-perfect fit for him.
More pre-season action coming your way!
Saturday’s @Ticats at @MTLAlouettes game can now be seen LIVE on TSN 1/5 at Noon ET/9am PT.
➡ https://t.co/SPkAmMZ3ls pic.twitter.com/eNkPK0m5UY
— CFL (@CFL) June 4, 2018
For a while, I was wondering why Manziel came to the Tiger-Cats, as opposed to any other CFL team. But, the more I considered the story of his new head coach, the more it made sense. The factors and causes are different, but both Jones and Manziel understand what it’s like to be on top, only to lose it all. If the Tiger-Cats do as well as the Steel City of Canada hopes they do, it could well be because the quarterback who is just starting his comeback is under the guidance and tutelage of a head coach who is beginning the next chapter of his.
