Eric Dickerson calls out SMU leaders for state of football program
June Jones was once the hottest of college football coaches. He brought the Hawaii Warriors (who are now back to the Rainbow Warriors) back to national prominence with his revival of the “run and shoot” offense. Yet, once he came back to the mainland and took over at SMU things slowed to a slow crawl for his team and his career.
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After SMU got worked over 43-6 by North Texas, Jones abruptly resigned his position and a national search is now on for his permanent replacement. Jones spun it as being personally burnt out in a statement released by the school, via FoxSports.com.
“It was a very difficult decision to make, as you can imagine,” Jones said in the statement. “This job has a lot of demands, as you know, and along with that journey comes a price that is paid. I have some personal issues I have been dealing with and I need to take a step away so I can address them at this time.”
Jones left without speaking specifics on why he was frustrated and burnt out, but former SMU Mustangs from the Pony Express era haven’t held back about the state of the program.
In fact, the most outspoken has been the most memorable member of those teams—Eric Dickerson.
While speaking to KRLD, Dickerson put the state of the program in pretty blunt terms according to Brett McMurphy of ESPN:
Eric Dickerson to KRLD about SMU: “If they don’t want to do anything kill the program. Frustrating to watch SMU become a laughingstock”
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) September 10, 2014
It wasn’t the only thing he had to say about the program, as CBSSports.com had more of the transcript from his interview with KRLD.
“It’s like we’re just sitting there talking about the death penalty that happened 30 years ago. It’s time to get over that. I talked to four players yesterday. All of us are frustrated former players. All of us said the same thing. If they don’t want to do anything, just kill the program.”
Dickerson wasn’t done there either, as he went on to claim that every program in the country still cheats, just like SMU did back then and are doing now…according to Dickerson:
“They still cheat. All of the schools still cheat,” Dickerson said. “The big schools still cheat. You think Texas isn’t cheating? You think A&M isn’t cheating? You think Alabama ain’t cheating? Yeah right. That’s laughable…You ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying.”
SMU clearly needs more commitment from the administration and better connections with the local community, but nothing short of a high-profile and highly connected coaching hire is going to change what SMU football has become in the past 30 years—a laughingstock of college football.