Paradise Found

When the NFL Beckoned, Hawaii\'s June Jones Answered A Different Call.
by: Richard Scott
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June Jones would be lying if he said he expected this. The same is true of his coaches, his players and friends in the coaching profession.

That's because it's not supposed to happen. Teams don't go 19 games without winning, then turn around and win eight regular-season games, capture a share of the conference championship, earn a bowl bid and then win the bowl game.

It's not supposed to happen, especially to a team that faces the unique geographic obstacles that are part of University of Hawaii football.

But it happened.

It happened at Hawaii, in Jones' first season as the Rainbow Warriors' head coach as the Warriors completed the biggest turnaround in NCAA history, from 0-12 in 1998 and 19 straight losses from 1997-99, to an 8-4 regular-season finish, a share of the WAC championship and a victory over Oregon State in the Oahu Bowl.

As one last finishing touch to one of the most amazing seasons in college football history, Jones is American Football Monthly's choice to be the Division I-A college football coach of the year.

"I don't think anybody expected us to have this kind of year - including us," Jones says. "But we worked hard, we had some players who really hung in there and played together and learned to win together and play as a team. It just goes to show what you can do when everybody's on the same page."

It also goes to show what can happen when someone follows the path less taken in the coaching profession.

Whether it's at the high school or college level, it's standard operating procedure in coaching to climb the career ladder by taking the bigger, better job with the bigger, better program. For some coaches, that path leads all the way to the NFL, and ultimately, to the chance to become an NFL head coach. The only time a coach takes a step backward, it seems, is when he loses his job.

Jones is proof that it pays to take a look at the big picture and step back from the coaching career ladder in order to take a huge step forward on the path to personal fulfillment, happiness and success.

Jones had already been an NFL head coach for three seasons with the Atlanta Falcons when the San Diego Chargers offered him the same opportunity midway through the 1998 season. Jones had taken over as interim coach when Kevin Gilbride was fired during the season, and he was the logical choice to lead the Chargers into the future.

There was only one problem: Jones didn't want the job. Instead, he stepped off the NFL treadmill and accepted an offer to return to Hawaii, his alma mater, for a chance to be a college coach.

Jones had never been a head coach at the collegiate level before, and he had spent only one year of his career as a college assistant, and that was at Hawaii way back in 1983. Since then, he had climbed the pro coaching ladder, from the USFL, to the CFL and, finally, to the NFL as a Houston Oilers assistant in 1987.

When Jones turned down the Chargers for a chance to coach at Hawaii, a program with only limited success and no winning tradition to speak of, and a number of geographic challenges unique to the state, the university and the program, the whispers around the coaching profession called Jones into question.

A lot of people didn't understand why Jones would turn down the Chargers for a chance to be the head coach at a moribund program, but the people closest to him understood his motives. His decision wasn't about money. It wasn't about prestige. It was about taking the right job at the right time, for all the right reasons.

"I have a great love for the state of Hawaii and the people here," Jones says. "I have a lot of friends here, and I felt connected to this program.

"Plus, I had great confidence in my ability to build a winner at a place where they haven't had much success. I wasn't afraid of the challenge or the condition of the program. I knew what we could do, and this is something I've wanted to do for a long time — coming back here and making this place my home. It didn't just happen overnight."

Another factor in Jones' decision evolved over time as the NFL changed. With free agency, players come and go at an alarming rate, and Jones longed for something more substantial.

"I love my relationships with the players," Jones says. "I love the camaraderie. If money is your motivator, it's hard to say no to the NFL, but there's got to be more to it than that. It's hard to see a good guy like Chan Gailey get two years at a job when he's worked all his life for the opportunity, and he really didn't have an opportunity to show what he could do in two years.

"I think everybody in coaching needs to look at what they're in coaching for. I think most of us got into coaching for one reason: to be able to impact young people's lives, on and off the field, and some of that has disappeared from the pro game."

At Hawaii, the field was fertile for a coach who wanted to build something from the ground up. It wasn't just the 18-game losing streak or the fact that the Warriors had not won a conference road game since 1992. It wasn't just the lack of a winning tradition or proven players. What Jones inherited was a team in desperate need of something positive, hungry for success and direction.

"I inherited a team with no confidence, and players who weren't getting along very well with each other," Jones says. "Basically, we ended up playing with the same players who had lost 18 straight games.

"But we play a very aggressive style of football on both sides of the ball, and it's a momentum game — if we can get the momentum going on our side, we can do a lot of damage in a hurry. With the schemes we brought in, on both sides of the ball, and our special teams commitment, I think the kids started to believe they had an opportunity to win."

That excitement became contagious, and even the suspension of Charles Tharp, the team's leading rusher, following a drug arrest did nothing to deter Hawaii's optimism regarding the 1999 season. With few exceptions (Tharp quit the team instead of working his way back into the program), the Warriors committed themselves to improving the program step by step.

"We have some exceptional kids," Jones says. "They've been through some unbelievable ordeals. Losing 19 straight games is something you don't wish upon anybody, but their perseverance and their work ethic has really gotten to me since they day I got here. I don't think we've had a bad practice since we came here, and that's pretty amazing that the players have stayed plugged in.

"Plus, it's a testament to our assistant coaches. They've done a fantastic job from day one."

That was never more evident than after the Southern Cal game. The players entered the season filled with confidence and excitement, certain that a new season, a new coaching staff and a new attitude would bring a new level of success. When the season opened with a home game against USC, the Warriors entered the game fully expecting to compete and win.

When they left the game with a 62-7 loss to the Trojans, Jones was faced with one of the toughest challenges of his coaching career. The coaches could rip into the team and hope for a positive response, or simply ignore the game and treat it as an aberration. Or, they could use it as a teaching tool and do everything they could to restore the players' confidence.

The choice Jones and his coaches made proved to be the most important strategic move of the season.

"I think we really turned the season around in the meeting after the USC game," says Jones. "I think the job we did as coaches, the way we looked at the tape, how we learned from it and how we talked to the kids and how we kept them from getting down was really important.

"We took a long time with the tape, and we just spent a long timeteaching. When the kids left the room I think they really came away believing that it really wasn't anything the other team did to us. It was just our guys not doing what they were supposed to do."

The next week, the Warriors bounced back from the USC disaster to beat Eastern Illinois. It was just a 31-27 win over a Division I-AA program, but it ended 23 months of frustration and failure and triggered an avalanche of emotion.

"It was huge," Jones says. "I didn't realize what an emotional burden had been lifted off their backs. We had guys crying, laying on the field, an emotional outburst that I was totally unprepared for.

"But these kids had been through so much, and as soon as we won one, we won another, and their confidence became sky high. And because of their work ethic, it took off."

The next week, the Warriors took another huge step that would shape their personality and attitude as a team.

"The second half of the Boise State game, we were behind, 19-7, and we hadn't played real well in the first half," says Jones, "but we came from behind and won the game, and the crowd got electrified and the players got all excited.

"I think at that point, everybody realized we can win. Then we went on the road the next week and won at SMU (20-0), and it just snowballed."

By the time the regular season was over, the Warriors were 8-4, co-champions of the WAC and on their way to the Oahu Bowl. The program's third bowl, and its first since 1992, would have enough reward to please many teams in the same position, but it wasn't enough to satisfy the Warriors.

Hawaii played to win and got the job done, despite falling behind in the first half. A 23-17 win over the Beavers, on Christmas Day, in the Warriors' home stadium, proved to be the perfect finish for the biggest turnaround in college football history.

"They definitely expected to win," Jones says. "We had been down so many times that the kids weren't in any kind of shock. When Oregon State had a couple of opportunities to put the game away early and missed a couple of field goals, they gave us a window of opportunity and we took it.

"Our kids stayed in the game, gained some confidence and just got it going, started moving the ball and tied the game. At that point, our kids knew they could win the game."

The postseason brought a record number of awards for Jones and his players. Six Warriors earned All-WAC honors, the most ever for the program, and seven Hawaii players earned WAC Player of the Week honors. Jeff Ulbrich, a senior linebacker, team co-captain and first-team All-WAC performer, led the conference with 13.7 tackles per game. Quarterback Dan Robinson broke or tied more than 30 team passing and total offense records. Wide receiver Dwight Carter broke or tied six school receiving records. Even Jones got in on the act by winning the AFM Division I-A Coach of the Year award.

But the honors and records didn't come close to matching the impact of the things that really mattered. For Jones, the season wasn't about honors, records, stats and national attention. It was about bringing coaches and players together in a common goal. It was about working hard, having faith, persevering and overcoming obstacles.

"I told some of the guys, 'we'll cherish and talk about this for the rest of our lives'," says senior defensive tackle Tony Tuioti, who entered the program in 1995. "No matter what happens to us, no matter where we go, we're going to remember this for the rest of our lives. Nobody can take this away from us.

"I'm going to tell my grandchildren one day to never give up hope. I'll tell them, 'if you're ever struggling, don't give up. You can come back and win the whole thing. We did'."

In a very personal way for Jones, it was all about choosing the right path. It was about career fulfillment and having a sense of purpose about his work.

"I think it's the most rewarding season I've been a part of, personally," Jones says. "I've been in a lot of great games, playoff wins, things like that. We (the Falcons) beat the 49ers at home in '95 to get into the playoffs, and that was a huge win for the franchise, but I don't think something like this season will ever happen again, to go from 0-12 to nine wins. It's the biggest turnaround in NCAA history, and records are made to be broken, but that old record was held for 50, 60 years. And I don't think it will ever be broken.

"We'll win a lot more games and we'll have a lot of successful seasons here, but it will never be like this again."

And Jones certainly plans on sticking around to experience those successful seasons at Hawaii. NFL teams and more prominent college teams will probably call Jones someday, but at this point in his life, Jones has no desire to veer off this path.

"You never say never, but this is where I wanted to be," says Jones. "I had a chance to make the money and take a great job, maybe one of the best jobs in the NFL with San Diego, but I chose to come here and that's where I hope to be in 20 years. I want to build a foundation and be perennial winners, and that's what I plan to do here."

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