Thursday, July 22, 1999

June Jones
may be the busiest
man in town

UH's first-year football coach
has a calendar filled with
speaking engagements

By Paul Arnett
Star-Bulletin

These days, the only thing thicker than June Jones' appointment book is his run-and-shoot bible, and even that's just a page or two away from being a dead heat.

For the past few months, Jones has been here, there and everywhere, and talked about this and that to more island-wide organizations than he can count.

"The other day, (UH athletic director) Hugh Yoshida told me to add up the number of speaking engagements I've had," Jones said. When asked if he could hazard a guess, the first-year Hawaii coach said, "I couldn't even tell you."

To give you an idea how little free time Jones has, he and offensive lineman Adrian Klemm are going to Dallas for next week's Western Athletic Conference media day. They leave Wednesday at 6 p.m. and arrive in Dallas at 6 the following morning. Klemm will be available to the media in the morning and Jones gives his spiel that afternoon.

"I then get on the plane at 4 p.m. and get back to Honolulu in time for a team meeting with my coaches the following morning," Jones said. "If it were up to me, I wouldn't go, but it's something you have to do."

A more pressing matter for Jones is getting the new players acclimated to his way of doing things in time for the Sept. 4 opener with Southern California.

The newcomers arrive the second week in August and will be given plenty of opportunity to make their way into the starting lineup.

"We're going to play the best players and whoever can contribute is going to be out there," Jones said. "It's our job to give them as much experience as we can to help us turn that corner.

"We're going to have 25 new guys in on scholarship and about 30 walk-ons, so we're going to be a different looking team. We're also going to have a couple of walk-ons from the mainland who people here may never forget."

Jones conceded several of the freshmen may not be physically ready to play at the Division I level, which means they will probably be redshirted.

"We're also going to redshirt (offensive lineman) Kynan Forney because of his shoulder surgeries," Jones said.

"It looks like he has some ability, so we want him to get physically sound and come back next year ready to have a good senior season."

Forney is the only player to have off-season surgery who won't be ready for fall camp. Linebacker Jeff Ulbrich (knee) and defensive tackle Tony Tuioti (back) are expected to be at full speed.

"We're also looking pretty good academically," Jones said. "There are always two or three who don't get it done, but right now, I couldn't tell you who they might be. Our main concern (is) the junior college guys."

And of course, USC.

"We've been watching film on those guys," Jones said.

"And they have some freshmen coming in who can flat out fly. I'm sure they're not too worried about us. We put in our basic game plan for them in June. It's just a matter of getting our guys ready in the short amount of time we have before our opener."

---

http://www.kaleo.org
http://uhathletics.hawaii.edu