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Sidelines Kalani Simpson |
With UH at 1-2, it’s
no more Mr. Nice JuneTHE country club is closed.
It's about time, too. This is a football team, for crying out loud, and Hawaii is on a two-game slide. Yes, it might be time for a few Lombardi-isms right about now.
Oh, the easy life is over now. June Jones laid down the law yesterday, and if we in the media heard it, it had already been laid down in the locker room, on the plane ride home, in extra sprints already run.
"They think they're pretty good," Jones said of his newly 1-2 team. "And they're arrogant. And they haven't done anything. So they better come back to reality pretty fast."
No more Mr. Nice Guy.
Good. That sounds about right, after two humbling losses on the road trip from hell. There was the blowout. Then there was the giveaway. And on national television, the loose ship sunk.
"We were undisciplined," Jones said.
"Selfish," he said.
How do hard-working, upstanding players get this way?
"Just reading the newspaper all the time," Jones said, "about how they're the best team in the Western Athletic Conference."
Oh. Sorry.
So it's time for Jones to crack down. It's past time.
"When you give stupid penalties," Jones said. "You got tape on the back of your helmet that I saw on that deal. You do little things that are not team-oriented, you become undisciplined."
Yeah. But this should have been a lesson already learned, about arrogance and discipline and losing to teams you're supposed to beat. Jones is a players' coach, and that's great. But it backfired on him in the Hawaii Bowl, and it sounds like it happened again.
He's a pro coach, and he treats his players like men. And they are.
But they're young men.
And if you take off the leash and let them run, they'll run.
News flash: There was tape on the helmets in every game last season. Hawaii has had a rash of dumb penalties in recent years. UH swaggers too much, talks too much trash. It celebrates overcelebration penalties. Nobody seemed to mind then. Nobody should be surprised now.
There is extra running, yes. But they are young and strong and they don't mind running. What they don't want is Jones' disapproval. A team takes its cues from its coach.
And the yellow flags and attitude kept coming.
But that's why Jones' news is good news. This team is too good, too talented to play like this. The Parcells treatment should be just what this program needs right now.
Jones is right. These players are on the hook for how this season has started.
And the coaches?
"More than the players," Jones said.
See the Columnists section for some past articles.
Kalani Simpson can be reached at ksimpson@starbulletin.com
