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Sidelines Kalani Simpson |
Jones faces his past
in Hawaii BowlIT had to be Houston.
Houston brings it all flooding back.
"I remember when (Houston coach Art Briles) was coaching high school in Houston when I was with the Gamblers and the Oilers," June Jones said yesterday.
"He kind of stole a lot of our stuff."
So now it's Hawaii against Houston in the (insert sponsor's name here) Hawaii Bowl.
Perfect.
Jones welcomed Briles warmly yesterday. This was great.
"My time in Houston, I loved every minute of it," Jones said. "The Houston Gambler experience was one of the greatest ever.
"To take an expansion team, and nobody thought we could do anything to win a division and go 13-5 and break every professional record in offense was something I'll never forget. Jim Kelly was a rookie at the time. You know, we took guys that nobody wanted -- they all made the National Football League years later. It was a fun, fun deal."
There was the time the NFL Oilers had him on a yes-no yo-yo that became one of the great days in frequent-flier-miles history.
"In fact they almost didn't hire me," Jones said. "In fact I went home. Jerry Glanville offered me the job, and I got on the airplane, and Bud Adams said, 'No, you can't hire him,' because he hated the Gamblers so much.
"And so I land and they page me at the Portland airport and said 'Get on a plane and come back.' So I got right on the plane and came back, got off the plane, went down to the basement there at the building where Bud used to be."
So he and the owner sat down and came to an accord. There would be no reminders of the old USFL regime. No run-and-shoot. Instead, they decided to call the offense the "Red Gun." It solved everything.
Almost.
"I remember trying to talk them out of trading Warren Moon," Jones said.
He said, "You know what, I'm looking at this tape. Give me at least through training camp to work with him."
You know the rest of the story. Jones will never forget it.
"Being able to be there and do that," he said of the Oilers turnaround, "those were some of the greatest times of my life."
So it's perfect, in a way, that Houston is here, now, with the former high school coach in town who took those early lessons -- run-and-shoot, Red Gun, whatever -- and worked his way into a Division I job.
"But he's even taken it another step with some of the things that they're doing," Jones said. "Running the option ... they do everything known to man."
Sounds dangerous.
"We think we're peaking at the right time," Briles said yesterday.
They're ready.
"I jumped up at 4 this morning thinking I slept in," Briles said.
They're eager.
"I think we said 'yes' before they finished asking the question," he said.
Perfect. So now it's UH against UH, offense against offense, 1,000 footballs in the air. Houston football.
It'll be just like old times.
See the Columnists section for some past articles.
Kalani Simpson can be reached at ksimpson@starbulletin.com