Head coach June Jones congratulates the 12 seniors after they defeated Tulane 26-21 Saturday afternoon at Ford Stadium. (CASEY LEE/The Daily Campus)

Head coach June Jones said the underlying reason for the complete 180 degree turn of the SMU football program is that players are starting to buy into the system.

I myself bought some of the June Jones’ magic juice and started to believe this season, and it seems Mustang Nation is too, and it only goes up from here.

Jones turned around a Hawaii program that was in the dumps into a BCS team in his final season. He said one limiting factor for him was location. It was hard for him to court recruits so far from home, but even with what he was able to obtain, he built a championship caliber program.

Here at SMU, he has no such limitations and has the luxury of sitting in the middle of one of the most hard core football states in the nation.

In an interview on 1310 The Ticket, Jones said although SMU doesn’t yet have the ability to recruit for top-line high school prospects with large BCS schools like Texas, they do have advantages to get quality recruits.

Jones said SMU’s location is ideal for courting recruits not only from Texas, but a big city centrally located helps court national recruits as well. He said being in a big metropolitan area can attract a lot of media attention, and quality recruits will soon see that all the attention SMU gets could help them get to the NFL just as easily.

Jones said recruits also receive a quality education and a solid degree at SMU. Winning and going to a bowl game doesn’t hurt either when trying to bring in fresh talent.

It seems this could only be the beginning of a stretch of greatness in Mustang football history. Jones said the key to his recruiting is to get four-key positions: quarterbacks, corner backs, offensive and defensive line men. He said the rest will just “fall into place.”

Jones has only begun to work his magic here on the Hilltop. An additional month of practice, more experience for a very young team and a solid recruiting class, things are only looking up for the Mustangs from here.

The bowl game is the best Christmas gift Mustang Nation could have gotten. If we do indeed get the Hawaii bowl: Mele Kalikimaka.