June Jones announced the signing of 28 players to national letters of intent in his first press conference since he was announced as SMU’s new head football coach. (John Schreiber)
June Jones announced the signing of 28 players to national letters of intent in his first press conference since he was announced as SMU’s new head football coach.
Last year the Mustangs signed 23 players, five of whom saw playing time as true freshmen. Next year that number could increase at more crucial, skill positions.
Thirteen of the 28 players are defensive with the other 15 playing on the offensive side of the ball. The class includes two quarterbacks and five receivers.
Jones also brought in a share of defensive backs and linebackers.
The theme of the press conference was that everyone is competing for a job. And that includes at quarterback.
“I think everybody knows whenever a new coach comes in, I’m going to evaluate everything,” Jones said. “So many times you can’t, as a coach, evaluate the players from a previous situation.”
Jones continued to say that he has to evaluate the quarterbacks in his offense before he can make a decision on who the quarterback will be.
Braden Smith, from Rockwall, and Bo Levi Mitchell, from Katy, will join Justin Willis, Zach Rhodes and Logan Turner in battling for the starting position. Smith and Mitchell combined for 63 touchdowns and just seven interceptions in their senior seasons.
The secondary received a lift including a junior college transfer Deyon McElroy and Keith Robinson from Atco, N.J., who sent in a tape to Jones after the coach was hired at SMU.
The top recruit the Mustangs signed, according to ESPN.com is Victor Jones. Victor Jones is a 6-foot-1-inch, 219-pound linebacker from Richland. Another top recruit, Taylor Thompson will be asked by Jones to move from tight end to defensive end.
The move is necessary because the offense that Jones runs does not include a tight end. Even with the position change Thompson chose SMU over Vanderbilt, Colorado State and Oklahoma State.
Jones said that he received boxes of tapes from players after it was announced that he was the head coach at SMU. One of the tapes was from E.J. Drewery.
Drewery, a 6-foot-6-inch wide receiver from Chesapeake, Va., who also played special teams and defense.
“What impressed me was his size, along with running a 4.5 [second 40] and being able to do so many things on the field, Jones said. “We are really excited about getting him.”
Another player that Jones said will compete for playing time next season is Jimmy Chase.
Chase is a 6-foot-2-inch, 244-pound offensive lineman from Garland. He played both defense and offense in high school, but will be placed on the offensive line at SMU.
The most interesting signing could be Kevin Grenier.
Grenier played quarterback in high school from his freshman year until his junior year. During his senior season he moved to defensive end where he collected 17 sacks, fourth most in the state of Arizona.
Jones has been known to give “problem players” second chances, and the signing of Alex Odiari shows that.
Odiari played at Oklahoma State during his first two years of college, but ran into problems that caused him to leave OSU.
Jones talked to him, his guardians and his high school coaches and determined that he was worth giving a second chance. Because he is enrolled at Collin County Community College he will not have to sit out a year because of transferring.
