SMU finally finds winning formula through unconventional approach of pass-happy June Jones

SMU finds new life under pass-happy June Jones

DALLAS — SMU coach June Jones has pulled off quite an encore.

He has followed his record-setting turnaround at Hawaii a decade ago with an equally improbable revival of the Mustangs, who endured a quarter-century of losing after the only “death penalty” shutdown for cheating in NCAA history.

Jones has a simple formula: Score a lot of points. At Hawaii, Jones set the NCAA mark in 1999 with a nine-game improvement from 0-12 to 9-3. It took a year at SMU, where the Mustangs matched the 1-11 record of Phil Bennett’s final season in the first go-round for Jones.

But last year, SMU went 7-5 to qualify for its first bowl in 25 years.