A man who helped popularize the run-and-shoot offence is gone.
June Jones has died at the age of 73. Friends of Jones told FOX affiliate KHON that Jones had been in hospice care following being diagnosed with a spinal tumour.
The well-travelled coach had head coaching stints at Hawaii and SMU and in the pro game with the Atlanta Falcons and Hamilton Tiger-Cats.
A native of Portland, Junes was a star quarterback under offensive coordinator Mouse Davis at Portland State in the mid-1970s after transferring from Hawaii. It was there that Davis first implemented the run-and-shoot offence, a style where receivers would change routes on the fly based on coverage. Developed by Glenn “Tiger” Ellison, the pass-heavy style also meant the QB would be forced to adjust his passing based on reading both coverage and individual defenders.
As a player, Jones appeared in 17 games across four seasons for the Falcons from 1977 to 1981. He would spent one season with the Toronto Argonauts in 1982. He turned to coaching after his lone Canadian Football League season.
Catching on as the QBs coach at Hawaii, Jones would have stints in the USFL and CFL with the Ottawa Rough Riders before his first NFL job as the QBs coach of the Houston Oilers in 1987. After three years as OC of the Falcons, he was made head coach in 1994.
Jones would spend three seasons as head coach of the Falcons, posting a record of 19-29. In his second season, the Falcons won nine games and finished in an NFC wild-card spot. They would lose in the first round of the playoffs to the Green Bay Packers. He was fired after a 3-13 season in 1996 that saw him publicly feud with quarterback Jeff George.
Hired as the QBs coach of the San Diego Chargers in 1998, Jones became head coach of the team on an interim basis following the in-season firing of Kevin Gilbride. Under Jones, the team would go 3-7. The Chargers finished the year at 5-11.
In 1999, Jones got his first head coaching job in the NCAA with the Rainbow Warriors. It was at Hawaii where Jones would put his own spin on the run-and-shoot by having QB Colt Brennan line up in shotgun in stead of under centre. Jones found immediate success at Hawaii, winning the WAC title in his first season and beating Oregon State in the 1999 Oahu Bowl.
Jones would go on to coach the Rainbow Warriors for nine seasons with his ninth campaign ending up as his best. Hawaii won another WAC title, going 12-1 in 2007, including 8-0 in the conference. The Rainbow Warriors’ lone loss came in the Sugar Bowl to Matthew Stafford and Georgia. His Hawaii reign concluded at 76-41.
Days after the Sugar Bowl loss, Jones joined SMU. He would go on to spend six-plus seasons with the Mustangs. He stepped down from the team two games into the 2014 season, citing personal issues. He finished his tenure with the team at 36-43.
After two years working at Honolulu-area high schools. Jones surprisingly resurfaced in the CFL in 2017 as the OC of the Ticats under Kent Austin. Following an 0-8 start to the season, Austin stepped down to focus on his front-office duties, leaving Jones as interim head coach.
Jones would almost immediately become embroiled in scandal when he attempted to make disgraced former Baylor coach Art Briles an assistant. Briles had been fired by the school in 2016 following an investigation into numerous alleged sexual assaults by players on the Bears with the coaching staff not only aware of the incidents, but working to help cover them up. After a public outcry, Briles would not join the Ticats.
The Ticats would finish their season at 6-4, leading the team to make Jones their permanent head coach for 2018. The team would finish 8-10 as runners-up in the East. After crushing the crossover BC Lions in the semis, the Tabbies would fall to the Ottawa Redblacks in the East Final.
Ahead of the 2019 season, Jones stepped down to allow the Ticats to hire franchise great Orlondo Steinauer, who won the 1999 Grey Cup with the team, as head coach. Jones was to stay on the Hamilton staff under Steinauer as an associate coach. Only weeks before the season was to start, Jones had a change of heart and resigned from the team.
Only a week after his exit from the Ticats, Jones was introduced as the head coach and general manager of the Houston Roughnecks of the revived XFL that was set to begin play in 2020. The team got off to a 5-0 start to the season before it was abandoned due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Jones would go on to serve as OC under Jim Haslett with the Seattle Sea Dragons in 2023.
The XFL stint was Jones’s final run in football.