SMU head coach June Jones was brought to Dallas to resurrect a football program that was barely a shell of its former glory days. In the process, Jones has made students, alumni and fans care again about the Mustangs.
But, now that fans actually have expectations of success from Jones and his team, he’ll have to find ways to keep on improving the Mustangs. And, for Jones, the single biggest thing to fix in the 2011 season will be the turnover margin.
Last season, the Mustangs were 11th – second-to-last – in the conference in turnover margin with minus-12. SMU forced a grand total of 15 turnovers, which was better only than Rice and Memphis. There was a stretch of five straight games when SMU didn’t force a single defensive turnover.
During an interview on Conference USA Media Day, Jones said, “The biggest thing we didn’t do last year was take the football away. We had five straight games where we didn’t have one defensive takeaway. And I’ve never been on a team that’s done that.
“If we can take the football away, we’re going to be pretty good.”