Jones, SMU throw wrench into Fresno State’s plans

You still see them, the old, faded, barely legible “June Would Throw” bumper stickers.

That they are reminders of a bygone, pass-happy era in Hawaii football was driven home Monday night at Aloha Stadium, where we learned that the coach who once inspired them, June Jones, would also run. And run some more.

For as much as “our June” — as he is still favorably thought of by many for being the winningest coach in UH intercollegiate history — likes to throw, he loves to win even more.

Which was why the Mustangs took to the ground this season and hugged it even more so Monday in a 43-10 victory over Fresno State in the Sheraton Hawaii Bowl.

It was a triumph made as stunning for its methodology as the nature of its  one-sidedness.

It was supposed to be lopsided — but the other way. The Mustangs, who somehow found their way into the postseason with a 6-6 record and were 121⁄2-point underdogs on the Las Vegas line, made the most of the opportunity.

But, then, Jones and his staff of some old Hawaii hands have always worked some of their best magic in this bowl game. Jones & Co. are now 5-1 in Hawaii Bowls (3-1 at UH and 2-0 at SMU). They knocked off Houston in 2003 and Arizona State in ’06 while at UH. And, with SMU as 17-point underdogs in ‘09, they thumped Nevada 45-10.

“The kids get up for these games as underdogs because they feel like they have something to prove,” Jones said.

You get the feeling their coaches, did, too. Because in a season where they lacked a lot of the familiar aerial elements, they relied on a stout defense led by Margus Hunt and turned to some hardly-used pages of the run-and-shoot playbook . Monday night they plain turned it upside down and outcoached what had been a 9-3 Bulldogs team.

Once, back in 2001, Jones alleged Fresno State fans tossed a screwdriver at him. This time, he threw a wrench into the Bulldogs’ defensive plans.

There for all the announced 19,712 and a national ESPN audience to see was a different side of Jones. He was imploring his quarterback to, of all things, run. Where he had once vociferously chewed out quarterbacks for not throwing the ball away, stepping out of bounds or quickly hitting the turf, he urged Garrett Gilbert to take off and go for it. And cheered him on.

And 18 times for a net 98 yards and a TD, Gilbert obliged.

This year SMU averaged 30 rushes a game and just 40 passes, a considerable swing from Jones’ UH days when it was a 49 (pass), 22 (run) average mixture. And Monday night it became a 37 (run), 28 (pass) division.

“You do what you have to do to win,” quarterbacks coach Dan Morrison said.

Rumor even had it the Mustangs — gasp! — used a tight end on occasion. “Not true,” running backs coach Wes Suan said, smiling. “They were just big linemen.”

It is a flexibility we hardly glimpsed in Jones’ nine seasons at UH. Times, it seems, change even for the coach who used to dream out loud about playing a game in which no runs were called.

It might be time to peel off those old bumper stickers.

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Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.