[808 Buck]

starbulletin.com | Sports | /2007/07/21/

WARRIOR FOOTBALL

Jones changes with times

Recruiting and scheduling among topics Jones takes on

For example, he has altered his recruiting philosophy. Convinced that UH would have a difficult time competing with big-time programs, Jones used to wait until later than most other coaches before making scholarship offers. Recently, though, Jones has gotten into the game much earlier, with offers made and accepted more than a year ahead of time. Will Jones stick with this new philosophy?

Question: Can you talk about your shift in recruiting philosophy? A lot of scholarship offers are going out earlier now.
Answer: We did that last year. I don't know looking back on it. We have already offered a lot of kids this year. But to be quite honest I don't know whether that works or not. ... We haven't seen the kids yet, some of them are still struggling with grades and we don't know if they're going to make it, and if we have kids we like, we've already given that scholarship to other guys.
The bottom line is we can offer a million guys and if you don't ever call the guy back he'll de-commit and go someplace else.
But we have done it. On the top kids it matters. That quarterback we had (Robert Marve, who chose Miami over Hawaii), we wouldn't have even had a shot at that kid if we didn't offer him on the phone.
Q: Are you still thinking about stationing a coach on the mainland for recruiting purposes? A: Yeah, but I was going to move a guy to do that and then I'd let Greg (defensive coordinator McMackin) just be one short and he didn't want to do that this year, so ... but, yes.

UH has been much more aggressive on the recruiting trails during the past two seasons. UH is also having a camp over the next few days, so it will be interesting to see if any more offers go out.