June Jones, coach and quarterback best known for developing the run-and-shoot offense, has died at the age of 73.
Jones, who was born and raised in Portland, spent 1975 and 1976 as a quarterback at Portland State, playing for head coach Mouse Davis. With Jones running Davis’ offense, Portland State posted passing numbers rarely seen in football at any level.
After signing with the Falcons as an undrafted free agent, Jones stayed for five seasons, primarily as a backup. Jones didn’t put up great passing numbers in the NFL, but during his professional career he became convinced that the run and shoot – an offense with one running back and four wide receivers, which NFL teams had never deployed – could work at the highest level of football.
After his playing career, Jones became an assistant coach at Hawaii in 1983, spent two years in the USFL and CFL, then was hired by head coach Jerry Glanville to be the quarterbacks coach for the Houston Oilers in 1987. With the Oilers, Jones coached future Hall of Famer Warren Moon and helped show what the run-and-shoot offense could do with an elite quarterback leading it.
After two years with the Oilers, Jones left to reunite with Davis, who was then the Lions’ offensive coordinator. Although the run-and-shoot offense was often criticized in Detroit for not doing enough with future Hall of Fame running back Barry Sanders, Jones and Davis helped show that a big running back could exist in the run-and-shoot setting, which was considered a pass-first offense.
In 1991, Glanville was head coach of the Falcons and hired Jones to be his offensive coordinator, and after three years, Jones was promoted to replace Glanville as head coach of the Falcons.
Jones took the Falcons to the playoffs in 1995, but in 1996 the Falcons fell to 3-13 and Jones was fired. The following year, Jones was hired as the Chargers’ quarterbacks coach, then spent the final 10 games of that season as the Chargers’ interim head coach following the firing of Kevin Gilbride.
In 1999, Jones was hired as head coach at Hawaii and did the best job of his coaching career: the Warriors had gone 0-12 the year before, but in Jones’ first season, they went 9-4 for what was, at the time, the largest single-season improvement for a team in college football history. Jones has won several national coach of the year awards. Jones spent nine seasons at Hawaii, becoming the program’s all-time winningest coach, and culminating with the 2007 season where Hawaii went 12-0 before losing in the Sugar Bowl.
In 2008, Jones left Hawaii for SMU, where he never found the same success. He then spent two years as a head coach in the CFL and one year as a head coach in the XFL.
Jones’ legacy in football was developing a pass-first approach that is now common across the sport, from high schools to the NFL. Although few if any football programs at any level still use the term “run and shoot” to describe their offense, virtually every coach in the sport employs some concepts that can be traced directly back to June Jones.
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