What We Learned: June Jones coaching with heavy heart

Sporting News' Dave Curtis analyzes what Wednesday's buzz means to college football. Jones' Heavy Heart SMU coach June Jones has split time this week between preparing his Mustangs for TCU and monitoring headlines a half a world away. Jones said Wednesday he has hundreds of friends in American Samoa, which has endured severe property damage and loss of life after earthquakes and a tsunami ravaged the small nation. "It's one thing when you watch it happen somewhere else," Jones told Sporting News by phone from Dallas. "But when you're attached to the people, man, it's devastating." Jones has recruited players from the island nation since the 1990s, but his annual trips there have taken greater significance. He said he leads medical missions that have brought about $800,000 in medical supplies to American Samoa, and he and his coaches run football clinics there every June. The relationships built on the trips have made the disaster personal. Jones said the Letuli family, among his closest friends in Samoa, lost their homes. And a photo gallery on the Honolulu Advertiser website featured a shot of Keith Ah-Soon, one of Jones' former linemen, surveying damaged property. Jones said Wednesday that he struggles to forget the disaster and focus on Saturday's game at TCU. "It's a lot on my mind," he said. "You have to understand in Samoa, they're probably the most giving people you've ever been around. Every one of those people is like family to me." Greatest Fitz Maybe Northwestern's 2-2 record isn't a surprise. But the team's play over those four games, replete with poor tackling and un-sound special teams, was unexpected. And it's got coach Pat Fitzgerald going bonkers. A few sound bites from his weekly news conference… On reviewing Saturday's home loss to Minnesota: "I was done watching our tape before I was done watching the Notre Dame-Purdue game. I can come back and watch it again and again, but I'd rather take a ball-peen hammer to my temple." On the mood of the program: "Nobody's very pleased around here. I have secretaries yelling at me. It's awesome. I couldn't be in a better mood right now." On the special teams: "We broke a single-game record for missed tackles Saturday. I don't have a solution for that besides tackle the guy with the ball." The Wildcats' nine-win season in 2008 ranked among the best stories in college football. But for entertainment's sake, maybe it's better if things don't go as well in Evanston. QB Bonanza Washington coach Steve Sarkisian said this week that Jake Locker and Notre Dame's Jimmy Clausen arrived at their respective schools anointed as "saviors" of their programs. After rough seas early on, each is prospering now. The two guys, promoted in some circles as future first-round draft picks, meet Saturday. And they could compare notes about overcoming on-field struggles throughout a college career. "It's different coming from high school into college," Clausen told reporters on campus this week. "You think you can step right in and play, but it's something that's extremely tough. It's taken me two, three years to get to this point." Ditto for Locker, who has looked as impressive as any quarterback in the country this year. Look for some big plays in the passing game Saturday at Notre Dame Stadium Dave Curtis is a writer for Sporting News. E-mail him at dcurtis@sportingnews.com.

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