June Jones, innovator of the run and shoot offense, dies at 73

Published October 29, 2026 03:38 PM June Jones, a 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 the quarterback at Portland State playing for head coach Mouse Davis. With Jones running Davis’s offense, Portland State put up passing numbers the likes of which had rarely been seen in football at any level.After signing with the Falcons as an undrafted free agent, Jones stuck around for five seasons, mostly as a backup. Jones didn’t put up great passing numbers in the NFL, but during his pro 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.Following his playing career, Jones became an assistant coach at Hawaii in 1983, spent two years in the USFL and CFL, and then was hired by head coach Jerry Glanville to be the quarterbacks coach of the Houston Oilers in 1987. With the Oilers, Jones coached future Hall of Famer Warren Moon and helped to show what the run and shoot offense could do with an elite quarterback running it.After two years with the Oilers, Jones left to reunite with Davis, who was then the offensive coordinator on the Lions. 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 to show that a great running back could exist within the run and shoot, which was thought of as 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 the Falcons’ head coach.Jones took the Falcons to the playoffs in 1995, but in 1996 the Falcons slumped to 3-13, and Jones was fired. The next year Jones was hired as quarterbacks coach of the Chargers, then spent the last 10 games of that season as the Chargers’ interim head coach after Kevin Gilbride was fired.In 1999, Jones was hired to be head coach at Hawaii and did the best work 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 biggest single-season improvement for any team in college football history. Jones won several national coach of the year awards. Jones spent nine seasons at Hawaii, becoming the program’s all-time winningest coach, and culminating in the 2007 season when 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 later 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 commonplace 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 trace directly to June Jones.