Monday, February 05, 2007

History offers no clues for Cowboys

By DAVID MOORE and BRIAN DAVIS / The Dallas Morning News

Jerry Jones was in bed with Barry Switzer long before he offered the Cowboys coaching job.

To be precise, Jones was on the phone and Switzer was in bed, recovering from a colonoscopy earlier in the morning on the day Jones made the offer.

"I remember the day, too," Switzer said. "March 28, 1994. I told Jerry, 'I can't talk now, and I'll call you back this afternoon.' And I did.

"Basically, the conversation wasn't very long. Jerry made up his mind that he was going to offer me the job."

The search to find the next coach of the Cowboys has taken on a much different tone.

Jones has interviewed eight candidates to replace Bill Parcells, all at the team's Valley Ranch facility. The Cowboys owner put the interview process on hold in the days leading up to the Super Bowl; the search is entering its third week.

The delay has encouraged an exhaustive examination of the events so far in an attempt to uncover a clue to the owner's thinking. Who did Jones talk to, when did he talk to him and for how long?

Looking at past searches provides no insight. Jones knew Jimmy Johnson was coming with him when he purchased the Cowboys and the two dined at Tom Landry's favorite Tex-Mex restaurant the night before Johnson's hiring was announced.

Jones went to Parcells, interviewing him at New Jersey's Teterboro airport. His search focused on in-house candidates when he hired Dave Campo.

Switzer?

"There was no interview," the former Oklahoma coach said. "He said, 'You've got the job if you want to coach again.' "

Chan Gailey went through a 2 ½ -day process. He met with Jerry and his son, Stephen, in Indianapolis at the scouting combine, then flew back with the two to Dallas to continue the interview.

Gailey returned to his home in Pittsburgh and received the call a couple of days later informing him he would be the Cowboys coach.

"The discussions were more philosophical than anything," said Gailey, now the head coach at Georgia Tech. "There was some X's and O's and questions about how I would handle certain things. But it was more about the direction, where they were as a team and where we thought they needed to go as a team.

"The interviews were to see if it was a fit."

Praising Garrett: Jason Garrett, who has been added to the staff since Parcells' departure, was the backup quarterback on the Cowboys team coached by Gailey.

"He's a very intelligent football player," Gailey said. "He understood the nuances of the game, the fundamentals of the game, and was always prepared.

"It doesn't surprise me at all that he is in coaching and will be a good coach."

Garrett's role hasn't been determined, but it's clear he will have a hand in the development of quarterback Tony Romo. Gailey said Garrett's even-keel personality is essential in working with young quarterbacks.

"I would think Jason would be very competent in doing that, helping a quarterback," Gailey said.

No Stoops: There was speculation that Jerry Jones would contact Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops during the process, but he hasn't.

"I don't think Bob Stoops would have been interested, whether Jerry contacted him or not," Switzer said. "He's got a better job now."