So you were the head coach for three seasons. They're all five and eleven
seasons. I know you'd certainly love that number to be better, But how
does it feel? And I want to ask, I guess I'm considering McCarthy
this week, But how did it feel for you? And the weight of
not as many wins as you like, not the playoff appearances you're hoping for,
but the weight of Jerry Jones and that family, and you start to
feel the clock might be ticking on your tenure. You know, how does
that feel? And it does it feel different than with other franchises. Oh?
It weighs on you, There's no question about it. Because one thing
about coaching. I know you guys have been around the game long enough to
know that when I took the job, I can give you an example.
When I took the job, I knew we were kind of in a transition
because we'd lost the triplets and you know, we were struggling at quarterback.
But the competitiveness of coach I felt I could get the job done no matter
what. And when you get into the situation where you can kind of see
it slipping away, it where's on you a little bit. But the whole
thing about coaching and and athletics in general is, you know, it's not
when you get knocked down, it's how you get up. And so every
week you you re energize yourself to get ready for that next ball game.
And I think the one thing, uh, you know, Dak Prescott made
the comment afterwards after the ball game that you know, the super Bowl is
the goal. And he made the comment especially around here, you know,
because the expectations of Dallas, from the owner to the fans to the state
of Texas is so big that there's a lot of pressure and uh, you
know, how you handle that is really important. And lastly, on Jerry,
I guess that's all incredible coach, and we're happy to have you on.
This was a long time ago solemn asking how how did you get fired?
Did Jerry Jones call you to his office? Is there a phone call?
Like, uh, what does that fee? What does that look like?
Well, to be honest, when you had my office cleaned out before
he called me, oh no, the engine running in the car. Yeah
no, listen, my last time there was to mention to talk to the
team and go to uh to a press conference. But uh, he called
me over and let me just tell you about something about Jerry Jones. You
know, I've been through him twice and Jerry Jones loves the Dallas Cowboys and
he he really loves coaches. To be perfectly honest with you, I think
that there were a few emotional moments when he talked to me in his office
with him and myself, and let me just say this, he will take
some heat because you know he actually when he let me go, Uh,
he's the one that brought me back, you know, five years later as
a as a defensive backfield coach, and so the loyalty part with him is
definitely there. One of the reasons that we struggled at the end of when
I got in was he let his loyalty with some of the players last too
long. So to me, it was called over there. We talked for
a while and he made it very clear that that he was as much of
the problem as I was, and just from a business standpoint, he had
to make that decision. This is a former Cowboys head coach, Dave Campo.
So the report this morning, Dave, is that the Cowboys aren't expecting
dan Quinn to return as defensive coordinator, if he has not got a head
coaching job, Can you kind of walk us through what the interviewing process is,
what dan Quinn's been going through because he's interviewed for four or five openings
and he's also in this weird world where again forty eight points were put on
him, So he's got a lot where you know, if that game's twenty
one to sixteen, I don't think anyone around here is calling for you know,
dan Quinn's head or thing. But you see how bad that game got
and how bad the defense looked in that game. It's kind of a weird
dynamic that he's dealing with. I'll go back to this place, or but
I'm trying to interview for other jobs, but my defense looked bad. Like
what all has dan Quinn gone through in the last week? Well, first
of all, if they want him back, and I'm talking about the Cowboys,
they're not going to let let him go lateral move. You know,
they have to. They have to let you're he's under contract, so that's
not gonna happen. So you're really looking at just the head coaching UH scenario.
And and we always tell our guys UH as a coach, you know,
uh, you know, you have to own whatever happened. And obviously
at the end of a year, uh, you're you're everybody on that ball
club, including the players, are auditioning. They're auditioning to be on the
team next year or on another team if they don't make the team next year.
So that goes for the coaches as well. And that was not a
real good audition for whatever he's going to do next. But at the same
time, when you look at guys and whether you're going to hire him or
not, I'm hopeful, to be honest with you that it's the full body
of work, and the full body of work with the defense in Dallas has
been pretty dawn good with dan Quinn. So as far as coming back,
I don't think he would have a problem coming back because I think he has
a good enough players there that after one bad game that's not going to destroy
his feelings that he can make this defense into something special. Coach, you
said good players. I mean, I'm in the camp that I think Dak
is a good player. But there's something going on in the playoffs with the
slow starts. Offensively, you know, led the league in touchdown passes,
undeniable, you know, undeniable a really good player. He may be a
top five MVP candidate, but something is going on. His postseason track record
involves some very precurious, precarious slow starts and has some bad body language with
him and Ceedee Lamb in the first half. How do you move forward with
Dak Prescott? Do you consider moving on? I mean there's a lot of
things you got to evaluate. Uh, I mean what are your thoughts on
that. There's a lot to unpack there. Well, first of all,
I don't think they're gonna move on from them number one contractually, but number
two. Uh, you know, again, it's the full body of work
that you're looking at. Uh. You know, who do you get?
You know, anytime if you're going to read tool with the draft, Uh,
you know that's a craft shoot, especially with first round quarterbacks if you
look over the years. Uh, you know, that's a that's a difficult
uh decision to make. Uh. But at the same time, I think
it's up to Dak Prescott to figure that. Obviously, like I said earlier,
there was something with the with the approach that everybody took where he and
Ceedee Lamb were not on the same page. I don't know what that is,
but to me, you know, Dak has to kind of look at
himself as well, and you know, trying to figure out, you know,
just what happened. And this this is a little bit of a trend
unfortunately, because you know, I was here in Jacksonville in the press box
when Dallas played Jacksonville last year, and you know, Dak throws an interception
at the end of the game and the guy runs it in for a touchdown
and Jacksonville wins. So there's a little bit of a trend there that in
big moments, things are not happening. And let me make it really clear,
I love Dak as a leader. I was there, you know,
doing some media in Dallas when he was signed, when he first was drafted,
and I was around him, and I think he's got the tools,
but you know, not always those tools get sharpened the way it needs to
be. And I think he really has to look within him himself there.
I think there's just something that's keeping this team from from winning the big ones.
Do you I don't want any names or anything, but are there players
that you can think of or is it true that some players that are unquestionably
very good players statistically with the eyeball test. Very good players that do wilt
or shrink under the pressure of playoff football versus the regular season. Well,
I think that's that's part of human nature, guys. I mean, you
know, there are some guys that were built that were born ready. There's
some guys that, you know, make themselves ready, and there's some guys
that never get ready. So you know, when you look at some guys,
I mean, I don't know that you can do anything about that.
The only person that can do anything about that is the person he has to
make himself ready, you know, not you know Wilton major situations. So
I guess if you asked me about Pak Prescott, if I was there and
looking at him, I would be somewhat concerned that there's a trend there.
But at the same time, I would look at his overall body of work
and his talent, and I would try to get him to see within himself
whatever it is, whether he needs a a person that counsels him every day
or whatever, I would try to make it work. To be honest with you,