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So you were the head coach for
three seasons. They're all five and eleven

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seasons. I know you'd certainly love
that number to be better, But how

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does it feel? And I want
to ask, I guess I'm considering McCarthy

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this week, But how did it
feel for you? And the weight of

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not as many wins as you like, not the playoff appearances you're hoping for,

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but the weight of Jerry Jones and
that family, and you start to

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feel the clock might be ticking on
your tenure. You know, how does

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that feel? And it does it
feel different than with other franchises. Oh?

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It weighs on you, There's no
question about it. Because one thing

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about coaching. I know you guys
have been around the game long enough to

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know that when I took the job, I can give you an example.

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When I took the job, I
knew we were kind of in a transition

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because we'd lost the triplets and you
know, we were struggling at quarterback.

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But the competitiveness of coach I felt
I could get the job done no matter

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what. And when you get into
the situation where you can kind of see

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it slipping away, it where's on
you a little bit. But the whole

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thing about coaching and and athletics in
general is, you know, it's not

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when you get knocked down, it's
how you get up. And so every

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week you you re energize yourself to
get ready for that next ball game.

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And I think the one thing,
uh, you know, Dak Prescott made

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the comment afterwards after the ball game
that you know, the super Bowl is

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the goal. And he made the
comment especially around here, you know,

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because the expectations of Dallas, from
the owner to the fans to the state

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of Texas is so big that there's
a lot of pressure and uh, you

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know, how you handle that is
really important. And lastly, on Jerry,

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I guess that's all incredible coach,
and we're happy to have you on.

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This was a long time ago solemn
asking how how did you get fired?

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Did Jerry Jones call you to his
office? Is there a phone call?

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Like, uh, what does that
fee? What does that look like?

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Well, to be honest, when
you had my office cleaned out before

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he called me, oh no,
the engine running in the car. Yeah

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no, listen, my last time
there was to mention to talk to the

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team and go to uh to a
press conference. But uh, he called

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me over and let me just tell
you about something about Jerry Jones. You

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know, I've been through him twice
and Jerry Jones loves the Dallas Cowboys and

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he he really loves coaches. To
be perfectly honest with you, I think

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that there were a few emotional moments
when he talked to me in his office

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with him and myself, and let
me just say this, he will take

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some heat because you know he actually
when he let me go, Uh,

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he's the one that brought me back, you know, five years later as

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a as a defensive backfield coach,
and so the loyalty part with him is

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definitely there. One of the reasons
that we struggled at the end of when

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I got in was he let his
loyalty with some of the players last too

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long. So to me, it
was called over there. We talked for

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a while and he made it very
clear that that he was as much of

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the problem as I was, and
just from a business standpoint, he had

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to make that decision. This is
a former Cowboys head coach, Dave Campo.

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So the report this morning, Dave, is that the Cowboys aren't expecting

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dan Quinn to return as defensive coordinator, if he has not got a head

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coaching job, Can you kind of
walk us through what the interviewing process is,

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what dan Quinn's been going through because
he's interviewed for four or five openings

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and he's also in this weird world
where again forty eight points were put on

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him, So he's got a lot
where you know, if that game's twenty

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one to sixteen, I don't think
anyone around here is calling for you know,

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dan Quinn's head or thing. But
you see how bad that game got

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and how bad the defense looked in
that game. It's kind of a weird

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dynamic that he's dealing with. I'll
go back to this place, or but

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I'm trying to interview for other jobs, but my defense looked bad. Like

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what all has dan Quinn gone through
in the last week? Well, first

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of all, if they want him
back, and I'm talking about the Cowboys,

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they're not going to let let him
go lateral move. You know,

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they have to. They have to
let you're he's under contract, so that's

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not gonna happen. So you're really
looking at just the head coaching UH scenario.

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And and we always tell our guys
UH as a coach, you know,

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uh, you know, you have
to own whatever happened. And obviously

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at the end of a year,
uh, you're you're everybody on that ball

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club, including the players, are
auditioning. They're auditioning to be on the

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team next year or on another team
if they don't make the team next year.

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So that goes for the coaches as
well. And that was not a

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real good audition for whatever he's going
to do next. But at the same

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time, when you look at guys
and whether you're going to hire him or

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not, I'm hopeful, to be
honest with you that it's the full body

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of work, and the full body
of work with the defense in Dallas has

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been pretty dawn good with dan Quinn. So as far as coming back,

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I don't think he would have a
problem coming back because I think he has

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a good enough players there that after
one bad game that's not going to destroy

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his feelings that he can make this
defense into something special. Coach, you

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said good players. I mean,
I'm in the camp that I think Dak

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is a good player. But there's
something going on in the playoffs with the

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slow starts. Offensively, you know, led the league in touchdown passes,

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undeniable, you know, undeniable a
really good player. He may be a

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top five MVP candidate, but something
is going on. His postseason track record

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involves some very precurious, precarious slow
starts and has some bad body language with

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him and Ceedee Lamb in the first
half. How do you move forward with

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Dak Prescott? Do you consider moving
on? I mean there's a lot of

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things you got to evaluate. Uh, I mean what are your thoughts on

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that. There's a lot to unpack
there. Well, first of all,

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I don't think they're gonna move on
from them number one contractually, but number

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two. Uh, you know,
again, it's the full body of work

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that you're looking at. Uh.
You know, who do you get?

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You know, anytime if you're going
to read tool with the draft, Uh,

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you know that's a craft shoot,
especially with first round quarterbacks if you

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look over the years. Uh,
you know, that's a that's a difficult

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uh decision to make. Uh.
But at the same time, I think

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it's up to Dak Prescott to figure
that. Obviously, like I said earlier,

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there was something with the with the
approach that everybody took where he and

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Ceedee Lamb were not on the same
page. I don't know what that is,

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but to me, you know,
Dak has to kind of look at

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himself as well, and you know, trying to figure out, you know,

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just what happened. And this this
is a little bit of a trend

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unfortunately, because you know, I
was here in Jacksonville in the press box

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when Dallas played Jacksonville last year,
and you know, Dak throws an interception

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at the end of the game and
the guy runs it in for a touchdown

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and Jacksonville wins. So there's a
little bit of a trend there that in

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big moments, things are not happening. And let me make it really clear,

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I love Dak as a leader.
I was there, you know,

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doing some media in Dallas when he
was signed, when he first was drafted,

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and I was around him, and
I think he's got the tools,

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but you know, not always those
tools get sharpened the way it needs to

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be. And I think he really
has to look within him himself there.

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I think there's just something that's keeping
this team from from winning the big ones.

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Do you I don't want any names
or anything, but are there players

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that you can think of or is
it true that some players that are unquestionably

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very good players statistically with the eyeball
test. Very good players that do wilt

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or shrink under the pressure of playoff
football versus the regular season. Well,

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I think that's that's part of human
nature, guys. I mean, you

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know, there are some guys that
were built that were born ready. There's

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some guys that, you know,
make themselves ready, and there's some guys

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that never get ready. So you
know, when you look at some guys,

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I mean, I don't know that
you can do anything about that.

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The only person that can do anything
about that is the person he has to

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make himself ready, you know,
not you know Wilton major situations. So

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I guess if you asked me about
Pak Prescott, if I was there and

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looking at him, I would be
somewhat concerned that there's a trend there.

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But at the same time, I
would look at his overall body of work

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and his talent, and I would
try to get him to see within himself

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whatever it is, whether he needs
a a person that counsels him every day

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or whatever, I would try to
make it work. To be honest with you,