Were Cowboys 'Close' to Hiring USC Coach Lincoln Riley?
FRISCO - There is a bit of "revisionist history'' occurring on the outskirts of Dallas Cowboys watching, an effort fueled by the elevation of Lincoln Riley to headline-grabber.
And it's about just "how close'' the Cowboys once came to hiring Riley to be the head coach in Dallas.
What really happened in the winter following the 2019 NFL regular season that culminated in the hiring of Mike McCarthy as Jason Garrett's replacement?
As it's been re-reported, Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer is being cited as the media source saying "the Cowboys explored the possibility of hiring then-Oklahoma head coach Lincoln Riley prior to landing McCarthy.''
This again becomes worthy of re-examination now that Riley has jumped to USC. But the re-examination does not change our original reporting at the time. Which went like this, in short:
*Near the weekend of Jan. 4, Dallas interviewed Marvin Lewis.
*That same weekend, Dallas interviewed McCarthy. The Jones family was so enamored with McCarthy that the interview lasted all weekend.
*Garrett still lingered in the building while all of this was happening, and then on Jan. 5, his contract expired and he was out.
*On Jan. 7, the Cowboys announced the hiring of McCarthy.
But what about the "explored possibilities''? What Breer actually wrote recently is, “Rumors were rampant that the Cowboys had interest a couple of years back ...''
That's no "exploration.'' Let alone an actual interview. Breer's reporting here is accurate. But the regurgitated spin on Breer's reporting is exaggerated.
The truth about Riley and the Cowboys? The Jones family grew to know him in December of 2019, when COO Stephen Jones' son, John Stephen, was being recruited by OU. The ties were natural: Riley is from Lubbock, was a walk-on QB at Texas Tech, and had a fine reputation as a regional presence. (And a national presence as well, of course. Stephen and Riley hit it off.
So as Garrett's tenure came to an end, it surely occurred to Stephen to think of Riley. But the Cowboys also "thought of'' the then-retired Urban Meyer; indeed, as we reported in 2019, we believe the front office engaged in an at-least-casual get-to-know-you lunch with Meyer in Southern California. And the Cowboys also "thought of'' Saints coach Sean Payton, as they always do. And they also thought of Vikings coach Mike Zimmer, as they often do.
But even in December, the Jones had made up their mind that an NFL coach was more likely to have success as a head coach than a transitioning boss from college would have. Almost surely as the result of an in-house study, Jerry told 105.3 the Fan, “College coaches ... coming directly into (to the NFL) have the lowest percentage rate of success. ... In many cases, they aren’t familiar with the personnel, and that’s a big deal.”
Ironic as it is that Jerry believes that, given that he's the man whose greatest success came in partnership with a "transitioning college coach'' named Jimmy Johnson, that belief was the foundation of the Jones' search.
To some degree, this is a semantic game. But in the end, if the Cowboys didn't interview a candidate, the "exploration'' didn't go very far, and is better categorized as "brain-storming,'' leaving the only real issue about the brief and two-candidate "search'' being whether Dallas - even if McCarthy and his five-year deal work out brilliantly - did a thorough-enough job turning over every stone.
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