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,