If Jerry had chosen Barry over Jimmy in ’89, would there have been a Dallas Cowboys dynasty in the 90s?
By Rainer Sabin
rsabin@dallasnews.com
5:39 pm on February 27, 2014 | Permalink
During a long dialogue with reporters Sunday, Jerry Jones discussed at length the early days of his ownership of the Cowboys.
It’s been 25 years since he bought the team and the memories came flooding back. Between anecdotes, Jones was asked if he considered a coach other than Jimmy Johnson to take the reins of a team that had been led by Tom Landry the previous 29 seasons.
His answer: Barry Switzer.
“I thought of Barry,” Jones said. “I did think of Barry.”
Jones did keep Switzer in mind when he searched for Johnson’s replacement in 1994. After his hiring, Switzer coached the Cowboys to a 40-24 record and helped guide the franchise to its last Super Bowl victory. Switzer’s winning percentage is actually the highest ever produced by a Cowboys coach — evidence that numbers may not lie but they don’t always tell the whole truth either.
Years later, most agree Switzer’s success in Dallas was attributed, in large part, to the timing of his tenure. He entered the picture at the Cowboys’ apex, not their nadir. It’s hard to imagine that he would have been the right fit for the shambolic Cowboys of 1989. And the main reason why has everything to do with Troy Aikman.
Aikman was considered the consensus No. 1 pick that year. The Cowboys, who finished 3-13 in Landry’s last season, had the top overall choice, and Jones had set his sights on Aikman.
Had Jones picked Switzer to coach the Cowboys, it’s doubtful Aikman would have landed in Dallas, or if he had, things would have turned as well as they ultimately did. After all, it didn’t work out between Aikman and Switzer the first time they got together at Oklahoma in 1984. Back then, Aikman signed with Sooners because he was under the impression they were going to commit to an I-formation-based offense that would feature more passing.
“They were in the I-formation my junior year at Henryetta with [tailback] Marcus Dupree, and I was told Oklahoma was going to throw the ball more,” Aikman explained to the St. Petersburg Times in 1988. “But then I got there, Dupree was gone and we threw it about 12 times a game. That wasn’t what I called a commitment to passing the football.”
Aikman, a drop-back quarterback, sounded like a player scorned.
In reality, he was a round peg in the square hole of Oklahoma’s run-oriented offense.
This became even more apparent when he broke his ankle against Johnson’s Miami team in 1985. By then the Sooners had gradually switched back to the Wishbone. And the system fit mobile quarterback Jamelle Holieway, who took Aikman’s place and led the Sooners to the national championship that season. Those events pushed Aikman down the depth chart and set in motion his transfer to UCLA.
As it turned out, the decision proved to be the right one for both coach and player. Aikman became the star he was destined to be and Switzer was allowed to run the ground-based offense that made him a success.
Considering how it all transpired, it’s hard to imagine that a reunion in 1989 would work.
Switzer, after all, would have had to change his philosophy to succeed at the NFL level, where quarterbacks like Aikman predominated. Johnson, on the other hand, didn’t have to alter his M.O. Even though Johnson’s background was in defense, he could make an easy transition to the NFL because of his offense. Miami’s teams executed a pro-style system a traditional passer, with the type of skill-set Aikman possessed, could command. NFL quarterbacks Bernie Kosar and Vinny Testaverde played under Johnson when he was coaching the Hurricanes. And both became immediate starters as Aikman eventually did.
Johnson – not Switzer — proved to be the right man for the job because he had a clean slate with Aikman and knew how to use him. With Switzer, it probably would have turned out much differently. Those three Super Bowl titles, in fact, may never have been realized.
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Uhh.... no.