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For Cowboys' OL, message is same but delivery is different
Todd Archer, ESPN Staff Writer
IRVING, Texas -- When the Dallas Cowboys knew they had no chance of keeping Bill Callahan as their offensive line coach after the 2014 season ended, they knew they weren't leaving the building for his successor.
Moments after Jason Garrett's new contract was announced in January, Frank Pollack was walking into the offices of Jerry and Stephen Jones to be Callahan's successor.
Pollack is actually assuming a role he kind of, sort of had in 2013.
When Callahan became the offensive coordinator, Pollack was the de facto line coach, running the meeting room with Callahan involved more with Garrett and Tony Romo. When Scott Linehan came in last season as the new playcaller, Callahan went back to the leader of the offensive line room.
"Took a little bit of a second chair last year, but it's not that big of an adjustment," Pollack said. "It's maybe just a year removed from that and coming back into it."
The Cowboys are banking on continuity being a good thing for an offensive line that features three Pro Bowlers -- Tyron Smith, Travis Frederick and Zack Martin -- and reliable starters in Doug Free and Ronald Leary. Pollack worked out third-round pick Chaz Green and was part of the recruiting dinner for La'el Collins.
He doesn't have to go about winning over the room.
"He's a great technician and he's played the game, played the offensive line position," Martin said. "It's great to have him be able to kind of relate to what you're going through. It's been a smooth transition."
Pollack isn't Callahan, but he's close.
Callahan coached Pollack at Northern Arizona in the late 1980s. Pollack likes to joke that "loosely hung on in this league" as a player for eight years because Callahan was his college coach.
"He is a master coach, and he can coach in any scheme and any system and he's an outstanding coach and an outstanding man," Pollack said. "I learned a ton from him on a daily basis. Took a lot of notes in there as well as the players with how he presented and coached and the way he taught things. It was really beneficial top me to sit there with him and learned a lot from him."
A lot of what the Cowboys' running game became in 2013 and '14 is what Pollack brought with him. The Cowboys moved to the wide zone scheme two years ago and with DeMarco Murray running it last year they nearly perfected it with him running for an NFL-best 1,845 yards.
"I think that it just is a lot of it's the same in that he's going to coach the little tiny techniques, he's going to hold you accountable to what you need to," Frederick said. "He just goes about it in a little bit different way. It's hard to really gauge that. Maybe one is a little louder sometimes. One's a little quieter. It just matters in the situations so it's hard to say that generally one person is meaner or tougher on us than somebody else. They're both really, really good coaches."
Todd Archer, ESPN Staff Writer
IRVING, Texas -- When the Dallas Cowboys knew they had no chance of keeping Bill Callahan as their offensive line coach after the 2014 season ended, they knew they weren't leaving the building for his successor.
Moments after Jason Garrett's new contract was announced in January, Frank Pollack was walking into the offices of Jerry and Stephen Jones to be Callahan's successor.
Pollack is actually assuming a role he kind of, sort of had in 2013.
When Callahan became the offensive coordinator, Pollack was the de facto line coach, running the meeting room with Callahan involved more with Garrett and Tony Romo. When Scott Linehan came in last season as the new playcaller, Callahan went back to the leader of the offensive line room.
"Took a little bit of a second chair last year, but it's not that big of an adjustment," Pollack said. "It's maybe just a year removed from that and coming back into it."
The Cowboys are banking on continuity being a good thing for an offensive line that features three Pro Bowlers -- Tyron Smith, Travis Frederick and Zack Martin -- and reliable starters in Doug Free and Ronald Leary. Pollack worked out third-round pick Chaz Green and was part of the recruiting dinner for La'el Collins.
He doesn't have to go about winning over the room.
"He's a great technician and he's played the game, played the offensive line position," Martin said. "It's great to have him be able to kind of relate to what you're going through. It's been a smooth transition."
Pollack isn't Callahan, but he's close.
Callahan coached Pollack at Northern Arizona in the late 1980s. Pollack likes to joke that "loosely hung on in this league" as a player for eight years because Callahan was his college coach.
"He is a master coach, and he can coach in any scheme and any system and he's an outstanding coach and an outstanding man," Pollack said. "I learned a ton from him on a daily basis. Took a lot of notes in there as well as the players with how he presented and coached and the way he taught things. It was really beneficial top me to sit there with him and learned a lot from him."
A lot of what the Cowboys' running game became in 2013 and '14 is what Pollack brought with him. The Cowboys moved to the wide zone scheme two years ago and with DeMarco Murray running it last year they nearly perfected it with him running for an NFL-best 1,845 yards.
"I think that it just is a lot of it's the same in that he's going to coach the little tiny techniques, he's going to hold you accountable to what you need to," Frederick said. "He just goes about it in a little bit different way. It's hard to really gauge that. Maybe one is a little louder sometimes. One's a little quieter. It just matters in the situations so it's hard to say that generally one person is meaner or tougher on us than somebody else. They're both really, really good coaches."