Phillips still pursuing San Diego coaches

by Dave Halprin on Feb 20, 2007 11:39 PM CST in Dallas Cowboys News

Phillips is attempting to hire San Diego Chargers secondary coach Brian Stewart and assistant linebackers and quality control coach John Pagano. Phillips was denied permission to officially interview Stewart and Pagano two weeks ago. After Chargers coach Marty Schottenheimer was fired on Feb. 12, Phillips decided to make another run them.

New Chargers coach Norv Turner said he wants to retain all the current assistant coaches, but Pagano and Stewart are trying to get released from their contracts.

If Stewart is allowed out of his contract, Phillips would hire him as the defensive coordinator in Dallas.

Phillips said he likes Cowboys' secondary coach Todd Bowles, who could become the defensive coordinator.

But Stewart's familiarly with Phillips' 3-4 defense allows the Cowboys to make a smooth transition from the way ex-Cowboys coach Bill Parcells ran his defense.

OK, I get Brian Stewart for the DC, but what are they going to do with John Pagano? We already have an assistant LB's coach and quality control coach - Dat Nguyen. Is he going to be the special teams coach?

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I didn't see

any ST experience on his bio. Interesting question...

by dunkman on Feb 21, 2007 8:14 AM CST reply actions

I like the DC.com analysis

on of all things the QB Coaching position. You can read it here:

http://www.dallascowboys.com/news.cfm?editorialAuthor=1&id=E20C3329-A2FB-F5E6-EA1A63A89E4DDFDB

Something I found interesting was that Parcells thought Romo was the real thing, but that he began reverting to bad habits and needs personalized coaching to stay on track. Kind of brings the whole Chryst discussion into focus...

by dunkman on Feb 21, 2007 10:20 AM CST reply actions

I thought

That there was a cap on the amount of coaches a team could lose in one offseason and that San Diego had hit that cap?

Bleeding Green Nation Philadelphia Eagles Blog

by JasonB on Feb 21, 2007 12:16 PM CST reply actions

It sort of flew under the radar

But Dallas' staff got raided too. We lost something like 8-9 people total--just not "big names" (except for Parcells of course).

by Cowboys Dominance on Feb 21, 2007 1:43 PM CST reply actions

I am wondering

if John Pagano is not a good friend for Coach Phillips and a really good sounding board. It gets lonely at the top and perhaps Coach Pagano's position is less important than his trust from Coach Phillips. Coach Parcells brought lots of "his guys" in when he came and in general we can see the growth of the team as a result.

It is curious that no official mention of a candidate for ST has been bounced around. I also wonder if special teams coach is more of a football guy than a specialist. Every team in the league shows their special teams plays every year so it is not hard to get up to speed and the skills required are pretty evident. So what I am asking is why can't Coach Pagano be ST coach?

by lee3022 on Feb 21, 2007 11:39 PM CST reply actions