Not that I really ever expected the Nick Saban-to-the-Cowboys talk to come to fruition in the first place, and I always had my money on Jason Garrett, but it looks like you can put those rumors to bed. Michael Lombardi of the NFL Network broke the news a few hours ago:
Jason Garrett had the interim tag removed and will be the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys, a team source said Sunday.
The team had no comment other than to say nothing about its coaching situation has changed this week.
The Cowboys interviewed receivers coach Ray Sherman to satisfy the NFL's "Rooney Rule," which requires teams to interview at least one minority candidate.
We started to hear lots of rumblings about this one this morning around the time of the Lombardi report. At the time Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk had a report claiming that Jones was leaning in that direction and that his hiring looked imminent. A couple of hours ago, Florio went ahead and called this one:
NFL Network’s Steve Mariucci, whose hiring by the Detroit Lions in 2003 led to then-Lions President Matt Millen being fined $200,000 for violating the Rooney Rule, also noted that Jones seemed to be rushing into hiring Garrett.
"I thought he might go through the process and talk to some other people that are out there," Mariucci said.
Instead, Jones has made his decision, and Garrett is his man.
And that closes the book on that. I don't know how closely you guys follow the NFL, but if you've been paying attention there have already been several firings and several more are expected in the coming days. When all is said and done, probably somewhere between seven and ten NFL head coaching jobs will come open this season, and as we discussed in the original Saban-to-the-Cowboys piece, Saban will undoubtedly be at the top of the list for any NFL team looking towards the collegiate ranks for a head coach. With that in mind, don't be surprised if you see some rumors for a new team pop up somewhere, but the Cowboys talk didn't pan out, and there is no real reason to believe that Saban is indeed interested in a return for the NFL. I think it's safe to say that for 'Bama, all attention turns to National Signing Day.