Cowboys Officially Dismiss Campo

Nick Eatman
DallasCowboys.com Staff Writer
December 30, 2002, 12:30 p.m. (CST)

After three seasons as head coach of the Cowboys, Dave Campo has been dismissed, announced Monday by owner Jerry Jones at a mid-day press conference at Valley Ranch.

Campo suffered through his third consecutive 5-11 season this year, the season ending with Sunday's 20-14 loss to the Redskins, which left his three-year head coaching record at 15-33.

Campo held an emotional 30-minute meeting with the team Monday morning, then met with his coaching staff as Jones then met for a few minutes with the team before holding a press conference.

"That was a tough way to finish the season," Campo said following the first loss to Washington since 1997, leaving his winning percentage at .312, the lowest of the four previous Cowboys head coaches. "We're not real pleased to lose the last four ballgames. I'm just disappointed in the season we had."

While Jones did not immediately name a replacement, the Cowboys owner and general manager has already spoken with coaching candidate Bill Parcells on at least two occasions in the last two weeks. Sources around Valley Ranch say Parcells could even be hired as early as Tuesday and likely at least by Thursday.

Jones has also spoken to former Vikings head coach Dennis Green last week about possibly of becoming the next head coach. However, Parcells remains the leading candidate for the job, and it appears the two already have hammered out the essential details to sign a contract. Sources say Parcells could sign a deal worth $3-$4 million a year, which would be the most Jones has ever paid a Cowboys head coach since buying the team in 1989.

As for Campo, who still had two years remaining on his contract, his 14 seasons working with the Cowboys has come to an end.

One of the final coaches brought over by Jimmy Johnson from the University of Miami, Campo started out his NFL coaching career as a defensive assistant in 1989. He quickly moved up to secondary coach before assuming the defensive coordinator role in 1995 season. After five solid years leading the defense, Campo was promoted to head coach following the firing of Chan Gailey.

"I've seen Dave grow like I have," said Emmitt Smith, who might be saying his farewells to the Cowboys in a few weeks as well. "I've seen him go from secondary coach, to defensive coordinator, to head coach. And he's been effective at all levels, except for head coach. But I don't think it's a reflection on him as a head coach. Lots of things didn't go right for us and things Dave has no control of."

In his first season, Campo had to watch Troy Aikman, Joey Galloway and Rocket Ismail miss a combined 28 games, while the defense was the worst in the league against the rush, allowing three separate 200-yard rushers throughout the season.

The defense improved dramatically in 2001, but the offense regressed just as much. The Cowboys started four different quarterbacks, including rookie Quincy Carter for eight games. The Cowboys ranked last in the league in passing offense. The Cowboys also had to play with more than $24 million missing from their salary cap because of "dead money" shelled out to former players no longer on the roster.

And then this season, which was supposed to be the start of the turnaround, the Cowboys appeared to have enough talent to make a playoff push. Instead, the offense never got on untracked under Carter's guidance, and really wasn't much better under rookie Chad Hutchinson, who started the final nine games. The offensive line suffered an unbelievable amount of injuries early, headlined by Larry Allen finishing just one game all season and ending up on injured reserve following ankle surgery. The defense anchored the team all season, but still didn't get enough pressure on the quarterback, finishing with just 24 sacks.

"We had known, because we had such a young team, that we would struggle some early on," Jones said. "But we would start to see positive signs as the year went on. But it's real disappointing that we're not seeing those right now."

Jones has said all season that continued progress would be the determining factor in evaluating Campo and the remainder of the coaching staff after the season.

However, the Cowboys lost their final four games, allowing a total of 115 points in the span. Everything seemed to unravel in the final seven minutes of the San Francisco game, when the Cowboys lost a 10-point lead and the game to end a two-game winning streak, and unfortunately for Campo, begin a four-game losing streak.

The Cowboys have several assistant coaches still under contract for at least one more season, including offensive coordinator Bruce Coslet, defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer and special teams coach Joe Avezzano.

There has been speculation Jones already has spoken to Parcells about retaining Zimmer, along with Avezzano and quarterbacks coach Wade Wilson, all of whom have at least two more years on their contracts.

Campo: 'I don't have any regrets'

Cowboys coach Dave Campo was fired after his third 5-11 season.
TOM FOX/DMN

The Dave Campo era is officially over in Dallas. After his third 5-11 season, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones fired Campo, the fifth head coach in team history. Jones hasn't named a successor to Campo yet, but admitted that he has spoken with Bill Parcells and Dennis Green in recent weeks.
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Campo: 'I don't have any regrets'

12/30/2002

By RICHARD DURRETT / Dallas Web Staff

IRVING -- The Dave Campo era is officially over in Dallas. After his third 5-11 season, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones fired Campo, the fifth head coach in team history. Jones hasn't named a successor to Campo yet, but sources indicate former Giants, Patriots and Jets coach Bill Parcells is likely to be hired by the end of the week.

"I don't have any regrets," said Campo, who expressed gratitude to former Cowboys head coaches Jimmy Johnson, Barry Switzer, Chan Gailey, and especially to his boss Jerry Jones. "The only regret is that I won't be here to finish it off."

In regards to his NFL future, Campo said, "I don't know what I'm going to do. I know this -- I could work for Jerry Jones for a long time."

Campo, the fifth coach in Cowboys history, finished his third consecutive 5-11 campaign with a 20-14 loss to Washington on Sunday, ending the Cowboys' streak of 10 consecutive wins against the Redskins.

Jones hasn't named a successor to Campo yet, but former Giants, Patriots and Jets coach Bill Parcells is considered the frontrunner. Jones and Parcells have met twice in recent weeks, including Friday, when they talked for six hours.

Campo was named coach prior to the 2000 season after Jones fired Chan Gailey, now the head coach at Georgia Tech. Campo had spent the previous 11 seasons as an assistant coach with the Cowboys and was the defensive coordinator for the 1995 team that won Super Bowl XXX.

Campo's first team started the year 3-4, but lost seven of its next nine games to finish 5-11 and fourth in the NFC East. The Cowboys did beat Washington twice that season and Emmitt Smith topped 15,000 career yards. Before the 2001 season began, Campo dealt with questions at quarterback. Troy Aikman announced his retirement after 12 seasons with the Cowboys and Dallas drafted quarterback Quincy Carter from Georgia in the second round. Jones brought in veteran quarterback Tony Banks, but cut him just before the season started in favor of Carter.

The Cowboys started the 2001 campaign with an 0-4 record and never found much success. The team had two four-game losing streaks and finished 5-11 for the second consecutive season.

Campo, Jones and the Cowboys players had high expectations heading into the 2002 season. The Cowboys signed free-agent defensive end La'Roi Glover from New Orleans and had, according to draft experts, a solid draft. The Cowboys got safety Roy Williams in the first round and offensive lineman Andre Gurode and wide receiver Antonio Bryant in the second round.

The Cowboys started 3-3, but faded quickly. Carter was benched after seven games in favor of Chad Hutchinson, who had never thrown an NFL pass. The offensive line suffered injuries in training camp and never got on track. Plus, several of the Cowboys' losses were attributed to controversial Campo decisions.

For Campo, one of the few bright spots from the 2002 season came in October when Smith broke Walter Payton's NFL record for career rushing yards against Seattle at Texas Stadium.

Online at: http://www.dallasnews.com/latestnews/stories/123002dnspocowconference.3f0dc0a0.html

If Parcells comes in, Zimmer is the only guy with any chance to stay and his odds are long. Avezano is awful, special teams was one of the worst facets of the team. As a coach Avezano is a pretty good country singer (ho! ho!)

Aside from the owner's hands-on style,the real thing killing this team is its inability to identify talent and build through the draft. This was where Jimmy Johnson excelled! Drafting Quincy Carter in the first round and trading multiple first round picks for Joey Galloway were major busts. Carter (who came out of college after his junior year may not have even been the starter if he had stayed in school) and Galloway is an undersized receiver who has either been hurt or ineffective since coming from Seattle. Ownership input was a major factor in these moves as well.

I do not believe that Jones is considering anyone but Parcells at this point. Dennis Green is getting a token look to avoid trouble with Johhny Cochran and Jesse. I hope that Parcells is the coach because even if the Boys don't improve it will be fun to watch he and Jerry beat the crap out of each other. Also Emmitt may have a better chance of staying in Dallas with Parcells.

Nobody respected Mt. Landry more than myself. But facts are facts, Mt. Landry's last team finished with the worst record in the NFL.
The future was bleak and it was time for a change. Landry was informed that the team was being sold and that he would not be the head coach. At that moment he could have called a press conference and bailed out gracefully, instead he flew to his Austin ranch and made JJones come down and tell him he was fired. With all the accompanying hoopla.
JJones has his faults and many of them, but he was well within his rights to replace Landry, it wasn't his fault Landry made a difficult situation even moreso.
It is not so easy to dismiss his treatment to this day of Tex Schramm though. He should at least be in the ring of honor, afterall he is the Hall of Fame.

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