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By Gil LeBreton
glebreton@ star-telegram.com


His daddy, no doubt, would have announced his own arrival differently.

"You got a winner in town," Buddy Ryan said infamously -- twice -- after taking over the head coaching thrones in Philadelphia and Arizona.

Fortunately, it seems, Rob Ryan, soon to be named the Dallas Cowboys' defensive coordinator, will let the fans and his new employers decide if he's got a winning touch.

I don't know what to think of him, to be honest, and it's got nothing to do with the hair.

Son of Buddy, true, sorta looks lately like a 1970s deejay -- shaggy, salt-and-pepper mane, draped atop a robust Falstaffian chassis.

No problem there. As Rob's twin brother, Rex, has shown us with the New York Jets, prosperous head coaches can come in all shapes and sizes.

No, the problem I'm having with Rob is picturing how exactly he is going to fit in at Valley Ranch. Did he even apply to Princeton, like the head coach? Didn't think so.

Ryan's sideline and practice demeanors, furthermore, have been described as salty. He coaches and screams with equal fire.

And that's where I'm wondering exactly how Ryan's round peg is going to fit into Jason Garrett's square hole. Garrett is erudite, measured and methodical. Ryan wants to blitz all eleven.

He is so different. Think about the assistant coaches that passed through Valley Ranch during the pastoral stewardship of Wade Phillips. The list includes Tony Sparano, Hudson Houck, Dave Campo, Paul Pasqualoni and Phillips' own protégé, amiable and articulate Brian Stewart.

Over a short span, Phillips and Bill Parcells assembled a veritable who's-who of NFL coaching experience. And, all told, those staffs schemed their way to, what, one playoff victory?

Raise your hand if you're still baffled, like me, that the franchise has only one postseason win over the last eight seasons, the Parcells-Phillips years.

Of the above coaching group, it's possible that only Houck will be left when the Cowboys next scrimmage. It appears that Ryan will be given leeway to choose his own defensive staff.

This, of course, is the way that most NFL teams do it. A head coach wants all of his defensive people thinking on the same page. Most NFL teams, however, aren't subject to the whims, vagaries and the politics that are the Jerry Jones Cowboys.

If I were Jason Garrett, for one thing, I'd make all of those new defensive coaches sign some kind of loyalty oath.

The head coach doesn't need a Garrett side of the locker room and a Ryan side. Just sayin'.

With apologies to Rob, his family name has preceded him. Give me one good reason why the Cowboys or their fans should ever trust anyone named Ryan?

The Bounty Bowl, 1989. The fake kneel-down and rub-it-in-Tom-Landry's face, 1987.

Only one person in the world ever disliked Tom Landry, and it was the daddy of the new defensive coordinator. How nice.

Some Cowboys fans have wondered why Dave Wannstedt wasn't given a longer look for the position.

Maybe Wannstedt himself didn't need that long a look. He saw that Jones' name was still on the door of the head office.

But of the other candidates, Vic Fangio, gone. Greg Manusky, gone.

Ryan, too, reportedly was in high demand. The story was that Andy Reid wanted him on his staff in Philadelphia.

That fits. This... well.

Don't misunderstand. I'm not one of these old guys who think the only good coaches are the re-cycled good-ol'-boy ones. I'm an honorary member of the Sean Payton fan club.

If the Cowboys had hired Wannstedt, boy, the stories that he could have told. But he would have been a worse fit than even Ryan. Garrett didn't need a Dave Wannstedt, a relic from the glory years, looking over his shoulder.

Instead, he gets Son of Buddy. Let the blitzing begin.

Maybe Garrett likes the impending dynamics of a good-cop (him), bad-cop (Ryan) coaching situation. Or maybe he just wanted a defensive coordinator that didn't give Popsicle breaks.

How the Cowboys players accept Ryan remains to be seen, of course. Reports from Cleveland and Oakland suggest that most will love him and play ferociously for him.

OK, but these are the Cowboys. How are they going to respond when Ryan turns the coaching volume up to 11?

I don't know, but let me safely predict that it's going to be fun watching.

Welcome, Rob. Don't tell your dad we said hi.
 
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I like the idea of aggression on both sides of the ball.

I think it's an incredible pairing.
 
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