After nine long seasons of mediocrity and underachievement, Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys finally moved on from head coach Jason Garrett. In Garrett’s nine and a half seasons with “America’s Team”, he had a record of 85-67 with three playoff appearances

With Garrett gone, many Cowboys fans are presumably asking the question, “who’s next”? After all, there are plenty of names out there and plenty of lanes you could take.

The idea of promoting Kris Richard or Kellen Moore from within is something that could be understandable, or the months of rumors surrounding Oklahoma head coach Lincoln Riley could actually end in him becoming head coach of the Dallas Cowboys. The truth is the only man for the job is one Urban Meyer.

One of the biggest issues with Jason Garrett was that the players didn’t seem to listen to him. While nobody doubts that Garrett is a good person, the truth is Jerry Jones consistently overstepped his bounds and players realized Garrett wielded little power to their job security and day-to-day life.

Once players lost respect for Garrett’s direction, it was not long before he lost the locker room.

The biggest issue with the Cowboys for nearly thirty years now has been Jerry Jones. Jones’ habit of publicly calling out Garrett’s coaching, as well as controlling the staff around him, made his failure inevitable, and it played a big part in the reason why he eventually lost the locker room.

Not many coaches could maneuver around Jones’ shenanigans and keep players attention, but if anyone could, it is Urban Meyer.

Meyer is one of the best football coaches of the 21st century and is well liked by players. Meyer has a career record of 187-32 and a winning percentage above 850 in his 17 seasons as a college head coach.

More importantly, Meyer has the reputation of a winner. The former Florida and Ohio State head coach has won three national championships with a bowl record of 12-3 with major programs.

Meyer also has a reputation for developing quarterbacks. Many great college quarterbacks like Alex Smith, Tim Tebow and Dwayne Haskins went on to become first round picks after working with Urban Meyer.

Joe Burrow, who is currently the presumptive first overall pick, played under Meyer at Ohio State before transferring to LSU.

The Cowboys are in desperate need of a quarterback guru as they seem set to give Dak Prescott a big money extension. If Meyer’s ability to take quarterbacks to the next level helps Prescott, the Cowboys could once again be Super Bowl contenders. 

In October, Urban Meyer was asked about the rumors linking Lincoln Riley to a potential Cowboys coaching vacancy and said “That’s the one. Great city. They got Dak Prescott, Zeke Elliot. You got a loaded team,”.

Meyer said of the Cowboys. “I can’t speak for him obviously, I hate to even speculate because I don’t know him, that’s really not fair, but to me. That’s the one job in professional football you say, ‘I got to do that.’”

With Meyer clearly interested, and with Jerry Jones’ interest in winning the Lombardi trophy, Meyer is the clear choice and the one man who can restore the Cowboys to their past glory.