Source: Possible Cowboys Coach Candidate Matt Rhule of Baylor is 'The Real Deal'

A Source Tells CowboysSI.com That Possible Cowboys Coach Candidate Matt Rhule of Baylor - Who Might Be High On The Giants' Wish List - is 'The Real Deal'

FRISCO - The seat behind Jason Garrett's desk here at The Star is still warm. But Dallas Cowboys ownership is intent on filling it with a replacement head coach - and there is some sentiment from those with knowledge of both Dallas' needs and the skills of Baylor's Matt Rhule who assert that Rhule should at least be interviewed for the coming vacancy.

'If you're looking for a guy to change a program,'' one knowledgeable source told me, "Rhule is the real deal.''

Jerry and Stephen Jones are, as I write this, (at 3:45 p.m. on "Black Monday'' finally preparing to sit down with Garrett to inform him of their plan to let the 10-year coach's contract expire, freeing him to go elsewhere. It is a painful process, but a virtually inevitable one.

Garrett told us on Monday morning that he "absolutely'' will inform the Joneses of his wishes to retain his job with the Cowboys.

"Absolutely,'' he told Shan Shariff and yours truly in an exclusive Monday morning visit on 105.3 The Fan. “We’ll have a good visit and see what’s next.”

Management, however, has already flirted with Urban Meyer and has assembled what I'll assume to be a long, deep list of candidates. Meyer is one with a college background. So is Oklahoma's Lincoln Riley, who happens to have a relationship with Stephen. But it was especially notable, I thought, when a few days ago Jerry was asked on 105.3 The Fan about Riley ... and answered, without prodding, about the Baylor success of Matt Rhule.

"I'm impressed with (Riley),” said Jones, who watched OU top Baylor in the Big 12 title game at AT&T Stadium. “But, boy, I'm impressed with Baylor's coach, too. Those were two outstanding coaches at the stadium this weekend. ... That was a great chance to see a couple great coaches out there."

The Cowboys have long had deep ties with Baylor, though not necessarily to Rhule. Nevertheless, the New York Jets almost hired Rhule away from Waco a year ago. (What broke that up? Rhule wanted to hire his own staff - something that could be an obstacle at The Star.) And sources close to the situation told me two weeks ago that Rhule was about to field a series of NFL interview offers. ... and now national reports connect the 44-year-old to the Carolina Panthers and maybe most notably to the New York Giants. Rhule is a native New Yorker who in 2012 spent a year as an assistant there - when he got to know a staff member named Dave Gettleman, who happens today to be the Giants GM.

Worth noting: Conventional wisdom also has Garrett, once he's freed from Dallas, as a top Giants candidate.

Jones, despite having "secretly'' supervised a recent Cowboys visit with college coaching icon Urban Meyer (yes, he’s on Dallas’ wish list) has issued a caution about the college-to-pro leap.

"College coaches,” he said in the visit with "K and C Masterpiece'' on 105.3 The Fan, “coming directly into (to the NFL), have the lowest percentage rate of success ... So, you pay a price for someone to get up to date that hasn’t spent the prior months or years in the NFL.”

But isn’t Jimmy Johnson’s success in Dallas enough to disprove this theory?

“I'm reminded,” Jerry said, “we won one football game the first year we came and brought Jimmy in."

Jerry’s “negative spin” on the concept of replacing Jason Garrett in 2020 with a college coach sounded more like “spitballing” the idea than shutting it down completely.

Jerry Jones is telling “his truth” about what can happen when college coaches jump to the NFL. But I guarantee you the Cowboys can visualize such a jump with the likes of Meyer, Nick Saban, Riley, Rhule, Dan Mullen, Bob Stoops and others, just as they can with NFL names like Sean Payton, Mike Zimmer, Jack Del Rio, Mike McCarthy, Greg Roman, Robert Saleh, Dan Campbell, Wink Martindale, Josh McDaniels and Eric Bieniemy.

Outside of my theory that after being led by the professorial Garrett, the Cowboys roster is in need of a "taskmaster,'' there is nothing close to a guarantee on which person or even which style works. But Matt Rhule has some support here ... and the Cowboys need all the "real deal'' they can get.