FRISCO, Texas — The Dallas Cowboys put Christian Parker in front of a room of eight to 12 people and made him coach a mock installation meeting before hiring him as defensive coordinator. Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer described the format Thursday.
Vice president of player personnel Will McClay was in the room, along with several coaches. They asked questions the way players would.
Dallas ran the same format at every position this year after trying it in some spots last year.
“We did it in some regards last year. We did it more this year. We did it with every position this year,” Schottenheimer said. “There was probably eight to 12 people in there. Will McClay was in there. A bunch of the coaches were in there.”
The Nick Saban Interview Brian Schottenheimer Remembered
Schottenheimer interviewed with Nick Saban as he was leaving the New York Jets after the 2011 season. He walked into a staff room with roughly 40 people in it.
“Here’s a fun story. I interviewed with Nick Saban when I was leaving the Jets in 2011,” Schottenheimer explained. “I came in and talked to Coach Saban, and he was telling me about recruiting and things like that. And then he took me into the staff room to interview, and there was literally 40 people. And I was like, okay, here we go. Take the sport coat off and let’s go.”
What The Cowboys Asked Christian Parker To Do
Parker was given about five minutes to prepare a first defensive team meeting on identity and play style.
“But this year what we learned is we wanted to put guys in mock team meetings, defensive unit meetings for Christian, mock installation meetings, have him coach us like we’re the players,” Schottenheimer added. “We would ask questions like the players would. And he knocked it out of the park in every regard. And one of the things that we did was we’d give him, I think we gave him like five minutes to come up with your first defensive meeting about identity and play style and stuff like that. And I don’t remember exactly what he said. I could pull the video, but he was awesome.”
Schottenheimer said the message Parker delivered in the mock meeting was not far off the one he gave for real.
Dallas hired Parker on Jan. 22 from the Philadelphia Eagles, where he was passing game coordinator and defensive backs coach for two seasons under Vic Fangio. At 34, he is the youngest defensive coordinator in franchise history and the fourth Cowboys defensive coordinator in as many seasons. He was one of nine candidates interviewed.
Parker inherits a unit that allowed a franchise-record 30.1 points per game last season, last in the NFL, and ranked 30th in yards allowed at 377 per game.
The Cowboys open the regular season Sept. 13 at MetLife Stadium against the New York Giants. Kickoff is 7:20 p.m. CT on NBC.
