Dallas Cowboys

Nick Saban talks about his first impression of Jason Garrett

Published May. 21, 2015 3:16 p.m. ET

foxsports

Before Nick Saban was the face of Alabama football, he was the head coach of the Miami Dolphins. The Dolphins brought him in after a very successful stint coaching at LSU. His tenure with the Dolphins was shorter than originally anticipated, but he did manage to discover a future head coach gem. Saban needed someone to take over as the quarterbacks coach in 2005, and to his surprise, Jason Garrett was the perfect fit.

Garrett, at the time, had just recently retired after spending several seasons in the NFL as a career backup quarterback. Saban is not naive to the learning process a backup quarterback can become a part of, but he was skeptical of Garrett's lack of coaching experience.

After meeting with Garrett for the first time, Saban was immediately sold that he was by far the best candidate for the job.

"Scott Linehan and all the other offensive coaches who had coached in the league ... they all knew Jason, and they said, 'You've got to interview Jason Garrett,'" Saban recalled during his recent Crimson Caravan stop in Atlanta. "I said, 'The guy's never even coached. How can you recommend him for a coaching job?' And I interviewed him, and he was by far the best candidate. And I said that even after a year — after his first year of being a coach — I really considered him to promote him to [offensive] coordinator and call the plays because he was that good a coach that quickly because he's a very bright guy and really could relate well with the players."

The rest is history. Garrett would go on to accept a job as the Cowboys' offensive coordinator in 2007. In 2010, he was named as the Dallas Cowboys' interim head coach following the firing of Wade Phillips. Garrett's tenure as the Cowboys' head coach had been rocky until 2014 when he altered his coaching style and the Cowboys became a run-first offense.

(h/t Everything Alabama)

Photo Credit: AP Photo/Geoff Burke