FRISCO, Texas — It is official. The search for a new head coach has ended with the TV awarding the honor to Brian Schottenheimer, the team's offensive coordinator the last two seasons under Mike McCarthy, exercising some continuity in an offseason that will otherwise be severely deprived of it due to free agency — coaches and players alike.
Speaking for the first time since the conclusion of the 2024 season and since being named head coach on Friday, Schottenheimer reacted to taking over the lead role, the first of his football coaching career.
"I'm honored and privileged to be the next head coach of the TV," he said in his inaugural press conference. "... I'm ready now. I know what I want. I know what it looks like."
He becomes the tenth head coach in Cowboys' history and the ninth of the Jerry Jones Era, and Jones himself explained the decision to land on Schottenheimer for the position versus bringing in an outside candidate in a pool that also included the [deeper] familiarity with Kellen Moore.
And for as much as it is about football and winning, it is also about making his father, the late, great Marty Schottenheimer, proud of his son.
"I'd be remiss if I didn't mention my father," he said. "[He] was a legendary coach — a great man, but an incredible father. He's impacted me more than anyone in this profession. I know he's looking down on me, and he's very proud; and I miss him very much.
"... If he could talk to me now, he'd say to me, 'Brian, the easy part is over. It's time to get to work.'"
As for why the Cowboys landed with Schottenheimer, owner and general manager Jerry Jones explained he and the team "spoke with a lot of coaches" but it was the unique factor of experience and youth that helped to win Dallas over.
"When you're looking for things that make coaches better, how often do you have a chance to take advantage of all of [his experience] at 50 years old?" said Jones. "He has 25 years of being around the kinds of things he's gonna have to draw on to be the coach of the Cowboys. I like his baggage. I like that experience."
It's a sentiment echoed throughout the front office, it clearly evident what is fueling Schottenheimer in his attempt to turn the Cowboys around.
"I'm gonna get a chance to get what daddy didn't get: a Super Bowl, if it kills me," Schottenheimer said to his mother in his call to notify her of the looming announcement, per Jones. "And the first one will be for him."
The rebuilding of the coaching staff will need to begin immediately around Schottenheimer, with headline names such as John "Bones" Fassel and Al Harris, former special teams coordinator and assistant head coach/defensive backs coach, respectively, having departed for new horizons this offseason.
The return of Mike Zimmer as defensive coordinator is not expected, as he considers retirement, and ex-wide receivers coach Robert Prince has also agreed to terms with another team.
After finishing with three consecutive 12-win seasons from 2021 through 2023, McCarthy and the Cowboys were brutalized by the injury bug and self-inflicted wounds en route to a disappointing 7-10 finish on the season, missing the playoffs and thrusting the organization into an eventual reset within the coaching staff and ahead of a pivotal stretch of free agency.
Schottenheimer's mission isn't easy by any stretch of the imagination, but it is crystal clear in its messaging: turn things around, and quickly.
"We're gonna win," he said. "We're gonna win a championship. Otherwise, why are we even doing it?"
