Jimmy's coaching timeline:
OK State from 79-83 5 seasons
The U from 84-88 5 seasons
Dallas 89-93 5 seasons
Miami 96-99 4 seasons
Anybody else see a pattern here? Jimmy was a guy that would get burned out in a place and look for a new challenge. I don't remember his contract situation, but I think he wanted out of Dallas so he could do something else and was openly disrespectful to Jerry because he knew Jerry would fire him.
Yeah, let's look at that.
He left Oklahoma State.......because he got a better job. Miami was coming off of winning the national championship. He would never be able to do that at Oklahoma State, so he left. No burnout.
He left Miami.....because he got a more high profile job. The Cowboys, no matter how low they were after the 1988 season, were a front of mind, name brand. Winning there is much bigger than winning at the University of Miami. Again, no burnout.
He left the Cowboys.....because he got fired. Anything speaking about him leaving at the end of the month is complete revisionist history, because he never mentioned it until over 20 years after the fact.
He left Miami because he was done with coaching. This is the one time that you can call it being burned out.
People rationalize things the way they want. The bottom line is, the only gap in time he had in coaching was after he was fired by Jones......all for two years. Honestly? I think he would have stayed for the 1994 season, and would have left after that.