Chan Gailey

[alancdc]

How about Chan Gailey winning the Coastal Division of the ACC. I always thought he might have gotten a bad deal here. However, don't know enough to make an educated comment either way. Nice accomplishment for him though.

 

[Eddie]

I would very much like to forget and erase the memory that Barry Switzer, Chan Gailey, and Dave Campo were Cowboy coaches.

Tuna hasn't done much either.

 

[Cochese]

I DESPISE Chan GAYley, I wish nothing but the worst for him.

 

[5Stars]

I would very much like to forget and erase the memory that Barry Switzer, Chan Gailey, and Dave Campo were Cowboy coaches.

Tuna hasn't done much either.

Those were the Three Stooges...and now, so far, it seems like we have Groucho Marx...! I hope he has the answer to the $64,000 question regarding these Cowboys...

 

[alancdc]

Was Gailey here during the trade 2 first round picks for Joey Galloway years? I know we made the playoffs when he was coaching right? I also know for whatever reason Troy didn't seem too fond of him.

 

[Eddie]

Was Gailey here during the trade 2 first round picks for Joey Galloway years? I know we made the playoffs when he was coaching right? I also know for whatever reason Troy didn't seem too fond of him.

Troy wasted two seasons under Chan, who thought he had a system of interchangeable players. He tried to make Troy another Kordell Stewart ... why the heck would anyone want that???

Chan's final season went 8-8 and then JJ traded the two 1st rounders for Joey Galloway, as well as another 3rd rounder for James McKnight.

 

[alancdc]

Thats right. I remember listening to the last game against the Saints where we lost on Christmas Eve, but still made the plaayoffs. Wasn't that the year where Emmitt had the huge first half against the Vikings, and broke his finger on the stiff arm going into the end zone. I think the Vikes beat us in the playoffs.

 

[SibannacRex]

Thats right. I remember listening to the last game against the Saints where we lost on Christmas Eve, but still made the plaayoffs. Wasn't that the year where Emmitt had the huge first half against the Vikings, and broke his finger on the stiff arm going into the end zone. I think the Vikes beat us in the playoffs.

Yup, except for the fact that the Saints game wasn't the last game of the season. We had to beat the Giants the following week to make the playoffs, which we did.

Emmitt had a great first half in the playoff game too, but we screwed that game up with horrible D and ST.

 

[Boyzmamacita]

We made the playoffs both of Gailey's seasons here. He was a boring guy, but I'm not sure that he was such a bad coach. The organization was on a downslide with injuries and retirements. I'm not sure anyone would've had much success. Jimmy Johnson was smart. He saw free agency about to change his dynasty, so he left because of that (and Jerry). He figured if he was going to fail (or succeed) under the new free agency system, he wanted to do it somewhere else and what better place than near his beloved Florida Keys?

 

[jem88]

I loathed Chan Gailey. It was like he regarded all our WRs as interchangeable and that felt Ernie Mills could do the same job as Michael Irvin.

 

[alancdc]

Really,I do think Gailey wasn't a bad coach. I agree that I think he had a bunch of players on the downside, and Jerry trying to squeeze a little bit more out or em, and lets not forget about the horrid drafts after Jimmy left. Can we have one more bust TE or DE in the first round.

 

[bbgun]

He never stood a chance in Dallas. He was forced to cobble our aging players into his four wideout system. Troy was a sitting duck in the empty backfield.

 

[CrazyCowboy]

good for him--congrats Chan!

 

[jman]

Good for him.

He got a raw deal here. Never was allowed to bring in his own people. He was set up to fail before he even started.

 

[dfense]

I would very much like to forget and erase the memory that Barry Switzer, Chan Gailey, and Dave Campo were Cowboy coaches.

Tuna hasn't done much either.

Actually, with what he had to work with, Gailey was a good coach. Unfortunately, Aikman blamed his mediocre performance on Chan and he was replaced.

 

[jobberone]

Good coach with the wrong players for 'his' offense. Just bad timing. Great guy. Needs to be in the college ranks. Not demeaning his abilities but he is just the kind of coach these kids need.

 

[eduncan22]

Chan is a damned good coach.

Too bad Jerry lost his cool. The dynasty was dead, and it wasn't Chan's fault. If anything, Chan kept it on life support for another two years.

We ended up with three years of Campo.

 

[jcblanco22]

Gailey should never be lumped in with Switzer or Campo, and a few posts in this thread have bashed him without accurate evidence, in my opinion.

Gailey's offense was just fine and a great fit during the majority of his initial campaign in '98, with both the fans and with Aikman himself. Yes, he was unorthodox with a lot of his formations, but he was keeping teams that had pretty much memorized our Turner/Zampese formations and playcalls completely off balance. Don't forget that even with Troy missing 5 games in '98 he had Jason Garrett 2 points away from being 5-0 as his replacement in that offense during that stretch.

I don't think he tried to turn Aikman into Kordell Stewart at all, but the offense did give Aikman more liberty to take off, which he did with some pretty good success that season. Gailey also had a good eye for receivers I think, and he had both Ernie Mills and Patrick Jeffers performing at a high level that year.

Then in the offseason leading up to '99 (not the one leading up to the 2000 season as someone had said earlier in the thread) Jerry traded the 3rd to Holmgren for McKnight and we also nabbed Raghib Ismail in free agency. Suddenly we looked like a lights-out offense going into that summer, and then McKnight promptly tore up his knee in the first preseason scrimmage that July. Regardless, we were 3-0 and most likely heading to 4-0 that fateful day at the Vet when Irvin went down for what turned out to be his career.

Anyone remember the next several weeks after that? Down went Mills, down went Wane McGarity, down went Deion Sanders, down went even Jason Tucker for a while with some bad toes. Ismail was getting the snot beat out of him every week while trying to play the No. 1 receiver in one of the most underrated seasons by any Cowboys player in recent memory. Aikman was stuggling with a large degree of inexperience at receiver and started to lay the blame on Gailey's offensive system all of a sudden.

In the end, it's pretty much common knowledge that it was his constant talks with Jerry behind Gailey's back that got Gailey his hire-an-offensive-coordinator-or-get-fired ultimatum by Jerry that January. That was when Jerry was still letting players run the show and was short on patience. I also remember that Deion was having a mini-feud with Aikman in the locker room at that point, and took Gailey's side and basically said it was the "superstars on the team" that had to show up for big games and weren't (after the wildcard loss to the Vikings that was the final game of Gailey's coaching career). I've always thought there was a lot more going on behind the scenes during those two seasons that anyone has ever let on, and I wish JJT or someone who was around then would have written something up about that specific period.

I've maintained that if Jerry would have had sufficient patience with Gailey, he may very well still have been here today. One other ringing endorsement Gailey received for his time here was from Emmitt himself, who commented on Gailey's website that Gailey was responsible for resurrecting his career and helping him to the last 2 best rushing seasons he ever had.

Needless to say, I'm very happy for Chan's success this year.

 

[joseephuss]

The ACC is a terrible conference this season.

 

[jay cee]

Gailey should never be lumped in with Switzer or Campo, and a few posts in this thread have bashed him without accurate evidence, in my opinion.

Gailey's offense was just fine and a great fit during the majority of his initial campaign in '98, with both the fans and with Aikman himself. Yes, he was unorthodox with a lot of his formations, but he was keeping teams that had pretty much memorized our Turner/Zampese formations and playcalls completely off balance. Don't forget that even with Troy missing 5 games in '98 he had Jason Garrett 2 points away from being 5-0 as his replacement in that offense during that stretch.

I don't think he tried to turn Aikman into Kordell Stewart at all, but the offense did give Aikman more liberty to take off, which he did with some pretty good success that season. Gailey also had a good eye for receivers I think, and he had both Ernie Mills and Patrick Jeffers performing at a high level that year.

Then in the offseason leading up to '99 (not the one leading up to the 2000 season as someone had said earlier in the thread) Jerry traded the 3rd to Holmgren for McKnight and we also nabbed Raghib Ismail in free agency. Suddenly we looked like a lights-out offense going into that summer, and then McKnight promptly tore up his knee in the first preseason scrimmage that July. Regardless, we were 3-0 and most likely heading to 4-0 that fateful day at the Vet when Irvin went down for what turned out to be his career.

Anyone remember the next several weeks after that? Down went Mills, down went Wane McGarity, down went Deion Sanders, down went even Jason Tucker for a while with some bad toes. Ismail was getting the snot beat out of him every week while trying to play the No. 1 receiver in one of the most underrated seasons by any Cowboys player in recent memory. Aikman was stuggling with a large degree of inexperience at receiver and started to lay the blame on Gailey's offensive system all of a sudden.

In the end, it's pretty much common knowledge that it was his constant talks with Jerry behind Gailey's back that got Gailey his hire-an-offensive-coordinator-or-get-fired ultimatum by Jerry that January. That was when Jerry was still letting players run the show and was short on patience. I also remember that Deion was having a mini-feud with Aikman in the locker room at that point, and took Gailey's side and basically said it was the "superstars on the team" that had to show up for big games and weren't (after the wildcard loss to the Vikings that was the final game of Gailey's coaching career). I've always thought there was a lot more going on behind the scenes during those two seasons that anyone has ever let on, and I wish JJT or someone who was around then would have written something up about that specific period.

I've maintained that if Jerry would have had sufficient patience with Gailey, he may very well still have been here today. One other ringing endorsement Gailey received for his time here was from Emmitt himself, who commented on Gailey's website that Gailey was responsible for resurrecting his career and helping him to the last 2 best rushing seasons he ever had.

Needless to say, I'm very happy for Chan's success this year.

Thank you for correcting so many misconceptions about Gailey, JCBlanco.
I also think there was some issues between Sanders and Aikman during that period.

But I did agree with Sanders that the Superstars needed to step up, and IMO, Aikman simply did not play like a super star.

I thought that playoff loss was to Arizona, not Minnesota.