The Cowboys may reside in Stillwater as far as the state of Oklahoma is concerned, but the Dallas Cowboys now hold court in Norman. It was reported on Thursday afternoon that former Cowboys tight end Jason
Witten is joining the Oklahoma Sooners staff as their tight ends coach, and in case you did not know, DeMarco Murray is their running backs coach.
This is Witten’s first foray into the collegiate coaching ranks, but he has a Texas state championship under his belt at the high school level so he has succeeded where he has been so far, and it stands to reason that will continue. It goes without saying that Witten and Murray being on the same team once again is cool and tugs at our nostalgia, sorry if you are an Oklahoma State or University of Texas fan, though.
As things related to the Dallas Cowboys though, this obviously is not literally connected to them, but it is interesting to consider the last year’s worth of reports and discussions around Witten.
A year ago at this time (the week of the Wild Card Round) the Cowboys were still mulling over the future of Mike McCarthy and ultimately wound up moving on from him on the Monday of the final Wild Card game. In the aftermath of McCarthy’s departure it was reported by NFL Network’s Jane Slater that Witten may have been an “heir apparent” under McCarthy in a hypothetical plan from Jerry Jones. We are talking about one report and a whole lot of conjecture, but consider that the last season Witten was affiliated with the Cowboys was his 2019 season when he returned from retirement and that he was not retained by McCarthy during his first year. He spent that 2020 season playing for the Las Vegas Raiders before ultimately retiring.
About a month later, after Brian Schottenheimer had already been hired, Witten went on public record in saying that he never spoke to Jerry Jones about the potential role of being the Dallas Cowboys head coach. It would stand to reason that Witten may have aspirations of one day coaching in the NFL, perhaps even leading the Cowboys, and that his move up to the world of college football is the next step in that process, but that was the last point in which his name was mentioned in any serious capacity relative to the Cowboys staff.
It should also be noted that in addition to getting a new job, Jason Witten is eligible for the Pro Football Hall of Fame for the first time this year and will learn his fate in about another month’s time. We are certainly all rooting for him in that regard.
Perhaps we will look back on this as something that did moved Witten closer to becoming the Cowboys head coach with a gold jacket around his shoulders. We will see.
