Jason Garrett is now in his fifth season as a coach for the Cowboys, so it can almost seem like he's been doing this for a long, long time, and must be pretty set in his ways.
In fact, the 45-year old Garrett is probably still growing and changing a lot in his sideline demeanor and style, just an adolescent in this second career of his. The Cowboys' acquisition of veteran cornerback Frank Walker is a testament to Garrett's youth.
The two actually played together and practiced against each other in 2003, Walker's rookie season with the Giants, Garrett's final year in New York.
"I used to give him a lot of trouble when we were in New York, but we had a lot of fun," Walker said. "He was just always a smart guy, always knowing what's going on. Seeing that in a younger coach, you can tell, pretty much, what a guy is going to be like for the rest of their career by how attentive they are to what guys do, what other players do and picking up on tendencies that other players have."
Garrett was in the 11th year of his career then, but remembers the 22-year old cornerback from Tuskegee.
"What I remember about him is he came in, and he had a tremendous amount of confidence, and energy, and sprit and enthusiasm, and just loved to play football" Garrett said. "We had some great battles in one-on-ones, and 7-on-7s and 11-on-11s througout training camp, and he's a guy that keeps coming back.
"If you were around there and you saw this young kid come onto the football team, nobody really knew that much about him, and you saw how he went about it, it doesn't surprise you at all that he's still playing. Because he had a great approach, and he certainly has some ability, and it's been great to see how long he's played, and played as well as he has."
