Former Cowboys head coach emerges as candidate for Duke position

Following David Cutcliffe’s decision to step down from his head coach post at Duke, the school kicked off a coaching search which has reached far and wide for candidates. After reports that ACC and SEC coordinators took an early lead in the process, new reports from the Durham Herald-Sun’s Steve Wiseman suggest former Dallas Cowboys head coach and New York Giants offensive coordinator Jason Garrett has emerged as a candidate at Duke.

Two weeks ago, the Giants fired Garrett. Following a 3-7 start to the season he took the fall for poor offensive production under head coach Joe Judge. His offense with the Giants ranked in the bottom third of the NFL with 322.8 yards per game, 92.9 rushing yards per game, and 18.9 points per game. The team’s 229.9 passing yards per game ranked middle of the pack.

Jason Garrett was the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys from 2010 through 2019. He was fired after the 2019 season. He was in his second season as the Giants offensive coordinator.

Other Duke candidates

The Durham Herald-Sun’s report also reaffirms previous reports that Clemson offensive coordinator Tony Elliott and Texas A&M defensive coordinator Mike Elko remain the top candidates for the position. Other potential names include sitting head coaches Jeff Monken (Army) and Troy Calhoun (Air Force) who run the triple-option offense at service academies.

Elliott and Elko rank as two of the highest paid assistants in the country, both making more than $2 million per year. Records obtained by the Durham Herald-Sun show that former head coach David Cutcliffe made $2,848,237 annually, just surpassing their salaries in lower positions at their respective schools.

Elliott began his coaching career in 2006, where he was a wide receivers coach at South Carolina State until 2007. He then held the same position from 2008-2010 at Furman before becoming Clemson’s running backs coach from 2011-2014. In 2015, Elliott became a co-offensive coordinator for Clemson, and he held that role until last season. He then received a promotion as the Tigers’ full-time offensive coordinator. Now, Elliott is the Tigers’ offensive coordinator as well as assistant head coach.

Elko has been in College Station since the start of the Jimbo Fisher era, steadily improving the Aggies defense into one of the better units in the SEC. After finishing seventh and eighth in the SEC in total defense during Fisher’s first two seasons, Texas A&M has been ranked in the top 20 nationally in total defense in the past two years.