Scott Linehan was fired as offensive coordinator of the Dallas Cowboys, but the timing of the decision left the team in a somewhat unfortunate position. By this point in the offseason, most of the best coaches in football have been snatched up and staffs are full. The Cowboys have limited options to choose from at the NFL level, so it seems that they are looking towards the college ranks. According to Ian Rapaport of NFL Network, Georgia Offensive Coordinator James Coley will be considered for the Cowboys job.

Coley has spent most of his career at the college level. Before Georgia, he made his name at Florida State and Miami, and his time spent in the sunshine state is what makes him an attractive candidate to the Cowboys. Coley was an offensive assistant for the Miami Dolphins in 2005 and 2006. That is where Jason Garrett cut his teeth in the coaching world. He was the quarterbacks coach for the Dolphins during those seasons, doing well enough under Nick Saban in that timeframe to attract the attention of the Cowboys. Garrett tends to hire from his own experience. Linehan was on the same Dolphins staff that Garrett coached on, and now, it seems that another former Saban assistant is a candidate in Dallas.

Coley was the co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for the Georgia last season, and his scheme has quite a bit in common with what Dallas has run in the past. He had two 1,000-yard rushers at Georgia in D'Andre Swift and Elijah Holyfield, replacing the two 1,000-yard rushers they had the previous year in Nick Chubb and Sony Michel. His emphasis on the running game has given his quarterback, Jake Fromm, a reputation as a game-manager. Georgia has lost only five games with Fromm as the starter, two of which came against Alabama, but his numbers have never been particularly impressive by the lofty standards other college quarterbacks set.

Coley, like internal candidate Doug Nussmeier, seems to be a somewhat safe pick. He knows Garrett and believes in the same basic principles that he does when it comes to coaching offense. If Garrett is the one making the decision here, Coley would likely be near the top of the list.

But if the Jones family wants an overhaul to the way that the team thinks about offense, then it seems as though they would prefer a different sort of candidate. If the growth of Dak Prescott is the primary focus for the Jones family in making this decision, than a Big 12 assistant might make more sense than Coley, who comes from the run-first SEC. We are still very early in the process, though, so nothing is certain. For now, Coley is a candidate. Nothing more.