OXNARD, Calif. – An impressive array of talent stepped onto the twin practice fields of the Dallas Cowboys' training camp here last Thursday morning. There was Dez Bryant, Jason Witten, Tyron Smith and so on. They were milling about waiting for an air horn to signal the start of the first session of the first day of a season with Super Bowl possibilities.

Standing near one of the end zones may have been the unlikely key to it all, a blue-collar, 66-year-old, Vietnam War veteran who in football terms holds a humbling, and considering his current role, unlikely distinction:

Coach of the worst team in NFL history.

Rod Marinelli is the Cowboys' defensive coordinator. In 2008 he was the head coach of the Detroit Lions, which isn't just the only NFL team to go 0-16, but one that barely even threatened to win a game. Those Lions, in one example of futility among many, lost their eight home games by an average of 22 points.

They were historically awful mostly because of eight years of disastrous personnel decisions by Matt Millen, the organization's de facto general manager. They had almost no good players operating within a culture of extreme dysfunction. That Marinelli couldn't manage a miracle wasn't a full reflection of the coach.

Still, 0-16 is 0-16 and it isn't easy for anyone's career, let alone their confidence, to recover from such a calamity.

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Marinelli, however, isn't anyone. In fact, his uniqueness – and his comfort in that uniqueness – may be how he got from there (coach of a laughing stock) to here (in charge of a potentially dominant unit of a high-profile championship-caliber team).

A year ago he was handed the reins of the Cowboys' defense, which was riddled with injuries and seen externally as lacking talent. It was destined, critics predicted, to be one of the league's worst.

Dallas surprised by going 12-4, won a playoff game and nearly stole another in Green Bay. Marinelli's defense became the talk of the league, finishing 15th in points allowed (22 per game) and playing with a focus on speed and execution.

Now, camp opens with a wave of fresh talent, from free-agent acquisition Greg Hardy, a troubled but clearly talented pass rusher, to the use of five draft picks, including selections in the first and second round of defenders, to, of course, the return of star linebacker Sean Lee from injury.

For all the hype of the Tony Romo-Bryant-Witten-O-line offense, the Big D in Big D may be the difference.

And Rod Marinelli may be on the verge of proving to everyone else what he never stopped believing, no matter what the record said.

The man knows how to coach 'em up.

"You couldn't ask …," Marinelli says, before stopping himself in mid-thought.

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He was about to say "for a better experience" but while he may be a bit odd, he isn't crazy. Running the Lions for three years, winning just 10 games, going oh-fer for a season, trying to devise game plans when you're outmanned at nearly every position?

Let's be honest, there are lots of better experiences.

"I'm not saying you want to go through it," Marinelli continued. "But I look for everything I've done [and ask], what can I take from that experience and build on it?"

Marinelli isn't much for emotive introspection. He isn't going to admit he was racked with inner doubt after Detroit. Human nature says he was, though. When you build a career to a single job and then fail spectacularly, you have to wonder if maybe you just weren't as good at this as you thought, even if it wasn't all your fault.

As is his way, Marinelli flipped it around a little.

He took pride in the fact that he and his staff never gave up. Even back during the final days of that lost season, Lions players and executives marveled that the head coach would attack each day with relentless positivity, like he was battling for the playoffs not about to be fired.

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And so where 0-16 might make some question everything, Marinelli settled on a single answer. He believes mostly in fundamentals, in getting players to stick with core beliefs especially under the most severe of duress. For him, 0-16 was just a test, not the final grade. It, and his post-Lions life, was proof he'd never waver because he wasn't wrong in the first place.

"I am fortunate going through that," Marinelli said. "Because everything we did leading into that, the 10 years [as an assistant] in Tampa, we smoked it. So [Detroit] gave me an opportunity in some adverse situation to stand on what I believe.

"And I believed it."

After the Lions fired him, his old boss in Tampa, Lovie Smith, immediately hired him to be the defensive line coach in Chicago. After a season he became defensive coordinator and across three seasons coached up two top-10 defenses. Then he jumped to Dallas and is looking at even bigger things.

"I left [Detroit] and it worked again in Chicago and I came here and we're getting going," Marinelli said. "I always look for the positive and I always respect football. The worst thing you can do in football is bury your head. I just won't do that."

"Well, first of all he's a great man," Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett said. "I have such trust in him. I've learned so much from him, as a person. His track record in this league speaks for itself. He's one of the great position coaches. He's one of the great coordinators this league has had. He just loves football. He's just so passionate about football."

This is a coach's coach, one respected across the game.

"I knew about him back in my college days," said Randy Gregory, a rookie defensive lineman out of Nebraska. "My D-line coach over there used to preach about him all the time. He'd always pull up film of [his defensive lines]. When I met him at the draft, just listening to him talk and go over film with him was big for me. I was kind of star struck to be honest."

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That Marinelli has maintained that aura says it all. Detroit hasn't changed anything.

He's not your typical coach. He speaks in a halting manner and both entertains and motivates his players and fellow coaches with unlikely statements and unexpected segues. A trip to Normandy, for instance, didn't produce a team speech about the shared sacrifice and colossal courage of soldiers who charged the Omaha Beach to certain death that day, but on what struck him football-wise … namely communication.

"Everyday communication," Marinelli said. "Clarity. The economy of words. The words mean something. Because, game day things are flying and you go revert back to your habits. Communication is so big."

Another time he visited the grounds of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, famous for being the last stand of Gen. George Custer and walked away marveling at "the speed," he said. "The movement. Everybody moves together. Our defense was built on speed and coordination. It's everything."

His players alternate between slight confusion and nodding their heads in affirmation. That's Marinelli. It works because it's genuine.

"I love his intensity, his mindset, his demeanor," said Jasper Brinkley, a veteran linebacker. "When you step on the field against one of his defenses, you know you're going to have to come to play that day."

There's more, of course. He's a task master who believes in running the same simple drills over and over and over – he started camp Thursday working with veteran defensive lineman on a basic pass rushing technique, the swim move. If they can do the basics, then the rest will work.

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He's obsessed with motivation, using anything from Genghis Kahn quotes to showing videos of a cheetah running in the wild, a chance to marvel at the efficiency of muscle on display.

He is forever seeking to point out mistakes, yet tends to find the possibilities in anyone or anything. And as anyone who could look back on Detroit with some positivity, he's willing to find opportunity where others see certain failure.

Consider one summer night back in 1966, when Marinelli and a few of his high school friends came upon a car dealership promotion in Pasadena, Calif. For $10 you could climb in a cage and wrestle a bear named Victor … albeit a de-clawed, muzzled and probably drugged-into-sedation bear.

Even still, almost no one was going for it. That included Marinelli's buddies, although they were willing to put up the 10-spot for anyone who would.

Because there was a pack of cute girls there, Marinelli thought he might impress them by beating the bear. So he gave it a go. It turned out to be an even match, both boy and bear each getting the upper hand at times, even though, as Marinelli laments, Victor's trainer kept poking Marinelli with a stick. Mostly though, it was about trying.

Did he get anywhere with the cute girls?

"No," Marinelli laughed. "I stunk like a bear."

No matter, he soon met Barbara. They've been married for 44 years.

The Cowboys are stacked on offense. Even though they'll have to prove a running back by committee charging behind that big offensive line can replace DeMarco Murray, there are few worries there as long as Tony Romo's back holds up.

The defense could be even better. If Dallas becomes one of Marinelli's signature top-10 units, then look out.

Marinelli isn't going to get into that right now. This is the start of camp and that means fundamentals and more fundamentals, alignment and assignment over and over and over. It's about attitude. It's about staying the course.

"Attitude carries you in this league," Marinelli said. "Morale. The No. 1 issue in the NFL is morale. Guys get better … morale goes up. They compete. Opportunities come. They work hard. Fight. This league, at the end of the day it is a blue-collar game. Your attitude can carry you. Because if you can get the same effort from the first snap to the last snap …

"[So it's] daily. It's every day, do the same thing, no compromise, call it out when I don't like it. Just call it out. It's not good enough," he continued. "A lot of people want to do this kind of stuff, but then after a couple of months get bored with it. [They say,] 'Let's do this. Let's try this.' I don't. I stay the course.

"It's how I was brought up and it's what I believe and what our staff believes."

In many ways being the defensive coordinator for the Cowboys, especially if they contend for the Lombardi Trophy, is a higher-profile gig, than the head coach of a middling Lions club. If nothing else, this is a chance to rewrite a legacy or at least remind everyone what Rod Marinelli can do.

"I just want to coach, right?" Marinelli said of not caring if he ever deserves another chance to be a head coach or if a Super Bowl could ever wipe out the stain of 0-16.

"I don't get all …," he said, before pausing rather than speaking of his feelings.

"I just grind. I just grind."

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