Bill Belichick Jack Del Rio John Harbaugh Jeff Fisher Mike Smith Lovie Smith Eric Mangini Todd Haley Jim Schwartz Mike Singletary Those are the coaches who have never coached at the college level at all. There is a much greater number (roughly 85 percent) that had experience as an assistant, but had never been a head coach at the college level.
You are right on some of these, but most of the ones with no college experience were either NFL players (Fischer, Del Rio, Singletary) had some kind of connections or were just lucky (for instance, Mangini started as a ball boy for the Browns when Belichick was the HC there). Harbaugh coached at Western Michigan, Pitt, Morehead State, Cincinatti, and Indiana. Lovie Smith coached at 2 High Schools plus Tulsa, Wisconsin, Arizona State, Kentucky, Tennessee and Ohio State. Jim Schwartz coached at Maryland, Minnesota, NC Central, and Colgate.
I think Jerry is a good owner, but you have to remember, when he bought the Cowboys and Jimmy Johnson came along, Jerry fired Tex Schramm and gave Jimmy Johnson full control of football operations, so Jerry had nothing to do with those 2 super bowl victories except sign the checks. As far as GM's i would rather have than Jerry........ Bill Polian - Colts (best franchise of the decade when it comes to wins and losses) Scott Pioli - Kansas City / New England Dynasty Ozzie Newsome - Baltimore Ravens (has anyone drafted better than this guy?) A.J. Smith - Chargers Jerry Reese - Giants Tom Heckert - Eagles Mike Tannenbaum - Jets Kevin Colbert - Steelers Mickey Loomis - Saints