Fassel, Collins confident that Garrett will do well

After the 2002 season, when Sean Payton left the Giants to become the offensive coordinator in Dallas (and before the Giants had a chance to fire him), Jim Fassel was looking for a new quarterbacks coach.

He eventually added Turk Schonert to his staff to fill the role. But one of the first people he spoke to about taking the job was a veteran player already on the roster and essentially performing the duties already.

That was backup quarterback Jason Garrett.

"I told him that I have an opening right now, that these jobs don't grow on trees, and that I'd be interested in talking to him about it if he wanted to make the transition from player to coaching," the former Giants coach told Newsday this week.

Garrett declined at the time. He played with the Giants for another year, then spent another year playing for the Buccaneers and Dolphins before landing his first coaching gig in Miami.

Now Garrett is the interim head coach of the Cowboys, having replaced Wade Phillips this past week. He'll make his debut Sunday at New Meadowlands Stadium against the team with which he nearly began his coaching arc.

"He was beyond his years," said Fassel, who coached Garrett with the Giants for three seasons. "I think the whole time he was a player, he wanted to coach. He's a smart guy, and as long as I've known him, he's wanted to coach. He's been a coach in his mind for a long time."

Now he's the real deal, which doesn't come as much of a surprise to those who played with him on the Giants. Only three current players were on the roster with Garrett - center Shaun O'Hara, defensive end Osi Umenyiora and guard Rich Seubert - but there are others throughout the league who were teammates with the Giants.

"As a starting quarterback, for me, there was no better backup than Jason Garrett," said current Titans backup and former Giants starter Kerry Collins. "He believes in the right things, a certain attitude and a certain way you go about things when you play this game. I always thought that he had such a strong belief that that would carry him on to great things in the coaching ranks if that's what he wanted to do."

It apparently was. His father, Jim Garrett, was an assistant coach for the Giants from 1970-73 and the head coach at Columbia and Princeton. Jason Garrett played for his father in college, and throughout his pedestrian NFL career - he appeared in 25 games, starting nine times, and threw 11 touchdown passes and five interceptions in eight seasons - absorbed plenty of coaching styles and philosophies. Fassel called him "more observant than any player I've ever been around."

While Garrett was studying defenses and preparing for games, he also was forging a coaching profile that eventually would bring him to Dallas.

There is a big difference between being a backup quarterback and the head coach of the highest-profile team in the NFL, even if it is on an interim basis. But Collins said he thinks Garrett's playing career will help him be a better head coach.

"There are so many ebbs and flows that you have to deal with," Collins said. "Over the years, I'm sure he's learned how to handle all of the things that come along with that position [quarterback]. I think his years as a player will serve him well."

Former teammates and coaches recall Garrett as a fun guy with a good sense of humor, even if he was a little odd at times. He would hand out Christmas presents to every offensive player, Seubert said. One year, Seubert received a harmonica, another year a set of Chinese stress-reduction balls.

Collins also remembered receiving the baoding balls with a chuckle. "That's Jason's deal," he said. "He's an interesting guy. Those are not your run-of-the-mill gifts that we got, but I think it said a lot about what kind of a character he is."

That charm won't be enough to win over the Cowboys, and the usually relaxed Garrett did sound a little tense and robotic when talking with the New York media on a conference call this week. He has a big job ahead of him - the opportunity of a lifetime - and he'll likely have to rely on those stress balls at some point if he has any left over.

The Cowboys are 1-7 and still without their starting quarterback after Tony Romo fractured his clavicle against the Giants last month. Garrett has started to show the remaining players he means business by having them in full pads for Wednesday's practice. But he'll have to go further to turn things around.

"He needs to get some of those players by the throat, straighten them out and get them ready to play," Fassel said. "Some of those things, when you're a head coach, it takes a little while to get used to. You have to pull some guys into your office and let them know that their performance is not satisfactory. There's a motivational part of it; there's a part where you have to be the commander and you have to be hard on them to get going where they have to get going."

Fassel thinks Garrett can do it. So does Collins. And so does Seubert, who will look across the field Sunday and see the guy he used to play with on scout teams during practices when they were backups for the Giants.

"I think he wanted to go into coaching when he was done," Seubert said. "He's got his opportunity, and best of luck to him . . . after this weekend."