Few coaches have the patience to build slowly. Nor do modern owners have that kind of patience. With anyone other than college buddy Jones as the owner, who knows how long Johnson might have lasted, especially with a franchise with the winning tradition of the Cowboys?

Another successful college transplant is Tom Coughlin, who went from Boston College to Jacksonville and got an expansion team to the AFC championship game in its second season. Now on the verge of getting the Giants to the playoffs for the third straight season, Coughlin is 106-93 as an NFL head coach, although he's never been to a Super Bowl.

But unlike Johnson, he had previous NFL experience.

Before going to Boston College in 1991, he had been an NFL assistant for seven seasons with the Eagles, Packers and Giants. In New York, he served under Bill Parcells on a staff that included future head coaches Bill Belichick, Romeo Crennel, Al Groh, Charlie Weis and Ray Handley.

There have been a few other college coaches who have been successful in the NFL. Probably the best was Bobby Ross, who after winning at Maryland and Georgia Tech went to San Diego and got the Chargers to a Super Bowl.

But going from the NFL to college usually works better.

Saban, defensive coordinator under Belichick with the Browns from 1991-94, went to Michigan State, won a national championship at LSU, then came back to the pros with the Dolphins.

He was 15-17 in two years, brilliant compared the 0-13 record under Cam Cameron this season. But he bolted when Alabama offered big money, in part because he recognized the declining talent on the Dolphins.

The most prominent example of reverse success is Pete Carroll, who was 34-33 in stints with the Jets and Patriots. Two national championships at Southern Cal are a lot better than a game over .500.

Novacek's picks Texans to take care of Jags Picking weekly NFL winners: Neither team playing well, but Houston should prevail at home NBCSports.com

Then there is June Jones, who was 19-30 in Atlanta and 3-7 as an interim coach in San Diego. He went 12-0 in Hawaii this year and became the third coach to take a non-BCS team to a BCS bowl. One reason: He loves the spread offense, an attack that doesn't suit the NFL but is the current rage in college.

Carroll has been coveted by NFL teams and will continue to be. So might such coaches with backgrounds as NFL assistants as Iowa's Kirk Ferentz (Cleveland), Connecticut's Randy Edsall (Jacksonville), Boston College's Jeff Jagodzinski (Atlanta and Green Bay) and Rutgers' Greg Schiano (Chicago).

But most know they are better off where they are. That's what a 50-year-old named Joe Paterno decided when he was being courted three decades ago by the Patriots and Giants.

Petrino certainly didn't help the cause of college coaches who want NFL head coaching jobs.

"Teams might get kind of afraid, like, 'He quit and Nick Saban left us and stuff like that,' " Jackson said.

"It's going to be pretty hard now for someone to say, 'Let's give this college coach a chance.' You never know. Could he handle it? He was dealing with kids in college. Now, he's dealing with grown men.''

One more thing: unfortunately, it's too easy to start 3-10 as a pro coach.

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