FRISCO, Texas — The list of coaches impressing Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones continues to grow.

In November, Jones heaped praise onto Minnesota Vikings coach Mike Zimmer and New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick. Tuesday, he left the door open for a pursuit of former Ohio State and Florida coach Urban Meyer. And Friday, in Jones’ regular radio appearance, he doled out compliments for Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley and Baylor’s Matt Rhule.

Riley’s Sooners beat Rhule’s Bears 30-23 in overtime last Saturday at Jones’ AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

Did Riley impress Jones?

“Well I am impressed with him, but boy, I’m impressed with Baylor’s Rhule too,” Jones told Dallas radio station 105.3 The Fan. “Two outstanding coaches at the stadium this weekend and that’s just that. They’ve done a great job positioning their teams, they’re sound in the way they’re approaching their teams. So that was a great chance to see a couple of great coaches out there.”

Recent praise of coaches from Jones continues to trigger speculation about who will coach the Cowboys in 2020. Jason Garrett has been at the helm for 10 years. He’s on the final year of his contract. His 6-7 Cowboys sit atop the NFC East. But they have won just three of their last 10 contests. Jerry Jones and executive vice president Stephen Jones indicated before the season they believed their roster was more talented than the 2018 team that lost in the divisional round to the Los Angeles Rams. They wanted their coach to confirm that with a deeper playoff run.

Instead, as the Cowboys prepare to host the Rams on Sunday, they have struggled in recent weeks with tackles, dropped balls and a slew of special-teams errors. Jones has maintained he does not want to make a midseason coaching change but has not endorsed Garrett for an extension. Instead, the owner said last week, he believes Garrett “will be coaching in the NFL next year.”

The question of Garrett’s successor, should the Cowboys decide to part ways, looms.

Riley and Rhule are among candidates being discussed in NFL circles, USA TODAY Sports’ Mike Jones reported Friday.

Jerry Jones addressed the challenges of a college coach jumping to NFL head coach without experience in the professional league.

“College coaches have the lowest, at head coach coming directly into head coach, have the lowest percentage rate of success as opposed to coming from coordinator as opposed to coming from the NFL or as opposed to coming from a head coaching job in the NFL,” Jones said. “It’s pretty obvious they have to get acquainted with personnel.”

Sunday is one of college coaches’ “biggest work days of the week,” Jones continued, saying that interferes with them watching Sunday games and studying personnel closely. Add in a need to acquaint themselves with NFL practice schedules and opponent tendencies, and “you pay a price for somebody to get up to date that haven’t spent the prior months or years in the NFL.”

Meyer, whom Jones declined to deny interest in earlier this week, left Ohio State after 2018 citing health reasons. For this season, at least, he did not need to work on the college game on Sundays.

The Cowboys have won their division two of the last three seasons. But they have not advanced to NFL championship game since the 1995 season. Dallas won three Super Bowls in the 1990s, under coaches Jimmy Johnson and Barry Switzer. Both came from college coaching gigs, Johnson from Miami (Fla.) and Switzer from Oklahoma.

The Cowboys went 1-15 in Johnson’s first year, 1989. He led them to the playoffs in 1991 and then two consecutive Super Bowl titles. He was succeed before the 1994 season by Switzer, who won a Super Bowl in 1995.

“Just the nature of the game and, again, college coaches don’t spend a lot of time watching this game,” Jones said. “So, getting up to snuff. Getting up to snuff I’m reminded that we won one football game the first year that we came and brought Jimmy in.”

Follow USA TODAY Sports’ Jori Epstein on Twitter @JoriEpstein

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