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Cowboys not ready to announce who will be head coach

The Dallas Cowboys don't intend to make an announcement about their head-coaching position Wednesday, according to a source with knowledge of the situation.

The team is finishing up the interview process, and every indication continues to point to Jason Garrett's promotion from interim head coach. An announcement is scheduled to come by the weekend.

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones fulfilled the Rooney Rule, which requires teams to interview minority candidates, by spending three hours Tuesday with receivers coach Ray Sherman, a 59-year-old African-American. Sherman has been in the NFL since 1988, with stints as an assistant head coach for the Atlanta Falcons and offensive coordinator with the New York Jets, Pittsburgh Steelers and Minnesota Vikings.

This was Sherman's fourth season in Dallas, all of them spent working under Garrett, who went 5-3 as the interim coach after Wade Phillips was fired.

Asked how the meeting went, Sherman said, "It was good, it was good."

Jones interviewed another African-American candidate, Todd Bowles, on Wednesday. Bowles, the assistant head coach and secondary coach for the Miami Dolphins, also was among the 10 candidates whom Jones considered before hiring Phillips in 2007.

"We had a good talk, a real good talk," Bowles told The Associated Press of Wednesday's sit-down, which lasted about two hours. "I gave him a lot to think about. ... I'm grateful for the chance to come in here. They thought enough of me to come in here and interview, so that was good."

Bowles, 47, believes his interview was legitimate, not just a Rooney Rule quota-filler.

"I didn't get that impression at all," said Bowles, who was the Cowboys' secondary coach from 2005 to 2007 and later became a head-coaching candidate for the Detroit Lions and Denver Broncos.

The Cowboys also are in the market for a defensive coordinator. Would Bowles want that job?

"Right now, I'm focused on the head job," he said. "We'll see what happens there. If that doesn't work out, hopefully something else comes up."

Bowles was an NFL safety from 1986 to 1993, mostly with the Washington Redskins. He returned to the league as a coach in 2000 with the New York Jets and worked for the Cleveland Browns before joining the Cowboys as secondary coach under Bill Parcells.

Bowles remained in Dallas for Phillips' first season, then was part of an exodus of Cowboys personnel who went to the Dolphins in 2008.

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Bowles' formula for winning hasn't changed much since he last interviewed with Jones. However, Bowles felt more prepared for Wednesday's interview.

"Experience teaches you a lot of things," Bowles said. "In '07, you're a little bit younger. First time out, you don't know really what to expect. You just try to say a lot of the things you tried to prepare for. ... From a confidence standpoint, you're kind of more mature, you know a little more than before."

Bowles said interviewing with a former boss in a building that used to be his workplace made the experience "a little more comfortable" than his visits with the Broncos and Lions.

"The familiarity was good," Bowles said. "But that was three years ago. I just want to come back. ... We got familiar with each other again. A lot of the personnel is different. I was happy with the talk."

Bowles said he didn't know what would happen next.

"They'll be in touch -- hopefully," he said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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