Does Jason Garrett have a legitimate shot to turn the Cowboys around in his eight-game audition as interim head coach? Does Garrett have a realistic chance to impress owner Jerry Jones and gain the job on a permanent basis?

Troy Aikman has his doubts.

“Jerry used the term ‘I’m looking for tangible success’ during his press conference and to me that means wins and losses,’’ said Aikman, the lead football analyst on FOX and, of course, a Hall of Fame quarterback with Jones’ Cowboys. “So Jason is being asked to change a culture in five days with a team that knows they are out of the playoffs at 1-7.

“That’s a daunting task for anyone. To me, it’s unfair to evaluate anyone in that role. The head coach needs to be able to implement a training schedule, conditioning programs and set the general tone and that can’t be done in the middle of the season. There’s always a chance he does it but this is a monumental effort and I don’t think it’s fair to evaluate him as a head coach based off of it. I think he’s a great head-coaching prospect.’’

Aikman does believe it is possible to be a winning coach even though Jones as the owner and general manager is intrusive.

“The bottom line is you can’t keep losing games and saying ‘hey, we’re ok.’ Jerry Jones needed to do something but needs to accept responsibility for the state of the Cowboys as well,” Aikman said. “For years people have said ‘Jerry Jones the owner needs to fire Jerry Jones the general manager.’ That’s just not going to happen so it’s pointless to talk about. The national tendency is to say ‘who would want to coach for Jerry Jones?’ but there are not many owners that will provide the resources for a head coach to be successful. No one wants to win more than Jerry Jones but there are some real challenges and how you navigate them is going to determine your success with the Cowboys. You’d better be a strong individual.

“The two head coaches who have enjoyed great success in Dallas have been Jimmy Johnson and Bill Parcells and that’s simply because the players knew who they were answering to. Players knew that if you didn’t make their head coaches happy, there was going to be hell to pay.”