(Sports Network) - It was 2003 when the Dallas Cowboys, in their first year under Bill Parcells and with a relatively unknown assistant named Tony Sparano also patrolling the sideline, were one of the NFL's pleasant surprises.

After three straight 5-11, playoff-less seasons under Dave Campo, Parcells and his staff swept into Big D and immediately changed the culture, finishing 10-6 with a suspect group of talent (Quincy Carter and Troy Hambrick were 16-game starters in the backfield) and finding their way into a playoff bracket they had once owned.

Once in the postseason, the '03 Cowboys hit the wall, getting humbled by eventual NFC Champion Carolina, 29-10, on Wild Card weekend. It was an appropriate conclusion to the season for a team that had overachieved.

The parallels between that club and the current reclamation project being undertaken by Parcells and Sparano - the Miami Dolphins - are striking.

The Dolphins, fresh off a franchise-worst 1-15 mark and having been absent from the playoffs for six frustrating seasons, learned how to win again in 2008.

Like they did in Dallas in '03, Parcells - with a bigger assist from the head coach Sparano as well as nominal general manager Jeff Ireland this time around - located the holdovers who could play, shipped out the rest, added a bevy of new starters via free agency and the Draft, and orchestrated one of the most shocking turnarounds in NFL history.

Miami's 11-5 finish matched that of the 1999 Indianapolis Colts for the biggest rags-to-riches story in league annals, and the Dolphins went 9-1 in the final 10 regular season games to claim a division, the AFC East, in which it had mostly served as homecoming fodder for the Patriots for the better part of the decade.

The year saw yet another Lazarus act by quarterback Chad Pennington, who in his first year as a Dolphin won his second NFL Comeback Player of the Year award, after being cleared out by the Jets to make room for Brett Favre in August.

Pennington was brilliant, throwing for a career-high 3,653 yards with an NFL- best 67.4 completion percentage, leading an offense that coughed up less than one turnover per week, and all while working with a nondescript group of receivers and a young offensive line.

The running game was a complementary piece, as Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams combined for 1,575 yards and 15 touchdowns while adding the term "Wildcat" to the NFL vernacular.

Meanwhile, a defense that had only one bona fide star - outside linebacker Joey Porter - helped the Fins keep their collective heads above the waves week after week, making huge stop after huge stop during a season in which seven of the team's 11 wins came by seven points or less.

It was a terrific season in South Florida, one that shouldn't really be overshadowed by Sunday's 27-9 home loss to a surging Baltimore Ravens team that was just plain better.

The 11-win campaign and trip to the playoffs is supposed to serve as a building block, and Miami fans have to hope that in 2009 and beyond, the parallels with Parcells' 2003 Cowboys will end.

After getting the "Big Tuna bump" in '03, Dallas went 6-10 and 9-7 the next two seasons, missing the postseason in both, as the revered head coach tinkered with the personnel formula that had helped the Cowboys climb the ladder in year one of his regime. The Cowboys got back to the playoffs at 9-7 in 2006, Parcells' final year on the job, but that team's late collapse and one-and-done status in the playoffs ensured that the high-water mark of the Tuna's time in Dallas came in year one, with the team of his four that probably had the least amount of talent on paper.

It is this type of slide that Parcells, Sparano and Ireland will have to work furiously to avoid, beginning in 2009.

The Patriots figure to have Tom Brady back next year and will be a popular pick to reclaim the AFC East, the Jets will bring in a new head coach in the interests of getting an expensive team back into the playoff bracket, and the Bills will play with some purpose as they try to save Dick Jauron's job beyond '09.

None of the Dolphins' AFC East brethren, and none of the other 10 teams on their schedule next year, are going to look beyond the Fins, as some may have in 2008. The "Wildcat" is going to be less surprising, Pennington's occasional mistakes will become more magnified, and opponents are going to do a better job of neutralizing Porter.

The Dolphins are back on the NFL map, without question, but the hardest work of the new regime still lies ahead.

"We just come back here and start grinding it out again," said Porter of the challenge heading into next year. "Beef up our team a little bit and get those little pieces we need. I know Bill is going to do a good job of that and I like our approach the way we come out at every game. It's no consolation [for the playoff loss], but I like the direction we're heading. We're heading in the right direction."

FLORIDA RECOUNT?

Despite presiding over one of the top two turnarounds in NFL history, Sparano was edged in voting for the Associated Press' Coach of the Year honor by Falcons head coach Mike Smith.

Smith received 23 1/2 of the 50 votes cast in the balloting, while Sparano finished just behind him with 22 1/2. The only other coaches receiving votes were Tennessee's Jeff Fisher (3) and New England's Bill Belichick (1).

The choice of Smith for the honor was likely as much an endorsement of the Atlanta head coach - who in his first year at the helm helped the Falcons go from 4-12 to 11-5 and emerge triumphant from the Michael Vick/Bobby Petrino fiasco - as it was a commentary on who deserves the lion's share of credit for the Dolphins' about-face.

Despite his low profile with both the public and the media, it is Parcells' name that seems to come up most often in association with Miami's phoenix-like ascent. The notion that Parcells is pulling the puppet-strings, and that Sparano is simply the man doing his boss' bidding to the last letter, is not an assumption that the former Dallas assistant is going to be able to distance himself from easily.

Still, Sparano's place in history is secure after the record-setting 10-win turnaround, and he also matched Dave Wannstedt for the best first-year mark by a head coach in team history.

Don Shula, who was the AP Coach of the Year during the Fins' undefeated season of 1972, remains the only Miami head coach to win the honor in the 52-year history of the Award.

SLATED FOR SUCCESS?

In attempting to defend its AFC East title in 2009, it appears that Miami will have a much more tougher challenge from its slate of opponents than it did this season.

In addition to its six games inside the division, the Fins will play a total of eight contests against the AFC South and NFC South, a pair of divisions that had just one losing team - the 5-11 Jaguars - between them. Four 2008 playoff teams - the Titans (13-3), Colts (12-4), Panthers (12-4), and Falcons (11-5) - are included in this group.

Also, by virtue of their first-place finish, the Dolphins will have to play the winners of the AFC North (the Steelers) and AFC West (Chargers), one of which will advance to at least the AFC Championship this weekend.

The home schedule will include the three AFC East rivals plus matchups with the Texans, Colts, Saints, Buccaneers, and Steelers.

On the road, Miami will play its division games plus away tilts with the Jaguars, Titans, Falcons, Panthers, and Chargers.

In all, Miami's 16 opponents (counting the AFC East teams twice each) will be coming off a year in which they had a combined record of 152-104 (.594).