November 20, 2024 • 14 mins
Minnesota Tim discusses the Minnesota Vikings' current success under head coach Kevin O'Connell, emphasizing his winning record and the importance of game scheduling. The conversation highlights O'Connell's coaching impact, statistical achievements, and future prospects with quarterback J.J. McCarthy, ultimately showcasing the Vikings' potential for continued success in the NFL.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
The Minnesota Vikings are an eight and to football team
and winning has been a part of what Kevin O'Connell
just does while he is a part of the Minnesota
Vikings organization, and there are numbers to prove it and
(00:27):
to back it up that he just wins for the
Minnesota Vikings during the regular season.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
However, there is some news to share ahead of.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
The real discussion on this podcast, and it was shared
that the Cardinals Vikings game in Week thirteen.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
That was.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Possibly going to be flexed to either Sunday Night Football
Monday Night Football is staying put on a Sunday noontime
week thirteen, so Vikings stay at noon, which is the optimal.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Time play a football game if you're a fan.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
Hey, watching a football game at seven thirty getting over
at like ten thirty, ten forty five on a Sunday
night when you gotta work the next day, when you're
starting your week, you wake up groggy, you wake up tired,
you wake up a little cranky. Watching games in primetime
(01:38):
is the most overrated thing ever. You know, the schedule
comes out and you see how many primetime games each
team has, and of course most teams are offended by
the amount of lack of primetime games that their team has,
and I don't get it. I'd rather have a noon
game than a primetime game any day, every single day
(02:00):
of the week. It just makes the most sense timing wise.
And I don't want to have to stay up till
eleven o'clock to watch a Sunday night or Monday night
football game. Like I can count on one hand just
how many primetime games I've watched this season and stayed
up till the end of it. You know, the Vikings
Rams games. I stayed up for that one. Did the
(02:22):
Vikings have another Monday night football game? I feel like
they did earlier on in the year. Maybe not, but.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Vikings I'll stay up for.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
And the other game would have to be really, really,
really really good and I got some good energy to
stay up for it. Primetime games suck. Noon games are
fantastic works in the schedule, Go to church, eat some lunch,
kids are napping, watch a little football record the pod
right afterwards versus ten thirty finished game. It's like, Wow,
(02:53):
I want to be in bed an hour and a
half earlier than that. So great news from that front,
But I want to dive into what makes Kevin O'Connell
a fantastic head coach on the Minnesota Vikings. And there
are some statistics that were pulled from Twitter by Phil
McKie and by Will Reggitts. He's of Bring Me the Sports.
(03:17):
It's a good website to check out and follow if
you're a sports fan, and these guys pulled some good
nuggets about Kevin O'Connell's head coaching career on the Minnesota Vikings. First,
let's check out this tweet by Phil McKie. He says,
twenty twenty two head coaching class. It runs through all
the coaches that were hired that year and Kevin O'Connell
(03:39):
is the top of the list with a twenty seven
and sixteen record a point six to eight winning percentage.
Next on the list is Miami Dolphins head coach with
Mike McDaniel a twenty three and twenty record. Next on
the list is Todd Bowles with the Buccaneers a twenty
one and twenty three record. Fourth on the list is
(04:02):
Doug Peterson a twenty and twenty four record.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Fifth is Brian.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Dable a seventeen, twenty six and one record, and next
is Matt Eberfluse with a fourteen and twenty nine record.
Then you go down the list of fred fired head coaches.
Dennis Allen fired from the Saints, Josh McDaniels fired from
the Las Vegas Raiders, Lovey Smith fired from the Houston Texans,
(04:30):
Nathaniel Hackett fired from the Denver Broncos. The Minnesota Vikings
picked the best head coach in twenty twenty two to
be their guy, and you could argue that Mike McDaniel's
a better head coach.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
I don't think so. He's a good head coach.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
He's better than everybody else on that list, except for
Kevin O'Connell. But I think we take for granted just
how good of a head coach cover O'Connell is. And
this is what we do as fans. No, not me,
but this is what most people do as fans. They
see a play call, it doesn't work, and you're so
(05:10):
quick to say that, oh, this guy can't coach. Oh,
this guy has no idea what he's doing based off
one play call or one bad game. Minnesota Vikings lose
to the Rams to the line, Oh Kevin O'Connell can't coach,
Oh he has no idea what he's doing. The Minnesota
Vikings were never going to go undefeated.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Nobody does.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Well one time in the history of football that's happened
back in like the nineteen seventies. So Kevin ol Candle
is not going to go undefeated either. And just think
about what he has done during his Minnesota Vikings run
so far. His rookie season, he gets Kirk Cousins to
(05:54):
play at a level that he's never ever played at
before in his NFL career. His second season, you know,
they start off zero to three, but then they go
on a hot streak and he literally gets Josh Dobbs
national media attention because of Dobbs sanity, and then he
(06:15):
fell off the face of the earth.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
But with Dobbs, Jaren Hall, and.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
The backup Nick Mullins, the Minnesota Vikings were a competitive
football team. And then this season he has Sam Donald
QB one on his fourth team with an eight and
two record. Okay, the guy can coach. And here's another
graphic posted by Will Raggittts that I was talking about earlier,
(06:48):
and I'm gonna share the screen with my YouTube wadgers
and I'll do my best to describe the tweet to
my podcast listening audience. The tweet says, thirteenth time in
Vikings history that they've had at least.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Eight wins through ten games.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
Kevin O'Connell's done it twice in three years, the previous
twelve and it shows a list. In twenty seventeen, the
Vikings did it. They had eight wins in the first
ten games. Of course, Case Keenum, Mike Zimmer. The previous
time was Brett Favre, Brad Children's two thousand and nine,
(07:26):
and then the Vikings went on a run in ninety seven,
ninety eight and two thousand, of course with Dennis Green,
and then the previous time that they did that was
nineteen sixty nine, nineteen seventy, nineteen seventy one, nineteen seventy three,
nineteen seventy five, nineteen seventy six, of course, the years
with Bud Grant. So you think about what Kevin O'Connell
(07:46):
has done, and you see outlier years like the case
Keenum here and Mike Zimmer two thousand and seventeen, Brad
Children's Year two thousand and nine, Brett Favre.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
There's years like that where it's like.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
Okay, well, Tim if you're saying that kevinial Collin can coach, well,
then it proves that Mike Zimmer and Brad Childrens could
coach two and he wanted them fired. It's completely different
because there can be an outlier year. There can be
years where you know, the team just goes off on
a run.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
And that's what you see there.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
You see two thousand and nine and twenty seventeen just
an incredible season, incredible run. They never did it again
as a coach. You know, twenty twenty two, Okay, Cavic
Kala had a good year. Great for good for you,
but he's doing it again. He's being consistent with it.
He wasn't just having a one off and that's what
Childress and Mike Zimmer had. Dennis Green didn't have one offs,
(08:40):
Bud Grant didn't have one offs, but Brad Childress and
Mike Zimmer did. They had one year and their head
coaching careers with the Minnesota Vikings where they were elite.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Their team was good.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
They had a legitimate chance at making the Super Bowl
because they made it to the NFC Championship Game and
he won that game. He win the Super Bowl and
Kevin O'Connell his first year with the Vikings, they go
thirteen and four. Well, already in his third year with
the Vikings, they're eight and two, and last year because
(09:16):
of a kirk Cousin's injury, it basically halted any potential
run at a super Bowl or the momentum that they
had after kirk Cousins and the Vikings offense found fire,
decimated the Green Bay Packers on the road, and the
same game kirk Cousins ruptures his achilles. So Kevin O'Connell
(09:39):
has proven that he is a more than capable head coach.
So I want to challenge you not to see a
play call and then react so quickly and say, oh
he can coach. Oh terrible, Because I can react to
a play call and say that was a bad play call,
But you can separate the two. You know, the reverse
(10:01):
against the Jacksonville Jaguars wasn't a good play call, but he's.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Still a good coach. The run.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Or the play action on third and one when Sam
Darnold threw three picks, run the damn ball. Aaron Jones
was playing pretty good that game, get a yard, finish
it off. I can say that was a bad play call,
but I can separate the two. Kevin O'Connell can coach
his butt off and players respond to the voice that
(10:33):
he has in the locker room. You know, eventually, I'm
sure he's gonna get fired for the Minnesota VIKA.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
It just happens. Happens to every single coach. You know.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Someone once said there are two kinds of coaches, the
ones who have been fired and the ones who have
been hired. So you think about Kevin O'Connell's future. Of course,
he's gonna get fired eventually, because that's just the nature
of the business. But he can coach, and for now,
he's gonna get a contract extension this offseason and he
(11:02):
deserves it. And the big askue or the most anticipated
thing right now for Kevin O'Connell and the Vikings is
how JJ McCarthy gets inserted into the starting quarterback position.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Because is he going to be QB one to start
next year?
Speaker 1 (11:24):
I don't think it's a guarantee. He played one preseason
game against the Raiders. He played well, there's a one
preseason game against the Raiders. Doesn't necessarily mean he's going
to be QB one to start the year next year.
But eventually, when he does play, Is he going to
be the guy that makes Kevin O'Connell a coach on
(11:45):
the Minnesota Vikings for ten to fifteen years, Because I mean,
he's good, that's gonna be the case. If JJ McCarthy
is a top five quarterback in the league, top ten evin,
Kevin O'Connell will be on the Minnesota Vikings as the
head coach for a long time. If he stinks well,
then you could probably expect Kevin O'Connell to be fired
(12:06):
in the next year or two following JJ McCarthy's inability
to play. So really, ultimately he's proven he can coach,
but his long term success for the Minnesota Vikings really
depends on the success of JJ McCarthy because he's proven
(12:31):
he can coach, he can do it, but can he
take JJ McCarthy to that level because he's the investment.
He's the guy that they've poured their stocks that do
He's the guy that they're pouring in a efforts and
belief into it and getting the fan base heights about
and talking to the owners about. Well, if he sucks,
it's probably the acts and that's where you get hired,
(12:53):
then you get fired. Kind of comes in. But as
for now, his first three years in the league, Kevin
O'Connell as the best head coaching record among twenty twenty
two HighRes. He has made the Minnesota Vikings a relevant
football team every single year, even last year they collapsed
(13:16):
at the end of the season, but every single year
the Minnesota Vikings have been vying for a playoff spot
and are going to be a playoff team this year.
There were his rookie season. Last year they weren't, but
they're competing for one. They had at one point and
eighty four percent chance of making the playoffs until the
tail spin at the end.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Of the year. But I just want to remind you
that the list.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
Of twenty twenty two head coaches include four fired ones
and Matt Imberflues Doug Peterson are about to get fired,
Bryan da Ball might get fired. So out of the
twenty twenty two head coaching class, only three head coaches
might make it into the twenty twenty five season, and
(14:04):
Kevin O'Connell is one of those guys. Mike McDaniel, Todd Bowles,
Kevin O'Connell. You maybe briand Able gets another year with
the Giants, but everybody else on that list is gone fired.
They're getting the acts. So just think about that for
a minute. Pondered that thought, Realize just how good the
(14:26):
Minnesota Vikings have it with Kevin O'Connell as head coach.
The Minnesota Vikings are an eight and to football team
and winning has been a part of what Kevin O'Connell
just does while he is a part of the Minnesota
Vikings organization, and there are numbers to prove it and
(00:27):
to back it up that he just wins for the
Minnesota Vikings during the regular season.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
However, there is some news to share ahead of.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
The real discussion on this podcast, and it was shared
that the Cardinals Vikings game in Week thirteen.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
That was.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Possibly going to be flexed to either Sunday Night Football
Monday Night Football is staying put on a Sunday noontime
week thirteen, so Vikings stay at noon, which is the optimal.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Time play a football game if you're a fan.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
Hey, watching a football game at seven thirty getting over
at like ten thirty, ten forty five on a Sunday
night when you gotta work the next day, when you're
starting your week, you wake up groggy, you wake up tired,
you wake up a little cranky. Watching games in primetime
(01:38):
is the most overrated thing ever. You know, the schedule
comes out and you see how many primetime games each
team has, and of course most teams are offended by
the amount of lack of primetime games that their team has,
and I don't get it. I'd rather have a noon
game than a primetime game any day, every single day
(02:00):
of the week. It just makes the most sense timing wise.
And I don't want to have to stay up till
eleven o'clock to watch a Sunday night or Monday night
football game. Like I can count on one hand just
how many primetime games I've watched this season and stayed
up till the end of it. You know, the Vikings
Rams games. I stayed up for that one. Did the
(02:22):
Vikings have another Monday night football game? I feel like
they did earlier on in the year. Maybe not, but.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Vikings I'll stay up for.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
And the other game would have to be really, really,
really really good and I got some good energy to
stay up for it. Primetime games suck. Noon games are
fantastic works in the schedule, Go to church, eat some lunch,
kids are napping, watch a little football record the pod
right afterwards versus ten thirty finished game. It's like, Wow,
(02:53):
I want to be in bed an hour and a
half earlier than that. So great news from that front,
But I want to dive into what makes Kevin O'Connell
a fantastic head coach on the Minnesota Vikings. And there
are some statistics that were pulled from Twitter by Phil
McKie and by Will Reggitts. He's of Bring Me the Sports.
(03:17):
It's a good website to check out and follow if
you're a sports fan, and these guys pulled some good
nuggets about Kevin O'Connell's head coaching career on the Minnesota Vikings. First,
let's check out this tweet by Phil McKie. He says,
twenty twenty two head coaching class. It runs through all
the coaches that were hired that year and Kevin O'Connell
(03:39):
is the top of the list with a twenty seven
and sixteen record a point six to eight winning percentage.
Next on the list is Miami Dolphins head coach with
Mike McDaniel a twenty three and twenty record. Next on
the list is Todd Bowles with the Buccaneers a twenty
one and twenty three record. Fourth on the list is
(04:02):
Doug Peterson a twenty and twenty four record.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Fifth is Brian.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Dable a seventeen, twenty six and one record, and next
is Matt Eberfluse with a fourteen and twenty nine record.
Then you go down the list of fred fired head coaches.
Dennis Allen fired from the Saints, Josh McDaniels fired from
the Las Vegas Raiders, Lovey Smith fired from the Houston Texans,
(04:30):
Nathaniel Hackett fired from the Denver Broncos. The Minnesota Vikings
picked the best head coach in twenty twenty two to
be their guy, and you could argue that Mike McDaniel's
a better head coach.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
I don't think so. He's a good head coach.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
He's better than everybody else on that list, except for
Kevin O'Connell. But I think we take for granted just
how good of a head coach cover O'Connell is. And
this is what we do as fans. No, not me,
but this is what most people do as fans. They
see a play call, it doesn't work, and you're so
(05:10):
quick to say that, oh, this guy can't coach. Oh,
this guy has no idea what he's doing based off
one play call or one bad game. Minnesota Vikings lose
to the Rams to the line, Oh Kevin O'Connell can't coach,
Oh he has no idea what he's doing. The Minnesota
Vikings were never going to go undefeated.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Nobody does.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Well one time in the history of football that's happened
back in like the nineteen seventies. So Kevin ol Candle
is not going to go undefeated either. And just think
about what he has done during his Minnesota Vikings run
so far. His rookie season, he gets Kirk Cousins to
(05:54):
play at a level that he's never ever played at
before in his NFL career. His second season, you know,
they start off zero to three, but then they go
on a hot streak and he literally gets Josh Dobbs
national media attention because of Dobbs sanity, and then he
(06:15):
fell off the face of the earth.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
But with Dobbs, Jaren Hall, and.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
The backup Nick Mullins, the Minnesota Vikings were a competitive
football team. And then this season he has Sam Donald
QB one on his fourth team with an eight and
two record. Okay, the guy can coach. And here's another
graphic posted by Will Raggittts that I was talking about earlier,
(06:48):
and I'm gonna share the screen with my YouTube wadgers
and I'll do my best to describe the tweet to
my podcast listening audience. The tweet says, thirteenth time in
Vikings history that they've had at least.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Eight wins through ten games.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
Kevin O'Connell's done it twice in three years, the previous
twelve and it shows a list. In twenty seventeen, the
Vikings did it. They had eight wins in the first
ten games. Of course, Case Keenum, Mike Zimmer. The previous
time was Brett Favre, Brad Children's two thousand and nine,
(07:26):
and then the Vikings went on a run in ninety seven,
ninety eight and two thousand, of course with Dennis Green,
and then the previous time that they did that was
nineteen sixty nine, nineteen seventy, nineteen seventy one, nineteen seventy three,
nineteen seventy five, nineteen seventy six, of course, the years
with Bud Grant. So you think about what Kevin O'Connell
(07:46):
has done, and you see outlier years like the case
Keenum here and Mike Zimmer two thousand and seventeen, Brad
Children's Year two thousand and nine, Brett Favre.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
There's years like that where it's like.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
Okay, well, Tim if you're saying that kevinial Collin can coach, well,
then it proves that Mike Zimmer and Brad Childrens could
coach two and he wanted them fired. It's completely different
because there can be an outlier year. There can be
years where you know, the team just goes off on
a run.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
And that's what you see there.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
You see two thousand and nine and twenty seventeen just
an incredible season, incredible run. They never did it again
as a coach. You know, twenty twenty two, Okay, Cavic
Kala had a good year. Great for good for you,
but he's doing it again. He's being consistent with it.
He wasn't just having a one off and that's what
Childress and Mike Zimmer had. Dennis Green didn't have one offs,
(08:40):
Bud Grant didn't have one offs, but Brad Childress and
Mike Zimmer did. They had one year and their head
coaching careers with the Minnesota Vikings where they were elite.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Their team was good.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
They had a legitimate chance at making the Super Bowl
because they made it to the NFC Championship Game and
he won that game. He win the Super Bowl and
Kevin O'Connell his first year with the Vikings, they go
thirteen and four. Well, already in his third year with
the Vikings, they're eight and two, and last year because
(09:16):
of a kirk Cousin's injury, it basically halted any potential
run at a super Bowl or the momentum that they
had after kirk Cousins and the Vikings offense found fire,
decimated the Green Bay Packers on the road, and the
same game kirk Cousins ruptures his achilles. So Kevin O'Connell
(09:39):
has proven that he is a more than capable head coach.
So I want to challenge you not to see a
play call and then react so quickly and say, oh
he can coach. Oh terrible, Because I can react to
a play call and say that was a bad play call,
But you can separate the two. You know, the reverse
(10:01):
against the Jacksonville Jaguars wasn't a good play call, but he's.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Still a good coach. The run.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Or the play action on third and one when Sam
Darnold threw three picks, run the damn ball. Aaron Jones
was playing pretty good that game, get a yard, finish
it off. I can say that was a bad play call,
but I can separate the two. Kevin O'Connell can coach
his butt off and players respond to the voice that
(10:33):
he has in the locker room. You know, eventually, I'm
sure he's gonna get fired for the Minnesota VIKA.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
It just happens. Happens to every single coach. You know.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Someone once said there are two kinds of coaches, the
ones who have been fired and the ones who have
been hired. So you think about Kevin O'Connell's future. Of course,
he's gonna get fired eventually, because that's just the nature
of the business. But he can coach, and for now,
he's gonna get a contract extension this offseason and he
(11:02):
deserves it. And the big askue or the most anticipated
thing right now for Kevin O'Connell and the Vikings is
how JJ McCarthy gets inserted into the starting quarterback position.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Because is he going to be QB one to start
next year?
Speaker 1 (11:24):
I don't think it's a guarantee. He played one preseason
game against the Raiders. He played well, there's a one
preseason game against the Raiders. Doesn't necessarily mean he's going
to be QB one to start the year next year.
But eventually, when he does play, Is he going to
be the guy that makes Kevin O'Connell a coach on
(11:45):
the Minnesota Vikings for ten to fifteen years, Because I mean,
he's good, that's gonna be the case. If JJ McCarthy
is a top five quarterback in the league, top ten evin,
Kevin O'Connell will be on the Minnesota Vikings as the
head coach for a long time. If he stinks well,
then you could probably expect Kevin O'Connell to be fired
(12:06):
in the next year or two following JJ McCarthy's inability
to play. So really, ultimately he's proven he can coach,
but his long term success for the Minnesota Vikings really
depends on the success of JJ McCarthy because he's proven
(12:31):
he can coach, he can do it, but can he
take JJ McCarthy to that level because he's the investment.
He's the guy that they've poured their stocks that do
He's the guy that they're pouring in a efforts and
belief into it and getting the fan base heights about
and talking to the owners about. Well, if he sucks,
it's probably the acts and that's where you get hired,
(12:53):
then you get fired. Kind of comes in. But as
for now, his first three years in the league, Kevin
O'Connell as the best head coaching record among twenty twenty
two HighRes. He has made the Minnesota Vikings a relevant
football team every single year, even last year they collapsed
(13:16):
at the end of the season, but every single year
the Minnesota Vikings have been vying for a playoff spot
and are going to be a playoff team this year.
There were his rookie season. Last year they weren't, but
they're competing for one. They had at one point and
eighty four percent chance of making the playoffs until the
tail spin at the end.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Of the year. But I just want to remind you
that the list.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
Of twenty twenty two head coaches include four fired ones
and Matt Imberflues Doug Peterson are about to get fired,
Bryan da Ball might get fired. So out of the
twenty twenty two head coaching class, only three head coaches
might make it into the twenty twenty five season, and
(14:04):
Kevin O'Connell is one of those guys. Mike McDaniel, Todd Bowles,
Kevin O'Connell. You maybe briand Able gets another year with
the Giants, but everybody else on that list is gone fired.
They're getting the acts. So just think about that for
a minute. Pondered that thought, Realize just how good the
(14:26):
Minnesota Vikings have it with Kevin O'Connell as head coach.
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