The Vikings 9th Head Coach is...

[PacificNorseWest]

Love this!

Zimmer said he’d seek advice from Hall of Fame coach Bill Parcells, for whom he was an assistant.

“Bill has always been a great mentor of mine,” said Zimmer. “In Dallas his office was right next to mine, and he’d come in and say, ‘For when you’re a head coach, write this down,’ and he did that daily. In fact, I’m going to go down and see him. We’re going to visit and talk about being a new head coach in a new program.”

http://www.startribune.com/sports/vikin ... page=1&c=y


For anyone who watched one of the new Football Life's on Bill Parcells, it was really good. Belichick mentioned that Parcells did the same thing with him about "for when you're a head coach..." Invaluable insight, I'm sure. We all know how he turend out.

Look at the list of the guys that coached under Parcells:

Bill Belichick - 3 Super Bowl wins and 5 appearances
Tom Coughlin - 2 Super Bowl wins
Sean payton - Super Bowl


...Mike Zimmer - TBD

[Mothman]

For anyone who watched one of the new Football Life's on Bill Parcells, it was really good. Belichick mentioned that Parcells did the same thing with him about "for when you're a head coach..." Invaluable insight, I'm sure. We all know how he turend out.

Look at the list of the guys that coached under Parcells:

Bill Belichick - 3 Super Bowl wins and 5 appearances
Tom Coughlin - 2 Super Bowl wins
Sean payton - Super Bowl

...Mike Zimmer - TBD

Sure, it looks great when you leave out Ray Handley, Romeo Crennel, Al Groh, Chris Palmer, Tony Sparano and Todd Haley.

I'm just kidding around. Hopefully, Zimmer will follow in the footsteps of Coughlin, Belichick and Payton and will win it all with the Vikings. There's certainly no doubt that Parcells knows a lot about coaching so it's good that Zimmer will be willing to look to a HOF coach for advice. I actually recall Tice reaching out to Parcells for advice a few times when he was Vikings head coach and I thought that was a smart move.

[PacificNorseWest]

Damn. I was hoping nobody would check my work.

I do see a defined difference between those that have won SB's to those that haven't and Zimmer fits in with the good crowd. The other guys were quieter in appearance and didn't seem to have that aura of respect around them. Maybe because they haven't won, but eh.

[maembe]

It was really impressive what people around the league were saying on twitter, especially people who played under him. It wasn't even just current Bengals players, even Deion Sanders went to twitter to say that he was one of "the best coaches I've EVER had".

[Webbfann]

Ok, but just for comparison what do players say about Frazier? I've never heard anyone say anything bad about him anyway.

[psjordan]

Ok, but just for comparison what do players say about Frazier? I've never heard anyone say anything bad about him anyway.

This is completely anecdotal on my part, but I rarely recall players waxing on about Frazier as a COACH. They seem to generally either love him or really respect him as a man however. And that is about how I'd sum up my impression of Frazier - great MAN who was in way over his head as an NFL HC.

[Just Me]

This is completely anecdotal on my part, but I rarely recall players waxing on about Frazier as a COACH. They seem to generally either love him or really respect him as a man however. And that is about how I'd sum up my impression of Frazier - great MAN who was in way over his head as an NFL HC.

I think that is my impression of Frazier at this point, as well. I think he was a good DC who seemed to be in over his heads as a HC. Hopefully he'll be successful in Tampa (except when he plays against us, of course).

[Mothman]

I don't know how a coach who supposedly was in so far over his head could have coached the 2012 Vikings to 10 wins and a playoff appearance (or even coached the 2013 team to a 5-10-1 finish after a 1-7 start) but I realize I'm not going to change anybody's mind.

The quotes from players about Frazier as a coach are out there if anyone wants to look them up. I know that Peterson, Greenway, Allen and Kevin Williams have all praised his coaching, not just Frazier the man. In fact, late in 2012, I recall numerous Vikings players talking about how it was Frazier's leadership that kept them focused and led them out of a bad midseason stretch to a strong finish.

His players seemed very sorry to see him go and that usually says good things about a coach. In fact, it's one of the things we're hearing about Mike Zimmer's players that seems to have people excited about him.

I think Frazier made some mistakes and I expect Zimmer to make some too. Even experienced head coaches make them and I think we should always expect to see a learning curve whenever a team hires a first-time head coach, coordinator, etc.

[dead_poet]

@mortreport: 1 of 3 things Bill Parcells told Mike Zimmer to write down on the day he was hired by Vikings: 1. Your best friends will disappoint you

@mortreport: No. 2 was "4 or 5 things happen every day in pro football you wish wouldn't happen & if you can't handle those, you need to get another job

@mortreport: Parcells' 3rd instruction to Zimmer about being a head coach: "It's lonely."

Chris Mortenson on Twitter

[PacificNorseWest]

Depressing.

[S197]

Chris Mortenson on Twitter

Thanks for that. I was wondering why he didn't mention specifically what those 3 things were but now it makes sense. I think all of those things apply to anyone in an upper management position.

[Eli]

With how he's been treated so far by the press and by fans, it's hard to come to grips with the fact that Zimmer is 57 years old and has been coaching in the NFL for 20 seasons. He's being treated like he's a 32 year old wunderkind.

It's gonna be interesting.