2014 Current and Potential Coaches

[PurpleHalo]

this is the best fit for us imho.
http://blogs.seattletimes.com/seahawks/ ... cation=rss
and I say this because they have a great defense....we need that to stop the nfc north.

If you mean Quinn, he is a 1st year coodinator in the NFL, and he is running Carrols defense.

[PurpleHalo]

What's all the hate on Linehan about? Scott was a pretty good OC for the Vikes, lets not forget that Culpepper's best season was guided by Linehan. A year that also was Randy's worst season as a Vike... Not counting his last partial season under Chilly

I'd have no problem with Linehan, he has gained more experience since he was here, even been a head coach. I'm excited to see who might be running defense, I'm so excited to see something new.

[Rus]

What exactly is Roman's experience as a QB mentor? He was QB coach in Houston while David Carr was developing, not exactly a ringing endorsement. He was an oline coach in Carolina and Baltimore, so nothing much about QBs. And finally he was in Stanford and SF, which obviously is where people are coming up with this QB developing theory. But Jim Harbaugh was in both those places with him, and considering Harbaugh's reputation as a QB developer, I wonder how much is him and how much is actually Roman?

Kaepernick as well. A very different sort of quarterback from Carr. People credit Harbaugh with that system, but there was a reason Harbaugh brought Roman along with him to the 49ers. He also was involved with tutoring another quarterback named Andrew Luck.

As far as David Carr was concerned, he was another one of those quarterbacks that the team threw into action before they had built enough of a team around them to be successful. As in, no offensive line. It's hard to develop an immobile pocket passer when your linemen can't keep him from being sacked less than 70 times.

As for Harbaugh, you need to understand that head coaches don't focus solely on one side of the ball. That's the job of coordinators. Coordinators have a lot more influence on developing a scheme that makes good use of a quarterback than a head coach. For sure, HCs chime in, but they're not the main player in that regard. Roman has considerably more experience as a coach than Harbaugh, too.

[Husker Vike]

I have heard that hiring a coordinator as a first time head coach has about a 60 % failure rate , Does anyone know if this is somewhat true? I don't think we have interviewed anyone other than coordinators?

[SkyFire]

As of now, Zimmer and Bowles will both have a second interview within the next few days.

It seems as though they are the finalists.

[Demi]

Hope Zimmer gets it.

And hires a innovative young offensive mind. Which he of course won't. Instead running with an outdated offense but "safer" play caller.

[Purple bruise]

Hope Zimmer gets it.

And hires a innovative young offensive mind. Which he of course won't. Instead running with an outdated offense but "safer" play caller.

this + 1

[MountainGirl]

I'm a Cincinnati native (now Tennessee resident) who will root for the Vikings if Zimmer becomes the hc. He is a great coach and well beloved in Cincinnati. His players love and respect him, and have followed him to Cincy from other teams. I strongly believe that Michael Johnson, who is a free agent DE this year, will follow Zim to the Vikings if he becomes HC. Other players will probably follow later. Zim is known for his colorful language, but hopefully everyone will look past that and see what a great guy he is. A little personal info about him: He experienced tragedy in Cincinnati when he came home from work one day and found his wife Vicki dead (heart failure I believe). He decided to coach a few days later because he believed his wife would have wanted that, and the Bengals beat Baltimore in Baltimore that day. His son Adam Zimmer is an assistant LB coach with the Bengals and was formerly with the Chiefs. He has two daughters, one of whom recently moved to Cincinnati. He recently purchased a huge amount of land (43 acres) just across the river in Northern KY. With his son and one of his daughters living in Cincy, I know it must be hard for him to leave there, so if he takes the Vikings job, then I just believe he must really think he can improve this team. If the Vikings choose Zimmer, I think you have great things ahead, and I will definitely be pulling for him to succeed.

[King James]

I hope the 49ers and the Broncos lose today so the Vikings can get this interview process over already.

[Mothman]

Hope Zimmer gets it.

And hires a innovative young offensive mind. Which he of course won't. Instead running with an outdated offense but "safer" play caller.

That's the spirit! Think positive!

[Mothman]

I'm a Cincinnati native (now Tennessee resident) who will root for the Vikings if Zimmer becomes the hc. He is a great coach and well beloved in Cincinnati. His players love and respect him, and have followed him to Cincy from other teams. I strongly believe that Michael Johnson, who is a free agent DE this year, will follow Zim to the Vikings if he becomes HC. Other players will probably follow later. Zim is known for his colorful language, but hopefully everyone will look past that and see what a great guy he is. A little personal info about him: He experienced tragedy in Cincinnati when he came home from work one day and found his wife Vicki dead (heart failure I believe). He decided to coach a few days later because he believed his wife would have wanted that, and the Bengals beat Baltimore in Baltimore that day. His son Adam Zimmer is an assistant LB coach with the Bengals and was formerly with the Chiefs. He has two daughters, one of whom recently moved to Cincinnati. He recently purchased a huge amount of land (43 acres) just across the river in Northern KY. With his son and one of his daughters living in Cincy, I know it must be hard for him to leave there, so if he takes the Vikings job, then I just believe he must really think he can improve this team. If the Vikings choose Zimmer, I think you have great things ahead, and I will definitely be pulling for him to succeed.

Thanks for that perspective and to the board!

[Webbfann]

Who makes more successful head coaches in the NFL today, former DCs or former OCs? Just curious if there is a tendency one way or the other...

[Webbfann]

Oh nevermind...according to this article (which is just Spielman's opinion but apparently he's done some research) they all fail equally well.

http://espn.go.com/blog/minnesota-vikin ... nator-pool

[Purple bruise]

I'm a Cincinnati native (now Tennessee resident) who will root for the Vikings if Zimmer becomes the hc. He is a great coach and well beloved in Cincinnati. His players love and respect him, and have followed him to Cincy from other teams. I strongly believe that Michael Johnson, who is a free agent DE this year, will follow Zim to the Vikings if he becomes HC. Other players will probably follow later. Zim is known for his colorful language, but hopefully everyone will look past that and see what a great guy he is. A little personal info about him: He experienced tragedy in Cincinnati when he came home from work one day and found his wife Vicki dead (heart failure I believe). He decided to coach a few days later because he believed his wife would have wanted that, and the Bengals beat Baltimore in Baltimore that day. His son Adam Zimmer is an assistant LB coach with the Bengals and was formerly with the Chiefs. He has two daughters, one of whom recently moved to Cincinnati. He recently purchased a huge amount of land (43 acres) just across the river in Northern KY. With his son and one of his daughters living in Cincy, I know it must be hard for him to leave there, so if he takes the Vikings job, then I just believe he must really think he can improve this team. If the Vikings choose Zimmer, I think you have great things ahead, and I will definitely be pulling for him to succeed.

I am definately hoping that they sign him. This team needs some "FIRE" from a HC

[Mothman]

Oh nevermind...according to this article (which is just Spielman's opinion but apparently he's done some research) they all fail equally well.

http://espn.go.com/blog/minnesota-vikin ... nator-pool

I read that this morning and frankly, it's a pretty lousy article. Goessling talks about the risk of failure in the coordinator pool but doesn't define "failure" or provide any information about how the risk in that pool compares to the risk in choosing a coach from any other.

For the sake of discussion, let's set the bar pretty high and say "success" for a head coach equals reaching the Super Bowl. Here are the basic backgrounds of the head coaches who have accomplished that feat since 2000:

John Harbaugh: former special teams coach
Jim Harbaugh: former college head coach, never a coordinator
Tom Coughlin: former college head coach, NFL assistant (never a coordinator, as far as I can tell)
Bill Belichick: former defensive coordinator
Mike McCarthy: former offensive coordinator
Mike Tomlin: former defensive coordinator
Sean Payton: former offensive coordinator
Jim Caldwell: former QB coach, never a coordinator prior to reaching Super Bowl as HC
Ken Whisenhunt: former offensive coordinator
Tony Dungy: former defensive coordinator
Lovie Smith: former defensive coordinator
Bill Cowher: former defensive coordinator
Mike Holmgren: former offensive coordinator
Andy Reid: former position coach, never a coordinator
John Fox: former defensive coordinator
Jon Gruden: former offensive coordinator
Bill Callahan: former offensive coordinator
Mike Martz: former offensive coordinator
Brian Billick: former offensive coordinator
Jim Fassel: former offensive coordinator

There are 20 head coaches on that list. All but 5 were coordinators, and that's if we don't consider John Harbaugh a coordinator since he was a special teams coach. All of the Super Bowl winners on the list were former coordinators except John Harbaugh and Tom Coughlin.

There are 9 former offensive coordinators on the list and 6 former defensive coordinators.

Choosing a former coordinator as a head coach clearly doesn't hurt a team's chance to be successful. There's an argument to be made that choosing a coach with head coaching experience might help but there's not a strong correlation to suggest that gives a team a better chance to win it all than hiring a former coordinator. It's really all about finding the right person and building the right team, not about the candidate's previous job title.