Not sure who else I would want for this team right now....

[JimmyinSD]

I wanted Harbaugh. Would have been an interesting reunion with him and JJM teaming up in college and then the NFL. I like KOC, but would really like to see this team have some playoff success first before I crown him. He has done a hell of a job though with this year's squad. Nobody, probably not even KOC's mom had us at 8-2 at this point in the season

Thats a reunion that likely wouldn't have happened,  JJM was a true freshman in 21 inder harbaugh,  if we had hired Harbaugh at the start of 22,  likely alters both career paths.  Pebble in pond thing.

Im thinking in this light KOC turns out to be an even better choice.

[StickierBuns]

Thats a reunion that likely wouldn't have happened,  JJM was a true freshman in 21 inder harbaugh,  if we had hired Harbaugh at the start of 22,  likely alters both career paths.  Pebble in pond thing.

Im thinking in this light KOC turns out to be an even better choice.

KOC has the 7th best winning percentage (.636) among active NFL head coaches...and that's with the injury apocalypse of 2023 thrown in there.

[purplefaithful]

Vikings’ Kevin O’Connell a legitimate contender for coach of the year


Current Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell is 8-2 this season, while relying on a quarterback who not long ago was a punchline and while getting almost no help through the NFL draft.

O’Connell’s career regular-season record, following a check-the-box 23-13 victory at Tennessee on Sunday, is 28-16 for a winning percentage of .636.

That’s the best in Vikings history, and O’Connell has achieved it without having coached a championship-caliber quarterback.

He and his staff have coached Journeyman Sam Darnold (Sammy might as well file name-change paperwork at this point) better than anyone else ever has, meaning they have gotten him to Week 12 as not only a starter but a winner.

The Vikings’ staff quickly incorporated a slew of veteran free agents and is winning without much help from the last three drafts.

I think, at the moment, O’Connell deserves to be the NFL coach of the year.

Or maybe it’s the guy he beat out for the job. Had the Vikings’ brain trust not been so scarred by Mike Zimmer’s egotism and grumpiness, they might have hired Jim Harbaugh instead of O’Connell.

Harbaugh had the better résumé by far. He’s a great coach and has proved his greatness in college and in the pros. Because the Vikings wanted to — everybody now —“change their culture,” they hired the candidate who made everyone feel good during the interview process.

The Vikings and Los Angeles Chargers both wound up with winners. The Chargers went 5-12 last season despite having one of the most talented quarterbacks in the game in Justin Herbert. Harbaugh is 7-3 this year, and his staff has transformed the Chargers defense and improved their running game.

Harbaugh’s career NFL winning percentage: .696.

The former Viking in the coach-of-the-year conversation is Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin, Minnesota’s defensive coordinator in 2006. Tomlin has juggled two quarterbacks whom most teams didn’t want — Justin Fields and Russell Wilson — and is 8-2. This season, he has beaten Atlanta, Denver, the Chargers, Washington and Baltimore with a well-coached defense and a good enough offense.

If O’Connell, Harbaugh and Tomlin have anything in common, it’s the ability to get the most out of their quarterbacks.

O’Connell and his staff have worked miracles with Darnold. Harbaugh has elevated the play of Herbert, who previously always seemed more talented than productive.

Tomlin is one victory away from an 18th straight non-losing season because he masterfully managed Fields and Wilson without letting the clichéd notion of a ”quarterback controversy” negatively affect his team.

Wilson was a disaster in Denver. He has a chance to lead Pittsburgh to a No. 1 seed.

On Monday, O’Connell conducted one of his typically chatty news conferences at TCO Performance Center. I asked him whether a certain coaching or motivational point helped Darnold rebound from two awful games to perform well against Tennessee.

His answer, as usual, was quite long and involved. Its essence was this: O’Connell didn’t try to coach mistakes out of him as much as he tried to emphasize that Darnold should lean on his strongest attributes — the ability to throw accurately and move like an athlete.

Against a strong defensive front, Darnold completed 20 of 32 passes for 246 yards and two touchdowns. Had Jalen Nailor held on to a long pass that should have been a touchdown, Darnold’s numbers would have been spectacular.

Harbaugh is known for praising his quarterbacks to increase their confidence. Who knew the crusty old running game guru and the enthusiastic young passing guru had so much in common?

Source: Startribune

[StickierBuns]

Nice story on O'Connell from the Strib:

https://www.startribune.com/minnesota-vi.../601184583

"Former NFL safety and current CBS game analyst Adam Archuleta said something on Sunday’s broadcast from Tennessee that’s becoming more of a common take as the Vikings continue to shock the NFL with a quarterback few if anyone other than coach Kevin O’Connell believed in.
“You can tell that Sam Darnold has been coached in a way that he never really has been coached in his career,” Archuleta said as Darnold put together an excellent game under pressure in a 23-13 win over the Titans."

[purplefaithful]

Nice story on O'Connell from the Strib:
https://www.startribune.com/minnesota-vi.../601184583
"Former NFL safety and current CBS game analyst Adam Archuleta said something on Sunday’s broadcast from Tennessee that’s becoming more of a common take as the Vikings continue to shock the NFL with a quarterback few if anyone other than coach Kevin O’Connell believed in.
“You can tell that Sam Darnold has been coached in a way that he never really has been coached in his career,” Archuleta said as Darnold put together an excellent game under pressure in a 23-13 win over the Titans."

Its a good read:

Darnold’s numbers suggest the former flop is playing with a level of ease he hasn’t experienced until now, Year 7, 27 years old, on a one-year prove-it-to-the-entire-league contract.Here are some of those numbers:

A 67.9 completion percentage for a guy who’s never been higher than 61.9.
Nineteen touchdowns, tying a career high. 
Eight 100-plus passer ratings in 10 games for someone who had 12 in his first 66 games.
A Pro Football Focus rating of 78.9 for a guy who’s never topped 66.0. 
A career-low bad-throw percentage of 13.5 from Pro Football Reference. A career-high on-target percentage of 80.4 from PFR for someone who’s never been better than 77.1.
Seventeen-game projections of 32 touchdowns, 4,058 yards (career high: 3,024) and 338 completions (career high: 273).

Yeah, yeah, there is another not-so-friendly stat: 10 interceptions, a pace that would give him 17, two more than his career-high 15 as a rookie.

Oh, there’s one other significant stat Darnold achieved with the Vikings under O’Connell last Sunday: A career-high eight wins.