Time for a New Head Coach
I've never been one to blame a coach for the inability of his players. The NFL, and indeed all of professional sports, use coaches as a scapegoat too often. Even winning coaches are sometimes canned because they aren't winning as much as the owner thinks they should. I shake my head almost every time a team loses, then fires their head coach as a statement of some sort.
That being said, there is one coach in the NFL who does need to lose his job. That man is Vikings coach Mike Tice.
I was thrilled when Tice got the job and have given him every benefit of the doubt along the way. It wasn't until I sat down and thought about how the Vikings did in the categories controlled by the head coach that I realized Tice has to go.
The big guy was a great offensive line coach. He does a great job of relating to the players and knows his X's and O's. But head coaches have little need for those attributes. Head coaches delegate the "coaching" as most people think of it to their assistants. To the guys Tice used to be back when he was an offensive line coach. The head coach is in charge of overseeing the entire operation, making sure organization and communication are well established. He is in charge of clock management and yes, he decides when to throw the little red challenge flag.
It took a lot of false starts, chaotic fake field goals, ridiculous challenges and five-yard tosses over the middle of the field with under a minute to go and no timeouts before I realized that everything a head coach is responsible for is what's wrong with the Vikings team.
I'm all in favor of keeping Tice on staff. Don't kick him to the curb. Use him as an assistant coach where he belongs. The Vikings need to find someone who has some discipline, who can keep this team unified even with Randy Moss on the roster. Having Red McCombs as an owner makes that unlikely but I'm speaking in terms of the best-case scenario.
It comes down to the old blue collar vs. white collar. The blue collar guys are the assistant coaches who break the game down, get their hands dirty and work in the trenches. The white collar guys are the head coaches who delegate, oversee, supervise and make final decisions.
For better or worse, Mike Tice will always be a blue collar guy.
That being said, there is one coach in the NFL who does need to lose his job. That man is Vikings coach Mike Tice.
I was thrilled when Tice got the job and have given him every benefit of the doubt along the way. It wasn't until I sat down and thought about how the Vikings did in the categories controlled by the head coach that I realized Tice has to go.
The big guy was a great offensive line coach. He does a great job of relating to the players and knows his X's and O's. But head coaches have little need for those attributes. Head coaches delegate the "coaching" as most people think of it to their assistants. To the guys Tice used to be back when he was an offensive line coach. The head coach is in charge of overseeing the entire operation, making sure organization and communication are well established. He is in charge of clock management and yes, he decides when to throw the little red challenge flag.
It took a lot of false starts, chaotic fake field goals, ridiculous challenges and five-yard tosses over the middle of the field with under a minute to go and no timeouts before I realized that everything a head coach is responsible for is what's wrong with the Vikings team.
I'm all in favor of keeping Tice on staff. Don't kick him to the curb. Use him as an assistant coach where he belongs. The Vikings need to find someone who has some discipline, who can keep this team unified even with Randy Moss on the roster. Having Red McCombs as an owner makes that unlikely but I'm speaking in terms of the best-case scenario.
It comes down to the old blue collar vs. white collar. The blue collar guys are the assistant coaches who break the game down, get their hands dirty and work in the trenches. The white collar guys are the head coaches who delegate, oversee, supervise and make final decisions.
For better or worse, Mike Tice will always be a blue collar guy.
posted by Joe Siple | 6:42 AM
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