Coach Speak

I've been sold on Mike Zimmer as the head coach of the Minnesota Vikings since he emerged as a candidate for the job. Actually, I was sold on Mike Zimmer as the next Vikings head coach as soon as Leslie Frazier's hold on the position turned shaky. I was absolutely thrilled when Mike Zimmer was hired as the Vikings coach. It was the best Vikings coaching hire since Bud Grant came out of retirement for one more season nearly thirty years ago.

The defenses that Mike Zimmer built in Dallas and Cincinnati grabbed my attention. His appearances on HBO's "Hard Knocks" kept my attention. In the month since he arrived in Minnesota, I've been able to better know Mike Zimmer, the coach and the person. Each time I hear Zimmer talk and interviewed, I come away more impressed. And, I started out very impressed. He makes coaching simple. He's in Minnesota to win football games. Simple as that. He wants to put a smart, physical football team on the field. He wants to present a football team to Minnesota that's fun to watch. He wants a football team that's not fun for another team to play. The fun stuff will play out if he wins football games. He wants to be a teacher. He hired coaches that are teachers. He's going to teach his football players how to play and understand football. Renovations have been initiated at the Vikings' Winter Park facilities. The team meeting room is being converted to theater seating. An arrangement that Zimmer believes is more conducive to teaching. The Vikings new coach has coaching ideas built on his life as a coach's son. Playing football. Coaching football for over thirty years. His whole life has been filled with football. He's waited a very long time to get his first shot at head coaching job. Actually, he's waited too long. The Vikings got lucky when no team was smart enough to give him that first shot. Zimmer easily mentions that his father won high school football games with the wishbone, run-and-shoot, power I-formations, the spread. He taught high school football players to win games with schemes that suited their talents. He found the best way to win football games with the players that he had. Mike Zimmer learned that lesson. Eight years ago, Brad Childress marched into Minnesota and forced his west coast offense and a cover-2 defense on his Vikings players. He had his scheme ideas before he'd even seen his team on a football field. Childress wasn't the first coach to do something like that. He wasn't the last. Zimmer doesn't want to commit to anything until he sees his new team with his own eyes. He might get some ideas from watching film but he's not going make any judgement until he gets the players on a practice field. He wants to see how they learn, how they respond to teaching, how they practice, how they play. So simple. Everything that Zimmer says about coaching football seems so simple. It makes so much sense. When his first 53-man Minnesota Vikings team comes out of training camp, he's not going to fret about anything that he doesn't have on his team. He's going to find a way to win football games with the 53 players that he does have. There are so many ways to win football games and he's going to find a way to win games with the players that he does have. If the Vikings still don't have that "franchise quarterback," he's going to find a way to win with the quarterback that he does have. Maybe with the wishbone.