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Better Days Ahead for Vikings
A relaxed and personable
Brad Childress sat in his office at Winter Park recently and
talked about various football-related topics including expectations
facing him in his second season as Minnesota Vikings coach. Today’s
win-now mentality has unfairly created speculation about his job
security following a 6-10 season and missing the playoffs. The old
axiom of providing a coach with three or four years to establish his
program is as valid today as ever.
“It is what it is,” Childress said about the
criticism. “You know it’s the old (saying) winning is a great
deodorant. It takes care of a lot of different things. I don’t have
any illusions about the bottom line in this business. It’s different
than when John Wooden (famed UCLA basketball coach) took 16 years
to get to a national championship. I don’t believe I have 16 years to be
able to do that. …There are no quick fixes. …”
That’s true but the Childress coaching resume
is characterized by turn around successes. As an assistant coach in
college at Illinois and Wisconsin, Childress contributed to programs
that turned from losers to Rose Bowl teams. With the Philadelphia
Eagles (3-13 the year before Childress arrived) it didn’t take long for
the team to win four straight NFC East Division titles.
Childress recalled the impact of Eagles coach
Andy Reid on him. “I think the big thing I learned from Andy is
to have a plan and stick with the plan no matter how small the pieces,”
Childress said. “Just keep (building) brick by brick by brick. … Steady,
never too high, never too low. Same as you want with a quarterback. …”
Childress knew what his philosophy was before
he was hired by the Vikings. “As you come in and interview for a job,
you’re selling what you believe and you’re assessing what you think the
place needs,” he said. “I felt like they (the Vikings) needed
structure, and they needed a system, and they needed discipline. Any
athlete I’ve ever coached is never going to tap you on the shoulder and
say, ‘Hey, coach, kick my behind, we need more structure. We need to
practice longer. We need the schedule.’ But you know what? There’s
comfort in structure. …”
Players know what to anticipate in such an
environment. Childress wants that kind of culture and he covets a team
with a physical identity. “I think we are a hard nosed football team,”
Childress said. “That’s what I would like to have more than anything.
…”
The Vikings were No. 1 against the run in the
NFL and their defense was eighth ranked overall last season. They were
32nd in pass defense. At times the Vikings ran the ball
effectively, but they struggled with the passing game. Childress thinks
he has a “competitive” team and one that will improve by eliminating
mistakes such as penalties and turnovers, and adding personnel.
How does Childress feel about the future of
his team compared with a year ago? “Obviously a great track has been
laid down on the defensive side of the ball. Sorry to lose Mike (Tomlin,
defensive coordinator) but that’s the nature of our business. …”Leslie
(new coordinator Leslie Frazier) will do a tremendous job, being
a great segue way between the same schemes…in the Tampa 2 (defense) but
be able to give us some different things in the blitz package that we
used with the Eagles as well.
“Offensively, we’ll undoubtedly be better the
second year in the system. I think there will be good competition at
the quarterback position. I think Brooks (Bollinger)…he
knows what’s going on with the system. I think
Tarvaris (Jackson) had a very good first year. The
perspective that I have on that is taking Donovan (McNabb,
Eagles QB) through a first year. Tarvaris has all the mental capacity
and then some that Donovan McNabb had and understands the game and he’s
just going to grow in leaps and bounds.”
With that said, there’s such a thing as good
fortune, too. A key win can create momentum in the NFL, a league where
personnel can be comparable among many teams.
“You need to win a game that you shouldn’t
necessarily win. …To be able (for example) to beat the Bears in the
fourth or third game of the season,” Childress said. “Who knows where
that puts you?...You need some good things to happen to you like that.”
The Vikings lost that game to the Bears, a
team that would go on to win the NFC North, by three points. (They also
lost games by two, four, five and six points).
What’s Childress looking for in the college
draft next month? He wants “seven good football players at any
position.”
Then he talked again
about football teams that work hard and as the conversation began to end
with his visitor perhaps he was thinking of how quickly programs
changed in his other coaching stops and wondering how fast it will
happen at Winter Park.
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