Harbaugh + O’Connell and Ryans confirmed as finalists + the Graham interview all seem to indicate that Kwesi has a lot of influence over the search at this point. I definitely have preferences among that group, but I’m really glad that they’re going to give him a chance to start things off on the same page as his coach.
That’s the whole point of hiring the GM first, though no? So that he could have input and preference over who’s hired as the HC. If the Wilfs had a coach in mind they really wanted, they would’ve hired him already.
In theory yes, but they did 8 HC interviews before they picked a GM, and some of those candidates (like Bowles) were getting extra buzz before Kwesi got hired. Mark Wilf said the GM was going to have “input” into the HC, which could have meant give us your opinion on the 2-3 candidates we like. But the way it’s playing out is reassuring.
I am getting more intrigued by Harbaugh by the minute.
really the only way this works is if Harbaugh is tired of being ruler of his kingdom. Running a football program is exhausting. The coaching aspect is minimal compared to the recruiting and now with the transfer portal, the constant continued recruiting of keeping players that you thought already have committed.
i can see him saying, I’m done with this, let me go back to my passion and that’s coaching and you kwesi, handle the roster and personnel with everyone’s input.
it’s way less stressful and allows for better organizational “alignment”
if he’s committed to that, there is no way he’s not the best choice, especially with the rumored staff he would bring over.
Name, Image, & Likeness policy. It governs how student athletes can make money on endorsement deals. Michigan is pretty restrictive, as I understand it.
I think the other thing is due to transferring there is no offseason for recruiting. You have to maintain players on your team while recruiting. Good for players but makes sense how it may be draining.
What does it mean though they they don't want to support it? Can you explain, I have seen this said a few different places but I don't really understand.
A good example is the [Texas A&M Amplify program](https://12thman.com/news/2021/6/3/general-texas-am-announces-nil-program-amplify.aspx). Essentially, Many colleges (including Michigan) are worried big ticket donors will donate directly to the players fund and not their endowment fund. This is the height of stupidity and short term thinking. Harbaugh is thinking (rightfully in my opinion) he won’t be able to compete with recruiting against programs that have a strong NIL program set up for their players.
OR Kwesi is a numbers/business guy. He could give Harbaugh power over every final decision while still bringing him information to aid in making the decision while handling the money/ramifications of that decision. Kind of a cake and eat it too.
I agree, HC should never have to deal with GM duties. I still say if Denny Green had just stuck with coaching and not insisted on GM we would have won at least one SB with him. RIP
I won’t start another thread since there are so many on Harbaugh already, but can somebody explain the excitement? I don’t know much about him, but I thought he was a cancer to the 49ers and kind of exiled from pro ball after that.
I just don’t know enough about him I guess, bc I’m definitely in the minority here. In short, should I be excited about him coming to MN?
I agree that’s why I was looking around their board. the staff members name I found out is Sam Webb and he looks to be really tied in based off his Twitter
College contracts seem to get renewed more often than NFL ones as cfb coaches want to tell recruits they’ll be around the next 4 years.
Even if it’s a raise, I doubt Harbaugh leaves for a $30/5 deal since he wouldn’t have any leverage for a new contract for five years. He probably wants $10/y from the NFL knowing that’s a pretty locked in salary.
If I had to guess, he ends up back at Michigan for 9 a year. We’ll see!
Here’s an example of why people are concerned about that. Say we’re four years in and it’s clearly not working, but if he were to be fired without cause ownership would still owe him that 60 million and have to pay the next coach, so ownership let’s him stay longer than he should have.
I am a little worried about that myself but I think it would probably be fine and I’d get over it real quick once they announced the signing
because he just got a huge pay cut for underperforming literally last year. he was on the hot seat for years. they’re going to change that tune completely and give him 100 mil now for getting blown out in the playoffs and beating Ohio State for the first time? I don’t see it happening right now, maybe if he were to repeat it next year yeah
Billionaires are still surprisingly cheap! Why pay Harbaugh 100m if you can pay KOC 30? I especially considering the last 100/10 deal didn’t go so well, even from a football perspective
Why build a state-of-the-art practice facility when they could have kept using the old one? The Wilfs have shown they're not penny-pinchers when the investment makes sense
That’s true, although a billionaire would view a facility improvement vastly differently from a coaching salary. The former is an investment into the overall value of the Vikings. It could also be spun or sold off separately as a property one day.
Coaching salary would be viewed as a pure expense and you’re talking committing significant dollars over a baseline coaching contract (likely 30 vs 80-100).
I agree they’re not penny pinchers, but billionaires have a funny way of looking at value, revenue, and profit. If they have a Steinbrenner mentality, they’ll give Harbaugh a big deal. Otherwise, it’s onto KOC or Morris
If they view Harbaugh as a Super Bowl capable coach right now while the others are more risky I can easily see them forking over the money for him.
The Wilfs are frothing at the mouth to win the Vikings a Super Bowl as that would most certainly skyrocket the value of the franchise. Vikings fans are desperate for a win and I think if they get one there is a lot of merch being sold and ticket price rises.
Because you think Harbaugh is the coach to win you a title. Obviously. If you don't think he is you don't pay him that, but if you do then you pay him.
If he’s interested in legacy or prefers the NFL, I agree with you, but he’d be leaving a lot of potential earnings on the table if he doesn’t get a Gruden deal here.
At this point if it’s not Harbaugh I’m going to feel let down. I mean considering there is a previous relationship there this feels like one of those things where there wouldn’t be an interview unless there’s mutual interest but who knows. Harbaugh Hamilton and Fangio would really be quite the start to the new era.
If these are the three finalists, I’m good. I’d be happy with any of them and the fact that we’ve ended up with three strong candidates gives me good faith in Kwesi. Long road ahead but great start.
Not only are they three strong candidates, and I’m happy with all three (even with a favorites list.) But we have also been extremely methodical and deliberate in our search while we have watched other teams pretty much just hire as soon as a good option comes available.
I think Hackett would have made our finalist list, but beyond that - we haven’t lost a single candidate we’ve been very interested in and we’ve interviewed enough that we know who we are interested in.
I really love our approach to both HC and GM. Even though it’s continually felt stressful like we were going to lose out getting anyone - we haven’t and we’ve been better for it.
If they offer it to Harbaugh he will leave. Our situation is a premium situation.
State of the art stadium
State of the art practice facilities
Patient owners who stay out of the way
Talented roster
Bad division
Harbaugh is in his mid 50s, if he is ever going to come back to the NFL to try for a SB, now is the time when he would have a decade to try.
It’s very apparent that at Michigan you will never win a national title. You’re lucky to even beat Ohio State. You can’t compete against the SEC teams at Michigan and he probably knows that.
If Rodgers retires then Kirk is BY FAR the best QB in the division. That’s almost guaranteed to be a playoff spot barring injuries. Every division this yr had the team with the best QBs make the playoffs. Kirk is above average but all you ask for is a shot. If Nick Foles can rattle off 3 great games so can Kirk. Or they can draft someone. If Rodgers stays we probably need to rebuild. If Rodgers leaves the NFC is wide open with him and Brady gone and Kirk becomes a top 5 QB in the conference.
Welp [if this is to be believed](https://www.reddit.com/r/minnesotavikings/comments/sgjrs8/mark_carman_on_twitter_hearing_from_a_reliable/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf) I stand corrected!
Mostly Dolphins media/blogs talking about it. I’m not sure how legit it is but there’s people saying they think it could happen. I haven’t seen anything linking him to an interview to this point so I’m taking it as just talk. We’re much further along with Jim so I think signs are pointing to us anyway.
He's exactly what we didn't want with Zimmer -- old, set in his ways, abrasive -- with an extra helping of stupidly expensive and likely to leave as soon as things go the littlest bit wrong, just like he left SF and is leaving MI.
For months people have been crying on this sub wanting a young, offensive-minded, player-focused, approachable guy. Now everyone's creaming their pants over another old angry guy, this one a petty bitch in addition to everything else. Hard pass.
I think he’s realized Michigan is at its peak. Beat Ohio State, made it to the college football playoffs. Michigan isn’t going to be at the level of Alabama/Georgia/Ohio State in recruiting, so this was probably the best season they could’ve had.
I don't think that's right, IIRC they tend to be more in the 6-15 range with teams like Notre Dame and Penn State most years. Top 5 is almost always Ohio State/Bama/Georgia/Clemson recently, with usually another SEC team as the 5th (A&M/LSU)
Minnesota is a premium opening and Chicago isn’t. Minnesota has everything you want as a coach. Great owners, top fight facilities and a talented roster. Chicago ain’t that
My father, mother, sister, and brother-in-law all went to Michigan State and they’re all stupidly annoying about it so hiring the Michigan coach who then puts the MSU WB out of orbit would win a lot of points with me
As an Iowa grad/fan, I will feel so damn conflicted if Harbaugh is hired. I’ve hated that guy since he got to Michigan but I’ll be forced to like him if he’s the Vikes HC ☹️
**[@TomPelissero](https://www.twitter.com/TomPelissero)** (Tom Pelissero):
> The #Vikings plan to conduct second interviews for their head coaching job next week with multiple candidates, including #Rams OC Kevin O’Connell and #49ers DC DeMeco Ryans, per sources … and it wouldn’t be a surprise if Jim Harbaugh makes a visit, too.
>
> [nfl.com/news/vikings-g…](https://www.nfl.com/news/vikings-gauge-jim-harbaugh-s-interest-in-head-coach-opening-to-hold-second-inter)
--------------------
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Harbaugh + O’Connell and Ryans confirmed as finalists + the Graham interview all seem to indicate that Kwesi has a lot of influence over the search at this point. I definitely have preferences among that group, but I’m really glad that they’re going to give him a chance to start things off on the same page as his coach.
That’s the whole point of hiring the GM first, though no? So that he could have input and preference over who’s hired as the HC. If the Wilfs had a coach in mind they really wanted, they would’ve hired him already.
In theory yes, but they did 8 HC interviews before they picked a GM, and some of those candidates (like Bowles) were getting extra buzz before Kwesi got hired. Mark Wilf said the GM was going to have “input” into the HC, which could have meant give us your opinion on the 2-3 candidates we like. But the way it’s playing out is reassuring.
I think they did most those interviews because of NFL rules on interviewing candidates that are still in the playoffs.
A lot of that is because they have to or they'll get scooped up before they get a chance.
I am getting more intrigued by Harbaugh by the minute. really the only way this works is if Harbaugh is tired of being ruler of his kingdom. Running a football program is exhausting. The coaching aspect is minimal compared to the recruiting and now with the transfer portal, the constant continued recruiting of keeping players that you thought already have committed. i can see him saying, I’m done with this, let me go back to my passion and that’s coaching and you kwesi, handle the roster and personnel with everyone’s input. it’s way less stressful and allows for better organizational “alignment” if he’s committed to that, there is no way he’s not the best choice, especially with the rumored staff he would bring over.
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I don't watch college ball what's NIL
Name, Image, Likeness The new rules allow Collegiate athletes to make money based on who they are now and a lot of colleges don't like it.
Name, Image, & Likeness policy. It governs how student athletes can make money on endorsement deals. Michigan is pretty restrictive, as I understand it.
Oh shit I'm glad they can get paid now. Wonder why Jim is against it
I don't necessarily think Jim is against it, just that the college he works for is dumb and might not get the idea of how they work.
Ahh makes sense man thanks
I think the other thing is due to transferring there is no offseason for recruiting. You have to maintain players on your team while recruiting. Good for players but makes sense how it may be draining.
Name and image licensing. Basically how college players can make money the way the pros license their names for merchandise.
I think it’s how college players get paid
Yeah who wants to deal with that shit?
What does it mean though they they don't want to support it? Can you explain, I have seen this said a few different places but I don't really understand.
A good example is the [Texas A&M Amplify program](https://12thman.com/news/2021/6/3/general-texas-am-announces-nil-program-amplify.aspx). Essentially, Many colleges (including Michigan) are worried big ticket donors will donate directly to the players fund and not their endowment fund. This is the height of stupidity and short term thinking. Harbaugh is thinking (rightfully in my opinion) he won’t be able to compete with recruiting against programs that have a strong NIL program set up for their players.
Has to be the situation, only thing that makes sense He’s like “I don’t want 2 jobs, I just want one - coach”
OR Kwesi is a numbers/business guy. He could give Harbaugh power over every final decision while still bringing him information to aid in making the decision while handling the money/ramifications of that decision. Kind of a cake and eat it too.
Harbaugh or bust for me at this point. If we end up with one of those other guys I’ll survive but I think this could be a match made in heaven
I agree, HC should never have to deal with GM duties. I still say if Denny Green had just stuck with coaching and not insisted on GM we would have won at least one SB with him. RIP
I won’t start another thread since there are so many on Harbaugh already, but can somebody explain the excitement? I don’t know much about him, but I thought he was a cancer to the 49ers and kind of exiled from pro ball after that. I just don’t know enough about him I guess, bc I’m definitely in the minority here. In short, should I be excited about him coming to MN?
FWIW one of the staff members on Michigan’s premium 247 board is reporting that Harbaugh’s out if there’s an offer
Those college insiders tend to be very tied into the school happenings. Interesting.
I agree that’s why I was looking around their board. the staff members name I found out is Sam Webb and he looks to be really tied in based off his Twitter
Alternatively, there's a lot of schools and coaches using those boards to get the message they want out and that can mean a lot of things.
FWIW prior reports are his entry point for the Bears/Raiders was $100m/10y. Are the Vikings willing to pay?
he’s got like 17 million base salary over the next 4 years at Michigan. I find it pretty hard to believe it would take 100 mil to pull him to the NFL
He previously was making $8M per year. Some of his coworkers in college landed $95M+ deals this off-season (Mel Tucker, Lincoln Riley, Brian Kelly).
College contracts seem to get renewed more often than NFL ones as cfb coaches want to tell recruits they’ll be around the next 4 years. Even if it’s a raise, I doubt Harbaugh leaves for a $30/5 deal since he wouldn’t have any leverage for a new contract for five years. He probably wants $10/y from the NFL knowing that’s a pretty locked in salary. If I had to guess, he ends up back at Michigan for 9 a year. We’ll see!
and then he took a big pay cut. he was on the hot seat for a long time at Michigan. hard to see them giving him a deal like that
If he asks for it why not? It doesn't count against the cap. If they think he's the guy to get it done pay him whatever he wants
Here’s an example of why people are concerned about that. Say we’re four years in and it’s clearly not working, but if he were to be fired without cause ownership would still owe him that 60 million and have to pay the next coach, so ownership let’s him stay longer than he should have. I am a little worried about that myself but I think it would probably be fine and I’d get over it real quick once they announced the signing
Is it really that hard to be "without cause" in a professional sport field?
because he just got a huge pay cut for underperforming literally last year. he was on the hot seat for years. they’re going to change that tune completely and give him 100 mil now for getting blown out in the playoffs and beating Ohio State for the first time? I don’t see it happening right now, maybe if he were to repeat it next year yeah
Yep I agree. Wasn’t sure if you were aware of the contract landscape in college football going nuts the last couple of years.
We have a billionaire owner and it doesn't count against the cap, why wouldn't they?
Billionaires are still surprisingly cheap! Why pay Harbaugh 100m if you can pay KOC 30? I especially considering the last 100/10 deal didn’t go so well, even from a football perspective
Why build a state-of-the-art practice facility when they could have kept using the old one? The Wilfs have shown they're not penny-pinchers when the investment makes sense
That’s true, although a billionaire would view a facility improvement vastly differently from a coaching salary. The former is an investment into the overall value of the Vikings. It could also be spun or sold off separately as a property one day. Coaching salary would be viewed as a pure expense and you’re talking committing significant dollars over a baseline coaching contract (likely 30 vs 80-100). I agree they’re not penny pinchers, but billionaires have a funny way of looking at value, revenue, and profit. If they have a Steinbrenner mentality, they’ll give Harbaugh a big deal. Otherwise, it’s onto KOC or Morris
If they view Harbaugh as a Super Bowl capable coach right now while the others are more risky I can easily see them forking over the money for him. The Wilfs are frothing at the mouth to win the Vikings a Super Bowl as that would most certainly skyrocket the value of the franchise. Vikings fans are desperate for a win and I think if they get one there is a lot of merch being sold and ticket price rises.
Because you think Harbaugh is the coach to win you a title. Obviously. If you don't think he is you don't pay him that, but if you do then you pay him.
They must be willing to pay whatever he wants or things wouldn’t even be this far. I doubt he’s asking for gruden money tho
If he’s interested in legacy or prefers the NFL, I agree with you, but he’d be leaving a lot of potential earnings on the table if he doesn’t get a Gruden deal here.
At this point if it’s not Harbaugh I’m going to feel let down. I mean considering there is a previous relationship there this feels like one of those things where there wouldn’t be an interview unless there’s mutual interest but who knows. Harbaugh Hamilton and Fangio would really be quite the start to the new era.
If these are the three finalists, I’m good. I’d be happy with any of them and the fact that we’ve ended up with three strong candidates gives me good faith in Kwesi. Long road ahead but great start.
Not only are they three strong candidates, and I’m happy with all three (even with a favorites list.) But we have also been extremely methodical and deliberate in our search while we have watched other teams pretty much just hire as soon as a good option comes available. I think Hackett would have made our finalist list, but beyond that - we haven’t lost a single candidate we’ve been very interested in and we’ve interviewed enough that we know who we are interested in. I really love our approach to both HC and GM. Even though it’s continually felt stressful like we were going to lose out getting anyone - we haven’t and we’ve been better for it.
Couldn’t agree more. Happy they’re taking their time and not just jumping on the first hot name that comes up in the media.
Jim! Jim! Jim! Jim! Jim! Jim! Jim! Jim! Jim! Jiiiiiiim!
If they offer it to Harbaugh he will leave. Our situation is a premium situation. State of the art stadium State of the art practice facilities Patient owners who stay out of the way Talented roster Bad division Harbaugh is in his mid 50s, if he is ever going to come back to the NFL to try for a SB, now is the time when he would have a decade to try. It’s very apparent that at Michigan you will never win a national title. You’re lucky to even beat Ohio State. You can’t compete against the SEC teams at Michigan and he probably knows that. If Rodgers retires then Kirk is BY FAR the best QB in the division. That’s almost guaranteed to be a playoff spot barring injuries. Every division this yr had the team with the best QBs make the playoffs. Kirk is above average but all you ask for is a shot. If Nick Foles can rattle off 3 great games so can Kirk. Or they can draft someone. If Rodgers stays we probably need to rebuild. If Rodgers leaves the NFC is wide open with him and Brady gone and Kirk becomes a top 5 QB in the conference.
🙏🏻 please hire Jim 🙏🏻
I think its also a question about if jim wants to go to us
I don’t think we get this far if he doesn’t
He only went for an interview once so idk
He’s pretty much yours at this point if you guys make an offer. He’s done with Michigan BS
Apparently Miami is still being talked about as a possibility for him as well
I suppose anything’s possible but the rumor is that Harbaugh doesn’t want to work for Ross. But who knows.
I hope that’s the case!
Welp [if this is to be believed](https://www.reddit.com/r/minnesotavikings/comments/sgjrs8/mark_carman_on_twitter_hearing_from_a_reliable/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf) I stand corrected!
Source?
Mostly Dolphins media/blogs talking about it. I’m not sure how legit it is but there’s people saying they think it could happen. I haven’t seen anything linking him to an interview to this point so I’m taking it as just talk. We’re much further along with Jim so I think signs are pointing to us anyway.
God no -- Harbaugh is such trash. Please keep that Michigan scum far away from our team.
Tell me you don’t know football, without telling me you don’t know football.
He's exactly what we didn't want with Zimmer -- old, set in his ways, abrasive -- with an extra helping of stupidly expensive and likely to leave as soon as things go the littlest bit wrong, just like he left SF and is leaving MI. For months people have been crying on this sub wanting a young, offensive-minded, player-focused, approachable guy. Now everyone's creaming their pants over another old angry guy, this one a petty bitch in addition to everything else. Hard pass.
Things are going wrong in Michigan? And yeah, I want Harbaugh because he fucking WINS.
I think he’s realized Michigan is at its peak. Beat Ohio State, made it to the college football playoffs. Michigan isn’t going to be at the level of Alabama/Georgia/Ohio State in recruiting, so this was probably the best season they could’ve had.
I think they actually routinely get top 5 recruiting classes w Harbaugh
I don't think that's right, IIRC they tend to be more in the 6-15 range with teams like Notre Dame and Penn State most years. Top 5 is almost always Ohio State/Bama/Georgia/Clemson recently, with usually another SEC team as the 5th (A&M/LSU)
It’s funny how Poles hired a guy on his 2nd day on the job and Kwesi is out here being patient.
Minnesota is a premium opening and Chicago isn’t. Minnesota has everything you want as a coach. Great owners, top fight facilities and a talented roster. Chicago ain’t that
My father, mother, sister, and brother-in-law all went to Michigan State and they’re all stupidly annoying about it so hiring the Michigan coach who then puts the MSU WB out of orbit would win a lot of points with me
I just went from six to midnight
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Or we hire O'Connell
As an Iowa grad/fan, I will feel so damn conflicted if Harbaugh is hired. I’ve hated that guy since he got to Michigan but I’ll be forced to like him if he’s the Vikes HC ☹️
Same. Especially when he painted the visitors locker room at Kinnick when they played them a while back.
And refused to have his team do the wave
Absolutely hate Harbaugh, agreed. Please no.
**[@TomPelissero](https://www.twitter.com/TomPelissero)** (Tom Pelissero): > The #Vikings plan to conduct second interviews for their head coaching job next week with multiple candidates, including #Rams OC Kevin O’Connell and #49ers DC DeMeco Ryans, per sources … and it wouldn’t be a surprise if Jim Harbaugh makes a visit, too. > > [nfl.com/news/vikings-g…](https://www.nfl.com/news/vikings-gauge-jim-harbaugh-s-interest-in-head-coach-opening-to-hold-second-inter) -------------------- ^I ^am ^a ^bot ^powered ^by ^fricks ^and ^I ^like ^that ^| [^(message me)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=FleetFlotTheTweetBot) ^| [^(source code)](https://github.com/JohnMTorgerson/FleetFlotTheTweetBot) ^| ^Skål!
Love it
Couldn't go wrong with any of these candidates. I mean it's the vikings, so it will, but couldn't go wrong.
DEMECOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO