Jeff: Going Down with the Ship

Mike Tice is a good guy, but he's not cut out to be a head coach. That much is clear. Mike Morris had some interesting comments this morning on the Powertrip Morning Show on KFAN, pointing out that Tice never got the experience as an offensive coordinator that pretty much every NFL head coach gets. You can't blame Tice for jumping at the chance to be a head coach. I think any of us would take a job with significantly more pay, even if we didn't have the experience or training for it. However, in his time as coach I think he's made it pretty clear he's not up to the challenge. Could he have been with some time as O-coordinator? We'll never know.

What I do know is Tice needs to go, and I think it should happen this week. The two arguments I've heard against firing Tice this season are "firing your head coach during the season tells your fan you've given up" and "there's no one else on the staff who could run the team any better." The second point is absolutely true. All these guys are barely able to keep their heads above water with their current assignments, and none of them are head-coach material. This is what you get when ol' Red puts together the cheapest possible staff. In this business, like any other, you get what you pay for. As to the first point, yes, firing your coach midseason rarely results in a Super Bowl appearance. Ok, it's NEVER resulted in a Super Bowl appearance. But, like I mentioned, this is a business. The players today aren't stupid. They know this. They read the papers and surf the internet and watch TV just like you and I, and they know Tice is a lame-duck coach. In today's Pioneer Press, Sean Jensen has an article quoting players that say:

"Tice delivered a 'rambling (postgame) resignation speech'"
"He quit on us... I lost all respect for him."
"You could tell he gave up on us"

According to Jensen, this isn't coming from benchwarmers-this was from STARTERS!!! Ladies and gentlemen, these guys have already abandoned the Good Ship Viking. THey've gone overboard and aren't swimming back until somebody-ANYBODY- has replaced Tice as the captain. Don't be worried about fans thinking you've given up-worry about the players!! THere's no sense in keeping Tice on for the rest of the year when every fan, player, coach, and Tice himself knows he's not coming back. Could somebody else on the sidelines do a better job? Probably not, but to avoid mutiny, Tice needs to go and he needs to go now. Give the new guy two weeks to throw a game-plan together and try and salvage the season. Because oh by the way, as terrible as we've played, we're still only a half game out of first place in the division. Is anybody worried about Detroit or Chicago running away with it? Me neither. The time to act is now. Make Tice walk the plank and see if somebody else can steer the Vikings towards the playoffs. Next year, we'll worry about a new coaching staff. This year, let's just worry about winning the divison while there's still time.

Tomorrow: Fixing Daunte