Vikings coach Kevin O'Connell unleashes his 'dark side' when his team needs it

Reporters covering the Vikings in Cleveland last month experienced a sharp edge to Kevin O'Connell that would surprise the public. But it drew smiles and nods from several members of the organization who say the friendly head coach has been known to show some bite to them on rare occasions as well.

"K.O.'s viewed as this great human being, this nice guy," said defensive coordinator Brian Flores. "But he's got a little bit of a dark side, you know, in the football realm. And I like it when that side comes out."

It came out in Cleveland because of X posts by reporters, including this one, after O'Connell and Browns defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz were seen talking on the field as injured Vikings receiver Thomas Thayer was being tended to following a hit to the head.

The posts speculated, wrongly as it turned out, that O'Connell might have been asking Schwartz to dial down the physicality in a one-sided practice his defense was dominating. Social media aggregators who follow the team seized on the posts, turned speculation into fact and, a day later, O'Connell respectfully gave members of the Fourth Estate a taste of his dark side.

O'Connell talked to the Minnesota Star Tribune via Zoom for 40 minutes Friday morning about that "dark side" and how his primary focus since last season has been on creating a playing style that exudes the toughness and physicality he admits was lacking in his first two seasons but has flourished during the team's 2-0 start.

"One of the reasons I got so upset in Cleveland was I knew our players would be reading that I told Schwartz he was being too physical," O'Connell said. "That couldn't have been further from the truth."

O'Connell was preaching toughness to his players — "ripping them in the hotel that night and saying we better show up tomorrow and be a lot more physical if we want to be what we say we are" — and hated that he sounded weak to them on social media at the same time.

"'Relentless' is a word I used in training camp," O'Connell said. "I told them at the start of camp that if I told you right now we're a relentless team, I'd be lying. That's changed now, but it's all about making sure I'm authentic in everything I do. I tell the team all the time, 'I'm never going to lie to you guys.'"

Doubts about the nice guy

Vikings assistant head coach Mike Pettine first met O'Connell in 2009, when Pettine was the Jets' defensive coordinator. O'Connell, a quarterback, arrived via trade from the Lions and would quickly prove useful to Pettine in game-planning for the Patriots, O'Connell's former team.

The depth of O'Connell's X's and O's knowledge was "'Beautiful Mind' stuff," according to Pettine. So good that Pettine named one of his blitzes "the K.O. blitz."

But, no, Pettine didn't know then that O'Connell had what it took to be an NFL coach.

"He's such a nice guy that some of us had doubts," said Pettine, who was Browns coach in 2015 when he gave O'Connell his first coaching job. "Did he have enough of a mean streak in him? Unfortunately, it's got to be there sometimes.

"Kevin proved real quick, especially with this job, that he has that edge to him when he needs it. It's subtle. He doesn't feel he has to put on a show where some coaches do. Like. 'I am yelling! Therefore, I am coaching!'"

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O'Connell said he learned under Bill Belichick in New England and Sean McVay in Los Angeles that successful coaches can have vastly different personalities and command a team. He said he also soaked in a year of Bud Grant's shared wisdom in Minnesota before the Hall of Famer's death. The key was to be genuine.

"The best coaches coach hard without players taking offense," O'Connell said. "They don't feel they're being attacked. The way you do that is to build the relationships on the front end. That gives me a ton of runway when things aren't up to the standard I want.

"I saw Bill do it. Then I watched Sean do it. Sean has a personality more similar to mine. But make no mistake, there's a dark side to Sean, too. … I might not always use the best language and I never want things to be demeaning. But these players are going to know when I don't think things are good enough."

Players appreciate O'Connell. The team finished first in the annual NFL Players Association Report Card in 2022 and second in 2023, when O'Connell ranked second among coaches with an A-plus rating.

"K.O. is very positive," said center Garrett Bradbury. "But if he feels we aren't meeting his standards, then it's, 'All right, guys, this isn't a game. Let's lock in,' or that dark side is coming out. And when someone new comes in we let them know if you want this 'great, player-friendly' atmosphere, then you better hold up your end of the bargain or the dark side will show up."

'Very different' from Zimmer

There's a natural urge to compare O'Connell, 39, to his predecessor Mike Zimmer, who is 29 years older and was raised in a different coaching era.

"You can't compare them," Bradbury said. "Very different styles. Very.

"K.O.'s first year it was all positive through the offseason and then we beat the Packers in Week 1. Then we lost at Philly. We're in the locker room waiting to see how he'd handle it. It was, 'Guys, we didn't play up to our standard. Let's move on and kick some butt next week.' We're all looking around like, 'Whoa, that's different.' That mentality is huge and one of the reasons I love playing for him."

O'Connell looks like a choir boy, a boy scout, you name it.

"The public sees him as a California guy, young, laid back, good looking," Pettine said. "But the physical mindset of this team right now matches his. When he hired Flo [after firing Ed Donatell], it was done to create what we have now. So the mindset is his and Flo's. It's just more overt with Flo."

Jalen Redmond, a second-year journeyman signed from the UFL, felt the dark side when O'Connell threw him out of practice for fighting this summer.

"K.O. didn't yell, he just turned to Flo and said, 'Get him out of here,'" Redmond said. "I'm in the locker room thinking, 'Oh, man. I'm gonna get cut.' K.O. comes in after practice and says, 'I'm not mad. We got rules. You broke them. We're good.' I made the team, but I was scared."

To the older veterans, K.O. feels more like a teammate.

"Sometimes, when K.O. flips that switch, it's more like our oldest captain is talking to the team," safety Josh Metellus said. "He'll curse and yell like we all do. But he's not like what you hear about [Bill] Belichick. He's not one of those guys who is on you all the time. He's not Mike Zimmer."

Nose tackle Harrison Phillips said O'Connell commands any situation because "he's chronically competitive with a do-or-die bone that he uses to get out of any corner he gets in."

Or, as O'Connell puts it, "I absolutely hate losing more than anything else."

Safety Harrison Smith said he notices more of "an edge" to O'Connell this year, "a look" that says the team better not be satisfied with 2-0 and outmuscling NFC bully San Francisco last Sunday.

"I look back to when he got here, we were trying to match the other team's physicality," said Smith, who is only four years younger than O'Connell. "Now, it's, 'Hey, we are the physical team.' But he doesn't want us to let up."

Seeking grit and toughness

O'Connell said he does have a different edge this year.

"I don't think it's fair for me to get upset with the perception [the media] has had because for two years it's been, 'Yeah, we can win close games and throw the ball around on people, but are we really gritty?" O'Connell said. "Do we have that toughness that will allow us to go bully the bullies in Detroit or go stand up in the month of December? I think that's valid based upon the two years of inventory we had."

O'Connell and Flores talked after last season about the "injuries and a thousand excuses I could have sought" for finishing 7-10. They talked about the core ingredients they would seek in any new player signed — "toughness, smarts and loves football."

"I could have been the guy seeking comfort in all the excuses," O'Connell said. "But I wanted to make sure that regardless of anything, I could build a team that could sustain and win in this league based upon the core values of when you play against us, you will feel it. You better buckle up because if you don't, we are going to beat you with a lot more than passing concepts and trick 'em up defenses and schemes by Flo. We want to be able to put the pen down and say, 'We're running right at you on second down against the Giants in the red zone and we are going to walk the ball into the end zone.'"

It doesn't hurt that perhaps O'Connell's best ally on the team is Justin Jefferson, a superstar whose work ethic and coachability sets the standard.

"Sometimes, you got to let the dark side out," Jefferson said. "We definitely see it sometimes with K.O. Not very often. But when that dark side comes out, we all know what time it is."

O'Connell laughed as Friday's Zoom call ended.

"This is a layer to me I feel our fans need to know about," he said. "Just so they know that I got it in me."

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