The other day, Access Vikings reported. . .twice, in fact. . .that the Beloved Purple had chosen to promote special teams assistant Brian Murphy to the position of special teams coordinator. He replaces Paul Ferraro, who left last month to take the position of linebacker coach with the St. Louis Rams.
Murphy has been a member of the Vikings' coaching staff for the past three years. Prior to that, he was the special teams coordinator at the University of Wisconsin from 2002 to 2005. He also coached the Badgers' outside linebackers.
(Brad Childress hiring somebody with ties to Wisconsin? Get the heck out of here. Really?)
Finding a new special teams coordinator is, presumably, a different animal than finding a new defensive coordinator or a new offensive coordinator. In the case of a defensive coordinator, for example, you know which teams have good linebacker coaches or good defensive line coaches or good secondary coaches. On the other hand, I can't recall the last time I heard the heads from ESPN or Sports Illustrated or those sort of places talking about the hot new special teams assistants that would be hitting the market.
So, here's hoping that Murphy can help the Vikings' special teams in 2009 and beyond. As we've discussed ad nauseum here for the past couple of months, the special teams really can't get a whole lot worse than they were in 2008, but here's hoping that we hit an upswing now rather than sitting in a valley.
And for those of you out there that are coming in from FanNation and other such sites, don't be afraid to register yourself for an account and join in on the Purple talk! After all, this is where all the cool kids are at. . .you want to be cool, don't you? So what are you waiting for? Registration takes about two minutes, and it's good for a lifetime. . .unless you're an idiot and/or a troll. I'd like to think I keep that to a minimum.
That's all for now, folks. . .continue enjoying this Friday, and we'll see you back for more later.