Dan Widerer of the Star-Tribune put up some interesting tidbits this afternoon about the Minnesota Vikings now that they have their entire coaching staff set. One of the more interesting tidbits is the apparent reaction of the defensive linemen to the hiring of new defensive line coach Brendan Daly. Daly was a coach with the Vikings from 2006 to 2008, but spent the last three seasons as the defensive line coach with Steve Spagnuolo in St. Louis.
Interestingly enough, he was also a coach at Oklahoma State University, where he coached current Vikings' defensive tackle Kevin Williams for three seasons. Apparently big #93 is pretty happy about the whole thing.
"He’s a fiery guy," Williams said. "I like that about him. He’s going to get after our butts. He gets really excited. Some coaches might be more reserved. But he’ll get really fired up when you make a good play or even a bad play. That’ll be a different element that will hopefully be good for us. This is a guy we don’t have to get to know. Maybe we’ll have to learn some of the new stuff that he’s continued to incorporate since he’s been gone. But as a person, we know each other already for the most part. So we can get right down to football"
I suppose that can be seen as a positive thing. The defensive line was, for all intents and purposes, the only unit on the defensive side of the ball that did anything positive in 2011. There is plenty of talent on the front lines on defense for this team, starting with Williams and Jared Allen and extending to Brian Robison, Everson Griffen, and Christian Ballard. Hopefully Daly can keep up the tradition that Karl Dunbar made a hallmark of the Vikings' defense over the past couple of seasons.