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Welcome to School Stories, presented by three M, the official science partner of the Minnesota Vikings. Tonight, we're joined by former Vikings head coach Mike Tye.
Thanks again for tuning into another episode of School Stories. Tonight's guest was a key Viking both on the field and in the locker room. As a larger than much larger than life, trust me personality and clutch performer, he was a Viking through and through. Please enjoy tonight's conversation with former Vikings tight end and head coach Mike Tye.
Well, Mike, welcome to the show. It's great to hear from you. It was great to literally bump into you at the US Bank Stadium in the course of the Vikings win over Atlanta last Sunday. Give the fans a chance to catch up with what you're up to these days, and where you're living and how you're occupying your life.
Well, I'll tell you Mark, it's good to hear your voice. And it was great to see you and Pete yesterday or this week of the game. And I retired from coaching after the seventeenth season. I was with the Raiders and moved up to our home in Seattle that we've had for almost thirty years. And then Mama decided the kids got pregnant, and Mama decided we're going to go move
to where the kids are. So we sold our house and we moved to Saint Louis and we moved to Las Vegas, if you can believe that, and not a real good spot if you're a pony player to beous. Yeah, And we run a foundation. Diane and I and our family run a foundation. We have no paid employees. We give out the last two years over one hundred and
sixty thousand dollars to charities in five states. And in fact, I'm in Minneapolis right now at the new Horizon Academy down on North penn and we're going to give out a hundred Winter Coach in a couple of minutes here, and we're pretty excited about it.
Yeah, not giving out many of those out in Vegas are you.
No, No, you need sunscreen.
We get out.
He's speaking, you know, speaking of speaking of the kids, and I wanted to talk to you about this quickly. Was I got a chance to see Nate at training camp this year. Uh, he's still involved, and I think he's involved in a great way on the media side. But he does a lot of great stuff on the internet with watching film and I think he just talks about the game in a different way. And you have to be very proud of him and kind of just let the fans know where they can find him.
Yeah, Nate's do a great job. We're really excited, Diane and I are excited that he got out of coaching and started this media career. He works for Yahoo Sports now. He worked a couple of years and did a podcast for The Athletic, which of course is owned by the New York Times. Now and last year he actually hired Nate Barrelson's agent, and he got out of that contract and he moved over to the Yahoo Sports. He also
signed a deal. He's been on the NFL network in the morning Good Morning Football a couple of times, and I'm really excited. I'm excited for him because he got out of coaching. But he's worn all the hats, you know, he's been a scout, he's been a great assistant, he's been a quarterback coach for the Raiders, and then he went and opened up a state farm agency and I just was dian. I were praying he didn't get into coaching.
Again, because you know, all that moving you do, and.
It's hard to make a great life. I was just blessed to be in Minnesota for thirteen years. You know, not a lot of people can say that. So yeah, so yeah, we're proud of them, and we're proud of my daughter. And I have two grandkids now I have another one on the way. Man.
Wow, that's awesome.
Well, Mike, I, first of all, number one, I appreciate you letting me use your parking space at Bunnies all these time other time, because it's really been a pleasure to be there. But you know, all kidding aside, you talk about all the stops you've made as a coach, what is it about the Twin City area, Minneapolis, what you're doing today that kind of keeps you drawn back to this the Twin City area as a coach of a player and everything else that you've done well.
It's just like you know, being able to tease Pete in the booth yesterday and see you.
It's the people of people.
It's the people at Minneapolis, and you know they don't say Minnesota nice for no reason. There's a reason behind it. Because the people in this community is the reason why, Diane, I have so many friends here, so many deer friends here, and it makes you keep coming back. I wish, you know, we probably should come back more. But it's been a couple of years of transition after retiring, and I think we've carved our niche now, so we've kind of got to figure it out.
I think, hey, Mike, talk about the talk about the game today, and I've thought about you. I don't know how many just over the last couple of years, with mainly with offensive line, because I think I still believe you're one of, not the best offensive line coaches I've ever been around. And thank you for all those long staff meetings where I learned just a ton about football. And Mike made this a point where yeah, you made us you made the offense it through the defense and
vice versa. But you were absolutely correct when you said this is you know, This is how you learn the game. This is uh, you know, learning what the offense is looking at and went the defenses and and I wouldn't be able to do what I do now if it wasn't for coaching, and definitely for being with you in the in what you demanded out of all of us, and that's to know everything, right is to learn as much as you can. And I'm just saying thank you, and I appreciate that very much.
Well, you know, Pete, You know, Pete, I loved having you around and it was it was really a pleasure for me to be able to develop some young former players into great coaches and uh and you you know you could have had a career in coaching them. Thankful that you didn't, because you don't want to keep moving. You don't want to keep you don't want to keep moving, believe me. And so you know, I just I've always learned you need to be a student of the game.
And no matter what you do, no matter what you're gonna you want to do with your life, you've got to be a student game. You got to learn as much about what your job is as you can. And and that's why I was probably a little more demanding than than other coaches. We we we did meet a lot. Oh yeah, we had all good coaches and a lot of our coaches could wear multiple hats, which was nice.
I remember Ron Rivera talking to him after the last game of the year in two thousand and five and him telling telling me before the game that we've we did more with less than anybody in the league, and
we have a winning record. Uh to finish the season with them with a winning record, and but still the ability to be with guys like Greg Beekert and and some of those other some of the other uh, you know linebackers that we bet Chris Claiborne, and yeah, I mean we we had We had a lot of fun though, didn't we.
It was my god, yeah, yeah, so you know it was it was just a let's laud ourselves a little bit here. We went into Green Bay and won a playoff game in Green Bay. I don't think any other head coach.
No, I don't think so.
Mike, talking about offensive line play in the league, what do you think the status is of offensive line play? I mean, and you mentioned something and you were talking about your brother John, who you know. I hope he's doing well too. But John always had guys that played really well, but none of them were high draft picks. You know, I'm looking back at our offensive line, like Chris Lewinsky, Mike Rosenthal, Corey Withrow. I mean, you turned a lot of late round draft picks into very very
good starters. Can you mold these guys like this anymore? Do you have enough time? Is there not enough practice with pads anymore? I mean, what do you think of all this?
And I think that's a great question, Pete. I think that tribute to that for the ability to develop these
young players was because of Denny Green. Because Denny Green always told me we're not going to give you the high pick, because you know, we had a couple of high picks before I got there, Corey Stringer gotta bless him, and Todd Stucey, and of course Randall was a teammates with Randall, But because we had other voids defensively and at other positions, we never drafted a high offensive lineman. So what he said, I'm going to give you a seven of un pick. I'll give you any round pick.
I'll give you a sixth round pick. And then he sent me on the road. And go try to find what chuck, here's another chuck nuts to go find a ruby, you know, dust it off, polish it up, and turned that little piece of stone into a ruby. And so we because of Danny Green allowed me the time to develop, and he would give me three years on a guy, and so if the guy wasn't starting in three years, he had run him out the door. And so we didn't run a lot of guys out the door. We
developed guys and we were able to play back. I think one of my greatest coaching jobs was Matt Burke. You know, the guy we drafted from Harvard in the sixth round, left tackle at Harvard, and Frankie Gilliam pointed him out. God bless Frankie. Two is He pointed him out to me on film and he said, listen, this kid played in the East West shrink game. You should go. You should go work this kid out. But he's not a left tackle. And we brought him in and he
was so smart. He swung at a lot of positions. And then his third year, Denny said, let's let's get rid of this center and let's move Matt to center. And we're over scrimmage and remember we used to scrimmage over the Chiefs over and Wisconsin, and and Denny turned to me and said, let's do it right now and one on ones. And so we did it one on ones.
He locked down every single guy he blocked, and we looked at each other and kind of smiled Denny and I and it's like, Okay, there's our new future center. Of course, Matt Burke made a couple of Pro Bowls and had a great career.
One other, I guess you want to Yeah, absolutely. Brian McKinney was on our school Stories and he talked very highly of the work that you did with him, and what your recollections of working with Brian McKinney all those years.
Well, he was the highest pick we drafted an Olne. When I was the head coach, there was a lot of conversation about him. I always took advice from Scott Studwell in the draft room because Scott, you know, had a great feel for talent. So what what we were torn between a couple of players in that draft, We've got We got McKinney, and about a really good relationship with his mom. So at any time that he would
annoy me, I told him. I was calling his mom and he shaped up, so asked him about that next thing the best.
Yeah, we saw that with Aaron Jones and his mom. His mom basically told him how they should have taken you out of the game for fumbling last week.
Yeah, and what happened this week didn't fumble? How about that?
Well? I heard I saw an interview with Lama Jacks's mother, Yell and from not running the ball to them.
Watching watching Kevin O'Connell right now, what he's doing with this team and his relationship with his players at his young age. What are your thoughts about koc and developing a team that was only supposed to win six games this year?
I love him. I'm a big fan. I text him every week good luck and congratulations and a lot of congratulations of you know, the last six weeks. And he's doing a great job. He's doing a tremendous job. He's put together an excellent staff. These kids believe in his message, and they're playing hard for him, and they're playing smart for him, and uh, you know, he's a fabulous job. I'm a big fan.
And and how about Brian Flores? Do you know anything about him? It's I think he's doing a great job. A couple of years ago, I thought he should have been up for a head job. He got ahead job, it didn't work out, and I think his turn is going to come. So they're telling me to wrap up over here, and they give out some coats. Sure, yeah, I'm sorry boy, that's all right.
We can do this. The kids come first. I love you guys, but the kids come fast. We can do this, we can. We can do this again though. If you want to.
Sometime, absolutely well, well we'll make sure that West he's all over you. Yeah, your your guide, your your Yeah, your your game day guide.
Absolutely well, listen, listen. I we appreciate the time you had for us today. It's great to catch up.
Ye storry to cut your short, but I got kids waiting on these coats.
Thank you for sharing your school stories. Stick around right here on school stories presented by three M from the field to the roof and everywhere in between. Three Official, It's partner of the Minnesota Vikings is here. Visit Vikings dot com slash school Science to learn more.
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Well, thanks again to Mike Tys for joining the show today. We always loved catching up with the very colorful Mike Tyson. I do have that spot at Bunnies, all said all the time I come on beat me.
Well, here's the thing is, I played with Mike too.
I know you did, right. They brought him back. I mean when I was while I was playing and Denny would do that. Denny would always want to bring back a familiar face and stay of somebody that the locker room didn't know. So I got to play with Chris Dolman, Mike Tice, Steve Jordan, right, I mean there were some there's some guys whose flags are hanging up and that I had the chance to play with for a short time.
Pretty amazing.
So yeah, that's one of my favorite stories. When I was on IR, Denny brought me up and said, you bring it bringing Chris Dolman back.
I need your number home. I'm like, are you asking me? You're telling me? He's like, I'm telling you, all right, Coach sale Well.
Recapping last week, as we know, the Vikings extended the winning streak to six forty two to twenty one thumping of the Atlanta Falcons. After Atlanta took the opening kickoff, went right down the field, made it look really easy. They're thinking, this is going to be another nail bier. We're so used to it, and the Vikings have been really good at it, winning those close games in the fourth quarter. But for once they did not have to sweat it out as the game went on late in
the fourth quarter. Pete, Now, huh, Yeah, that was refreshing. And obviously a lot of it had to do with the sling and Sammy Darnold with those five touchdown passes.
It did, and I think another part of that whole another part of the game is we were plus three and didn't turn the ball over one time, right, so we had you know, the first interception by Mattellis. I don't think we netted any points out of that, but at the time, it was very heavily time of possession. Everything was very heavily favored with Atlanta. I thought Cousins did a very good job of knowing where to go
with the football and just making good decisions. I think the interception to Mattelis is just he and the receiver not being on the same page he expected. I think Mattellis that was an unbelievable play, but he expected the receiver to break in instead of go out on the seven and so miscommunication. They weren't horrible interceptions, right, It wasn't as if he was booting out and there was a guy stayed in a flat that he never saw.
So defensively, when you face a veteran quarterback, and it seems like the more he watched this defense, the veterans that know what to do with the ball are a tougher challenge for us, more so than an even athletic quarterback. But yeah, Donald looked fantastic, and it's just us not turning the football over and being smart with.
It is the big help.
That's why we were able to, you know, put up forty two and make that game, you know, that much of a lead at the end.
To dissect Donald a little bit more. Where do you think he is appreciably made the biggest to impact and the biggest improvement since the beginning of the year of avoiding the rush, those sideline passes that he throws with great touch. I mean, there's a lot of things that we're watching that Sam Darnald, I don't think people realize his evasiveness.
He doesn't.
You don't have to be Patrick Mahomes to avoid a rush. But Sam Darnald has done a marvelous job of keeping his eyes downfield and doing the things that the great quarterbacks do.
He's a great athlete, which is why he was chosen third overall. Right, he's a big guy. He's not a scrambling, let's say, quarterback, but he's a very good athlete, more like Herbert right, you know, just being able to keep plays alive. I think him protecting the football when he is scrambling. It's kind of like there are certain times when you get to know one to hold him and no one to fold the meaning sometimes you're going to
get sacked and there's nothing you can do. Protect the football on your way down and then live to play, you know, not bail out and roll out and try to make something out of nothing, but choose your spots when you're going to use your legs. And when he did and was able to extend plays, it's like you got to You have to be able to feel the rush and know where it's coming from.
You can't stare at it.
You can't look at it because once you start looking at it you lose track of what's happening down the field. So there's no way he can He's not looking at the rush, he's just feeling it and he just instinctively knows where to avoid it in the meantime, protecting the football and then as he comes out of it, keeping his eyes down the field. And I think that's something that both he and the receivers have done a better job of. And I've seen Justin do it and over
the last couple of weeks. Is when you have a clock in your head, right you as a receiver, this is the offenses are about timing. It's a seven step drop. I've got this. I'm gonna make my break. I'm gonna look and if the ball's not on its way, I'm not just gonna quit my route because Donald's doing his thing so that I'm just gonna bend it and go vertically or I'm gonna do, you know, do something different. And then we've we've made some plays that way, like
our off schedule plays. Is how is how the coaches talk about it. I think his ability to get to that point has improved quite a bit. Uh And we saw we saw him make a couple off schedule play because I mean, let's face it, between Addison and Hockinson and JJ, these three guys can get themselves open and if if you have a quarterback that can extend to play, I mean, you know, these three guys are going to make things happen. But it's just getting everybody on the
on the same page. And it's such a subtle, little difference, but it's huge. We have you know, we haven't seen Darnold just take a sack and fumble and you know what I mean, all those things he's managing better.
It's really really difficult to excel at every level of the game. And right now the Vikings have shown some weakness in terms of defending the run. You know, maybe the missing Ivan paced, maybe it's a scheme, whatever it might be. It's a copycat league. You know that as we get into the throes of the rest of the schedule of the month of December, of the opponents that are that are coming up, they're all going to try
to be doing the same thing. But are you noticing some things as a former linebacker yourself, that the Vikings need to improve on or is it just hey, listen, this is the way it is the ninety eight team as great as it was. Yeah, it didn't have the best defense in the world.
They didn't have to. No, we did not.
And that's uh if we actually talked that during the game, when when the backups got in there and I was I was talking with Paul and I'm like, yeah, I'm this is big for me because this is when I played right, when the when the when, This is when, when, as foage Fasio called us, the unteachables could get out there and play a little bit. Yeah, the run game, is it a concern? Yeah, you want to get better. I think it's it's the problem in the NFL. Sometimes
it's not one thing. If it was just a guy that was a problem, you can get rid of the problem right and fix it. It's the defensive tackles giving up a little bit too much. It's the outside linebacker playing a little bit too wide and then combo that with the inside linebacker maybe not reading it perfectly or not being physical enough at the point of attack.
Uh.
So, yeah, you miss Ivan Pace, you miss a guy like that, you know, you go into the game with I think Harrison Phillips was questionable, so you know he's nicked up. We don't have a lot of depth at the interior defensive lineman because they're those guys are Bullard and artillery. Those guys are not on the field on third down, right, So you're you're putting in your jahad Wards and some of those other smaller guys gass rushing
guys on the field and third down. So I think it's a combo platter, you know, of all that, don't John Robinson's a good running back. Damn This offensive line is very good.
You know.
What they remind me of is the is the Denver Broncos back probably twenty years ago, and they just ran that zone play right and they would hold the living hell out of back when you could dive on the back of guy's legs and they would hurt. That offense is reminiscent of that. I think they got. What's unfortunate for them is they get the They got a crew referee crew that called more holding penalties than anybody in the league, and they they kind of, you know, they
got them. So penalties killed them.
So looking ahead, we know that the Vikings played the Bears was a few weeks ago. They had a disastrous game Sunday in San Francisco. I mean they went, they went eighteen steps backwards. So Monday night football, you know, you know the Caleb Williams is kind of shaking his head. They changed their head coaches. How do you make sure that you don't let down in this game? I guess you just look at the standings and realize they got to stay close to Detroit.
You got to let them, you know, as quickly as possible. Tonight's not your night. Tonight's not the night you guys are going to rebound. Tonight's not to night that you're going to go home on that plane and feel good. Maybe next week, but not this week. So starting fast, I think is huge against the team like the Bears. They know us, we know them, so it's gonna be a little bit more difficult. These divisional games always are
in that respect. But you can't go ahead and make mistakes and let them think or feel that they are in this game. If you hit them in the mouth right away and get them to just say, Okay, this is not the week, right. It's that mentality because what
are they playing for? And usually what's so weird about this is usually when a head coach gets fired, you get a bump that next week, Right, everybody, everybody's sitting up in their seats a little bit straighter, and you know, you're worried about to because they because the players know, okay, they're going to fire the coach first and then we're next, so that's always in the back of their mind. But to put up and I'm very interested to watch the film and get more road on what happened. But the
first half of that forty nine ers game. Something's missing there, and hopefully they won't find it. But it's National TV, right who wants to look bad at National TV on Monday night football, So they're going to be prepared. Don't expect the Bears team that shows up Monday to be the one that showed up the first half of the forty nine Ers game.
They're going to be much better.
Well, keep in mind too, that the Vikings have the benefit of playing Monday night and the Lions are hosting the Buffalo Bills on Sunday afternoon. So I mean, we'll know where we sit right now with an opportunity potentially moving to a time for first place because we know what's the rest of the schedule hold. So it's a lot of fun to kind of just dissect that. Look at all the playoff possibilities. Who imagine that we would be in this situation.
I think we're I think everybody. I think we kind of know who the players are going to be, right at least in the NFC side going into the playoffs. It's just who's going to go where. It's unbelievable, but that's what the NFL wants. That's why they schedule heavy division. You know, schedule your division heavy. At the end of the season.
Yeah, NFC North continues to dominate, no questions. I mentioned We're coming back to the US Bank Stadium for the Winter White Out game in primetime Monday Night football against I always want to do the Howard Cole Seale voice against the Chicago Bears. The TV coverage will be over on ESPN and ABC at seven o'clock Central here in the Twin Cities, so be sure to check your local
listings for more details. Of course, you can also catch Paul Allen, Ben Leeber and the one and Milli Pete Versuch with the call right here all across the Vikings Radio network. The Vikings Football Sunday pregame show starts at five PM on KFN, so be sure to tune in with host Mike Mussman and the rest of the crew
leading up to kickoff on Monday night. Thanks again to Mike Tice for joining the show, and thank you fans for tuning into another edition of Skulls Stories presented by three M, the official science partner of the Minnesota Vikings. For Pete Versus, I'm Mark Rosen. We'll see you again all next week.