The time for X's and O's with Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell.

Also Minnesota Vikings Radio Network Now from the TCO studios at Egan.

Here is the voice of the Vikings, Paul Allen.

Welcome in the X's and O's with Kevin O'Connell, presented by Ken Moore.

Final X's and O's program of the season, previewing the Border Battle.

Here's Ko x'es and O's is in the air at FM one hundred point three kfa N.

This is our swan song with the head coach of the Minnesota Vikings for the twenty twenty five and on behalf of yours truly the radio show, radio station and the x'es and O's Covenant.

Thanks for everything this season.

We look forward to these chats every single week.

Hasn't been the greatest at times on Winny Streak right now, started back in twenty twenty two, you know where we were in the TV studio.

Switched to this recently and we just really look forward to it.

So thank you very much.

Yeah, you got it.

Really.

I really appreciate the time, the talkback questions and the interaction I get to have not only with you guys, but with all the listeners out there as well.

So it's been it's been good.

Uh, talkback.

I don't I don't know what it's going to be.

Nordo has it all set up.

Let's let's nail that talk back now.

Hey Pa, Hey Nordo, it's Max re Megan.

My question for Ko is I know that the season didn't go exactly according to plan, but we've gone on the incline for the last couple of weeks here and going into this off season.

What lights that fire under your seat and what gets you excited and motivated going into next season.

Yeah, it's a great question, and I think you know first and foremost, you know, I think of all the things that that I could do better and I can do to make sure and ensure, whether that's in the off seasons, that's that's how we prepare our team in the off season program, when we go into free agency, in the draft, you know, any any and all input I can have on you know, with the collaboration of our coaches of how we're gonna play, where we think we need to do things differently schematically, like we'll go into all that, but that always gives you energy to know that you're already on your way.

The moment really the moment that I get done with meeting with every player in those exit meetings, you know, the couple days after we get done, I'm kind of full speed ahead on the task at hand, which is a daily approach to trying to grow personally and obviously challenge the staff and figure out ways for us to grow football wise, and then figure out what the twenty twenty six vikings are going to look like, and then how we go about building that from a standpoint of what we do on the grass when we get them back in the spring.

But it always starts with me, and there's always going to be things that I'm learning in this job.

And the beauty of it is we have great players.

We have great people in this organization, and many of which work tirelessly to make sure that we're constantly improving and and chasing that ultimate goal, which, as we've learned each and every season in the NFL, just looking at teams that didn't make the playoffs last year and now they're winning divisions, and you're looking at teams that did and and like ourselves, and we're not going to be a part of it.

But that does not mean that every moment, every minute will not be massively important as we prepare towards.

The next season.

But we'd like to make sure we take care of business on Sunday and winning five games in a row after being at the you know, the four and eight spot we're at where you're right, these these lights in this studio, we're a little dim those days, and there was a little a little bit of you know, you know, angst that we still feel because ultimately we're not going to be able to participate in the postseason.

But at the same time, very very proud of our guys, very proud of the way this organization is kind of really leaned in in some moments where quite quite honestly, and you know, this may be something that is a surprise to people.

A lot of NFL teams don't do.

What this collection of guys have done over these last four weeks.

And we've got to we've got to finish it off, and it's important to finish it off the right way, not only just an NFC North rival opponent.

We've got a chance to finish four and two in the division.

We've got a chance to you know, obviously you know, win our last five, but most importantly win another game at home in front of our great fans.

What an atmosphere that last Thursday was.

I cannot I know.

It was unbelievable.

It was so happy that.

Time you got in the building.

It's just there was energy, there was joy, and then our players felt that, and we wanted to make sure we responded to that the right way and find a way to win that game.

And but total compliment to to to our fans most importantly, but all the folks that put on that great show for us within this building.

So after the Green Bay game that there correct me if I'm wrong here, but there is a shutdown factor.

I mean like decompress, you know, or how does that work for for you, the coaches, you know, before you before you settle fully into the offseason.

Yeah, it'll be it'll be a two or three week process before I probably take a little bit of time just with the family at some point.

But there's there's a lot of layers to it.

Yep, we will as a you know obviously mentioned the exit interviews.

I think it's important each and every player practice squad in or roster get a chance to spend some one on one time with me and make sure that you know, I can articulate how much I care about those guys.

But also there might be some young players where you can immediately give them, in conjunction with their position coach or coordinator, you can immediately give them the pathway, the roadmap to them improving and finding their their place they ultimately want to be, which is on the field for our team.

But then there's you know, I'll spend a lot of time with somebody like Brian O'Neill or Justin Jefferson or you know, TJ.

Hokinson, Harrison Smith for sure, and that one will be obviously a little bit different, you know where you know, it'll be part celebration, part recruiting, trying to see where his head's at.

He won't answer the question, he won't even go there, and I'll still ask it anyway, But a lot of questions like that and uh, and then we'll get into, you know, a week or two of some evaluations of you know, some of the things we did at the bye week, and then we assess what we did coming.

Out of the bye week, what do we do over.

These last you know, four or five weeks as a team that allowed us to obviously improve and and and win some games.

And then ultimately we've got to identify, you know, what we need to do to improve, not only with our roster, with our team, but like I said, schematically as well.

So there's a lot that goes into it.

And most importantly, making sure that you know, putting a bow on a season, even when it's not necessarily the kind of season you wanted, is important because you can't just move on.

You can't.

This isn't a Berryer the Tape kind of year.

Although at times, especially offensively, it's it's been one that you would like to but at the same time, it's it's it's how you grow and improve is meeting it head on and attacking this thing.

Yeah, you you you hate not being in the playoffs.

I do, I can tell.

I mean, it's you and I have a lot of chats together, man, and whether it's your tone of voice or your outlook is all druistic.

It has a positive side to it, yep.

But I've just you know, mentioned to extra or other ancillary people.

It's just, I mean, you just really really hate this, but you can't dwell either and be like, ah, if this had happened against Duvernet and this had happened against Atlanta.

I mean you can analyze it and tear it down, make it better, like you just said, but this is really eating at you right now, isn't it.

Yeah, it's just you know, you you think back to you think back to moments throughout you think back to you know, how we how we prepared our team for for this week or that week, or you know, it feels like forever ago that we were all in Ireland and London and we were, you know, taking on that challenge for January.

That was the theme into the season, you get them ready for January.

And it was you know, you just there's really nothing else to say.

I do hate it.

I've shared my feelings on winning obviously as the ultimate intent, the ultimate goal every single game we play, but you know, the losses do sting, and then when they sting because you look back on him in these moments where you could finish a half game out or possibly even have a better record than teams that are in the playoffs and maybe in a different division or conference, but ultimately it's it's not where we want to be.

And not where this organization or our fan base should ever feel like we don't belong, because we do and we will be back.

With Harrison Smith.

If you come across many who get the respect that man receives, take away your playing days, yep, I mean, go right to Tom Brady some other people, but in your coaching career, the respect he receives from coaches, players, fans, DJ Reid coming up to him after the game, tapping him on the shoulder like man fourteen, You're the bomb.

You know that, Just stuff like that resonates.

He's one of the most beloved players in the history of this franchise.

If you come across many who like, win favor with media of a whole.

Thing, it's hard to even compare him to anybody else, just because he's so uniquely Harson and he's never tried to be anybody else but authentically who he is.

And that's been that's been the best part about it, because he is a person that I enjoy, you know, I enjoy my friendship and my relationship with personally.

He's taught me a lot.

You know, we have some really really awesome conversations every Friday morning, and very rarely is it about football.

But he's smart.

He's incredibly thoughtful in his approach to not only football, but life, and he takes that serious in regards to his leadership role on this team.

He's got his own personal way of you know, his touch points with players and people in this building.

If every organization could have a Harrison Smith, they'd be doing pretty well.

And I'm just so fortunate to have had this time with him and then hope to have a little bit more as well.

Minnesota needed to go to source for everything high school sports.

That's why the Minnesota Start Sabune created Strip Varsity and sign him now at startsubune dot com, slash Stribvarsity, start Tribune dot com, slash Strip Varsity, more x's and o's around the corner on the Minnesota Vikings Audio Network.

Hey Vikings fans, right now you can pick up a commemorative Pepsi Vikings Cup at us Bank Stadium or participating High v Fast and Fresh and Buffalo Wild Wings locations for your chance to win Victor's Ride and other great prizes.

Vikings fans deserve Pepsi more x's and o's with Kevin O'Connor.

If I'm a player.

I asked, Harrison, what do you do from the time you leave to the time you get back here.

I don't want to say he's running better than last year because I don't like I remember him playing last year.

But his blitzing and his running now, he really takes care of his body, doesn't he He does.

And the other thing to mention is, you know, he had a pretty significant kind of issue he had to work through an early part of the season training camp, and that might have in many cases, you know, maybe slowed his start to what has been, you know, a really really good season.

And I think his finish to this season and the amount of snaps he's playing and just the energy he has and the physicality like you're talking about he's playing with, I think is a is a credit to him.

It's a credit to how he handles the off seasons, how he manages his body, how he recovers after games.

We try to obviously take care of him as you're around here a lot, you see, we're trying to make sure we know twenty two is gonna be ready to go on Sunday, But what can we do to make sure he's prepared and ready to do a lot of the super impactful things that he does, but at the same time be physically turned over.

And that's part of it too, that's part of the plan for what that may indeed look like moving forward.

And that's the off season, that's training camp and then on into hopefully next season.

But he is, you know, And the one thing about it is that I think is really really special is I don't believe our fans.

Every time he runs out of the tunnel.

You can feel it.

Our fans don't take it for granted.

They don't.

That's what makes our fan base so special, as they understand not only the player, oh yeah, the impact he's had, but the person and the leader in the human as well.

Yeah.

There are a lot of eighteens in the stands.

Yeah, a lot of threes, a lot of thirty threes, a lot of twenty two's, Yeah, I mean a lot of old goal twenty twos.

They go all the way back to twenty twelve.

Kevin Kevin o'connellay coach of the Minnesota Vikings, Swan Song x'es and o's Fabian Moreau.

Yeah, all right, you've known him since your Washington days.

And the reason I bring it up is there are just so many ancillary facets to this defensive success that are underrated.

And the reason I bring up baby is he never splashes, but he's never on the wrong side of anything catastrophic.

Yeah, well that right, there is a work of art in its own right from the way that transpires.

Correct.

Yeah, And I think you know why Fabian's been so important is you think of how we play defense and there's a lot of moving parts.

There's a lot of changing happening second to second, pre snap and even post snap in many ways depending on how the play kind of you know, takes takes shape.

There from an offensive standpoint, when you're defending an offense, Fabe is just so constant, so consistent, the same guy.

He can be relied upon an end game is probably my favorite thing about him.

It is never too big for him.

He always is, you know, ready to meet the moment when those plays do inevitably come his way.

And I think he's answered the bell this year when we absolutely needed him to.

As a guy that has played a lot of football, like you mentioned, whether it was Washington days, New York, Denver here, but you know wherever he's gone Fabian's been ultra consistent and he's always he's kind of been in that role where you know, what really is his role.

It's going to be to play a lot of football where maybe he came out of training camp thinking, hey, we're lucky we got him, but he's not necessarily going to be the starter, or maybe it's not going to be a you know, it hasn't been the long term play in one particular place for Fabian.

But that's what I love about him.

Great relationship with him, that goes back to his rookie year and he's just always a guy that I know I'm going to get the same Fabian Moreau every day.

And that is deemed very much been a good thing for the Vikings this year.

In our defense and Kevin, you mentioned the Christmas Day victory over Detroit, the joy in the building and Harrison Smith and now he factored into it.

It also was joyous when ty Chandler ran into the game as the backup running back.

You know what a kind human being, super fast, been on an arduous trail to get to that moment and then you see then you're like, well, hey, fresh legs too, I mean from like a football standpoint hard.

But man, how how great was that for Ty?

Yeah?

It was.

It was a long time coming.

And obviously Aaron's been, you know, so tough and working through some things and and continuing to be out there every week for this team.

But to have Tie to be able to come in there and and really run the football hard Detroit, Detroit, it's always a physical game.

And when you're playing against those guys and he was running through some tackles, finishing forward, uh, you know, really stealing a yard or two or three extra on some of those carries.

That really allowed us, especially when we were stacking the runs as well as we were at times in that game, to move the football.

Ty was a big part of it.

And you know, he's he's a guy that Vikings fans can always know they're going to get Ty Chandler the physical, the speed, the burst, the guy that has really grown within this program over these last few years.

And you put him right there with Jalen Naylor and Jay Ward and some of these guys that were here early on in our tenure here.

We first that got here the first couple of years and have really grown within the system.

We've got great coaches coaching those guys, and they have now become guys that are really the you know, the standard barrier for our culture because they've been a part of building it from day one.

You mentioned Jalen Naylor currently set to be on restricted after the year.

You've put so much time and belief into jail and Naylor.

I'll never forget a couple of preseasons to go into it.

How excited you were to say when we did those production meetings for the SIMPA, We're going to feature Jailen.

You know, Okay, it's a pre people be like it's a preseason game.

No for the offense for Jailen for that moment, that's massive, you know.

And it just and like when you put the C on Mittellis at Soldier Field.

Little things like that, you know, just really really play into the totality of the story.

But talk about Jailing and all the time and belief you put into him.

Yeah, it really started.

I remember way back watching him at Michigan State.

Remember, you know, Jaden Reed, you know, from Green Bay, was also a receiver on that team, and both of them had very impressive film and you're kind of watching it envisioning a guy and you were trying to figure out exactly what he was going to be in the NFL.

Hey, what position does.

He you know, maybe slate as whether it's an inside and outside.

How is he going to compliment Justin Jefferson and the other receivers we either had at the time or eventually you know, built that receiver room to be.

And I remember coming to the conclusion he can be anything he wants because he's big, he's fast, he's strong, catches the football well, has a football intelligence that allows him to really play any and all spot required.

And I'm on record saying when you play receiver in an offense with Justin Jefferson, the way he lines up everywhere in motions and moves in our offense, you've got to basically, but there is no such thing as I'm a slot receiver.

I'm an outside receiver that can be where you do a lot of.

Your work and have a lot of success.

But the guys that thrive here around Justin are the guys that can do a little bit of everything at a high level.

Jordan Addison's done a lot of those things as well, but I think Speedy is just a great example.

He's got Keenan McCardell, who I think is, if not the best, one of the best receiver coaches in football.

His experience as a player, his ability to teach, his ability to relate to these guys all at different points in their journey.

It's just been awesome to watch with Speedy and I love him.

I think he's I think he's earned everything that's coming to him.

Hopefully we're able to keep him in this building.

But as you know, you know, these football coaches that watch the tape, they know exactly what Jon Taylor has been able to do.

He's fast and ultimately is going to I think he's going to be a very popular player.

You know.

I'm not two to go here with Kevin O'Connell, Vikings and Packers Sunday at noon.

It's the season finale for Kevin's team.

I'm not trying to make Will Fries sound like a cross between Randall McDaniel, Steve hutch and Marshall Yonda.

However, in a season where a Minnesota Moving companies had at least twenty five different offensive line combinations, and then him coming back from that injury, having to get himself in shape in training camp up during preseason games, and to make all the dances, assuming he's starting this weekend, and to make all the dances he's starting this weekend, right he is.

That's seventeen consecutive Yeah, on a Minnesota moving company that's been makeshift.

I mean, that's pretty good, he is.

You know, there's been a lot of combinations, as you mentioned, there's been a lot of uh, there's been a lot of snaps without either, you know, either one of our tackles or both potentially, which is always difficult.

There's been multiple centers, there's been multiple guys.

At that left guard spot.

And although Donovan I think has had a great year and a really exciting first year here, Will Fries has been a guy that you know, that injury was significant, right, And you know, a lot of times you find out about guys and you find out about their makeup and their and their life of a football throughout that journey back from an injury.

And I think just the way he's been able to attack it, I don't think he's you know, truly felt like himself for much of the season, just because of the grind of the season coming.

Back from an injury like that.

But I will tell you I'm really excited about Will and think he's going to continue to ascend in our offense, you know, knowing that he's had all this time a full season and now he'll you know, obviously knock on Wood have a great full offseason ready to hit the ground running.

Thank you for joining us for this week's episode of x'es and O's and this season of X's and O's with Kevin O'Connell.

It's presented by Ken Moore and is an official production of the Minnesota Vikings Audio Network.