Vikings confirm the vacant wide receivers coach position has been filled
By Adam Patrick
No official announcement has been made from the team yet, but Minnesota’s offensive coordinator has validated a report on the hiring.
On Thursday evening, Sporting News NFL columnist Alex Marvez reported that the Minnesota Vikings are expected to hire former Purdue University head coach Darrell Hazell as the team’s new wide receivers coach.
Source tells @sn_nfl that @Vikings expected to hire former @BoilerFootball & @KentStFootball HC Darrell Hazel as WRs coach
— Alex Marvez (@alexmarvez) February 17, 2017
On Friday, Vikings offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur confirmed the report during an interview on Minnesota’s KFAN radio.
Pat Shurmur, on KFAN, confirms Darrell Hazell will be the Vikings WRs coach. Former Kent St. and Purdue head coach.
— Andrew Krammer (@Andrew_Krammer) February 17, 2017
The position on the Vikings’ staff had opened up a few weeks ago after longtime wide receivers coach George Stewart announced he was bolting Minnesota to join the coaching staff of the Los Angeles Chargers. Randy Moss and Cris Carter were among the few names of former Vikings pass catchers that were tossed around as to who could possibly fill the opening, but most assumed these candidates to be long shots at best.
But it seems as though Minnesota has decided on Hazell to be the next guy to lead their wide receivers for at least the 2017 season.
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For the past four years, Hazell was the head football coach at Purdue University. Prior to being hired at Purude, he was the head coach at Kent State for the 2011 and 2012 seasons.
Before becoming a head coach in the college ranks, Hazell was the assistant head coach and wide receivers coach under Jim Tressel at Ohio State from 2004 to 2011. Under his guidance, Ohio State was able to help a number of players get opportunities in the NFL including Ted Ginn, Santonio Holmes, Anthony Gonzalez, and Terrelle Pryor.
In total, Hazell has held a college football coaching role for 31 years. However, he has never been a member of an NFL coaching staff.
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Sorry to those who were holding out hope to see Mr. Carter land a coaching gig with his former team.