Ranking every Minnesota Vikings head coach since 2000

Former Minnesota Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer
Former Minnesota Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer / Jeffrey Becker-USA TODAY Sports
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5th-best Vikings head coach since 2000:

Mike Tice (2001 - 2005)

  • Record: 32-33
  • Playoff Appearances: 1
  • Playoff Record: 1-1
  • Division Titles: 0

Like Leslie Frazier, Mike Tice got his first opportunity to be an NFL head coach as an interim choice after the Vikings fired their head coach in the middle of a season.

For Tice, he was named Minnesota's interim head coach after the team fired Dennis Green one game before the end of the 2001 season.

Following the 2001 campaign, the Vikings decided to stick with Tice, and they named him their full-time head coach in 2002. Like Frazier, again, Tice's first season without the interim tag in Minnesota went terribly. After losing five of their first six games, the Vikings finished 2002 with a disappointing 6-10 record.

Tice's head coaching tenure with Minnesota is mostly remembered more for the off-the-field events (scalping tickets scandal, the Love Boat scandal) that took place during his time with the team. But, aside from 2002, the Vikings were always very competitive with Tice as their head coach.

In his final three years with Minnesota, he led the team to at least eight wins in each season, including the 2004 campaign when he helped lead the Vikings to a memorable playoff win on the road against a heavily favored Green Bay Packers team. That was the game where a certain freakish wide receiver had a certain touchdown celebration that a certain play-by-play announcer called "a disgusting act."