Scoggins: Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell’s love for training camp shows in the details

Kevin O’Connell began devising his schedule for training camp months ago. He spent long hours meticulously crafting a daily plan for Vikings players, coaches and support staff to follow practically down to the minute.

He could barely contain his excitement for practice No. 1 in the month-long buildup to the regular season.

“I’m like, man, the fields look beautiful, the tents are up, it’s like spring training in Major League Baseball,” O’Connell said.

And then rain poured the first day.

The Vikings coach smiled and sighed about being forced to alter practice Wednesday after inclement weather shifted everything indoors.

“You can’t make it up,” he said. “You feel like you’ve earned the right for things to go smooth because you put so much time and energy on it. And then you realize the first day that it doesn’t matter. You’ve got to adjust.”

The adjustments kept coming. Superstar receiver Justin Jefferson suffered a hamstring strain on Day 2. O’Connell and staff spent the morning of Day 3 monitoring air quality conditions caused by Canadian wildfires to determine whether practice needed to be moved inside again. They kept practice as scheduled.

O’Connell is too busy to play a sad trombone because he has a team and a first-year quarterback to get prepared for the season. The foundation is laid during training camp, meaning no time can be wasted.

O’Connell provided a glimpse into his process of building a camp schedule Friday in a one-on-one interview in his office overlooking the practice fields. Every practice is mapped out in precise detail on color-coded sheets on his desk. He seems to know the entire choreography by heart.

O’Connell gained some insight into the work required in creating a camp schedule when he served as Sean McVay’s offensive coordinator with the Rams. But as head coach, he is responsible for every single detail of the operation, from big-picture philosophy to how much time he gives players for lunch. Yes, he deliberated about that to find the sweet spot.

“Ultimately, the most important thing is this massive momentum is rolling toward something,” he said. “We’ve just got to make sure no matter what happens that we’ve got a schedule and daily process built in where it’s arrow up as a team.”

He began talking to other NFL head coaches about holding joint practices in February. He struck a deal with New England’s Mike Vrabel for two sessions before the Aug. 16 preseason game.

The 2025 Vikings are an interesting study because the roster is filled with veterans who know how to get ready for a season but they are also unveiling a quarterback in J.J. McCarthy who has never taken a snap in a regular-season game.

“Obviously J.J. is a huge part of it,” O’Connell said. “We want to push him. We want to test him. We don’t want him to be comfortable through the whole month of August and then just think, ‘Hey, we’re going to show up to an NFL game and everything’s going to be great.’ But we also don’t want him to be uncomfortable for the whole month.”

O’Connell leans heavily on input from Tyler Williams, the team’s vice president of player health and performance. They map out workloads for every practice down to how many reps in each period. Practices typically have eight to 10 periods split among individual position drills and full-team sessions.

Some days are more strenuous than others. O’Connell balances individual development in technique and fundamentals with scheme installation. Players get a certain number of reps in each period, depending on where they sit on the depth chart.

O’Connell builds his practice schedule and what he intends to emphasize and accomplish each day within health and safety parameters.

O’Connell met with defensive coordinator Brian Flores two weeks before camp to finalize the plan. Both have their processes for implementing schemes and honing them. Flores employs an untraditional scheme with many moving parts designed to create confusion and pressure points. O’Connell has prioritized McCarthy’s development within that framework.

“It’s that balance of getting our defense ready to play how they’re going to play and then allowing some ability for J.J. to progress into Football 501,” O’Connell said. “Luckily, he’s smart. He can handle it. But I’ve told our staff and really our organization, I’m constantly going to be making tweaks to the daily feel of practices. You don’t always have to understand what I’m doing. But just know that the basis is about two things: First, our football team. But second, our quarterback.”

He presented the entire schedule to players in the first team meeting. Week 1 is an acclimation period. Then six practices in full pads in eight days — “the dog days of summer,” O’Connell said — followed by a week of prep for the preseason opener and then joint practices.

“It’s just not as much time as people think it is,” he said. “My job is to emphasize the urgency from Day 1.”

Storms on Day 1 also brought a reminder that even the best plans sometimes require adjustments. O’Connell has a book with notes he wrote down last summer of things he would do differently. One example: a drill he has set for Tuesday that he used last summer.

“I tried to play it out naturally,” he said.

He went for it six times and punted five times. Kicker Will Reichard didn’t attempt a field goal.

“So at the very end, I said, ‘Well, I’ve got to get Will some kicks,’ ” O’Connell said.

He had Reichard attempt three 55-yarders in a row. He missed two of them.

“The next day I was answering questions [from reporters] about, ‘Are you worrying about Will struggling?’ And it was totally my fault for why it happened.”

O’Connell plans an intrasquad scrimmage the final week of camp because starters don’t play in the final preseason game. The goal is to get starters 50-60 reps. Last year, rain forced them inside halfway through the session.

As practice restarted, a handful of veterans told O’Connell it didn’t feel right. The turf was sticky because of the moisture. O’Connell canceled the rest of practice with 20 reps left on the script. He didn’t overreact to something that was uncontrollable, despite cutting short a practice he finds especially valuable.

“I’ve learned if I don’t make a big deal out of things normally other people won’t,” he said.

He’s also learned to show love to his defensive players and not worry if Flores’ side gets the upper hand in a drill or practice. O’Connell makes a point to highlight defenders in team meetings and spends time after practices reviewing film with his defensive coaches.

“I’m watching them make a play against the offense that I was coaching and I’m all geeked up [saying], ‘Hey, that’s a great play by Gink right there, picking off that screen!’ ” he said, referencing Andrew Van Ginkel’s pick-six interception on the first day of camp. “They all kind of look at me like, ‘Can we trust you right now?’ ”

“As long as practice is put together well,” he said, “no matter what side wins the day, it’s a good thing for me.”