Coaches

Named offensive coordinator on January 20, 2011, Darrell Bevell enters his 12th season in the NFL after spending the last five seasons as the Minnesota Vikings offensive coordinator.

With the Vikings, Bevell guided Adrian Peterson and Brett Favre to career years.

In 2010, the Vikings running game continued to churn up yardage with Adrian Peterson leading the way. Peterson earned his fourth straight Pro Bowl berth and rushed for 1,298 yards on the ground, the fifth-best mark in team history with four of the top five owned by Peterson. Peterson also had 12 rush scores, topping the 10+ touchdown mark each year in the league. However, his offense was hobbled by injuries to their lineman, starting three different centers, losing both guards to injured reserve and getting only 20 total games out of 2009 Pro Bowl WRs Sidney Rice (6) and Percy Harvin (14).

The signing of Favre, who Bevell coached in Green Bay, spurred the Vikings to the eighth-ranked passing offense in the NFL in 2009. The Vikings air attack matched the established productivity of the ground game in 2009. Favre’s favorite target was Sidney Rice, who led the team in receiving and earned his first Pro Bowl berth, and Visanthe Shiancoe, who set a Vikings record for tight ends with 11 touchdowns. Harvin earned NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year, marking the second time in three seasons the Vikings drafted the Rookie of the Year, joining Peterson in 2007. On the ground, Peterson posted the third-best single-season rushing total in team history while leading the NFL and setting a team record with 18 rushing scores.

The 2009 Vikings ranked second in the NFL in scoring offense by one point to Super Bowl XLIV champions New Orleans, posting 447 of the Vikings 470 total points for the season on offense. The Vikings ranked fifth in the NFL in total offense. The offense distributed the ball with efficiency, becoming only the second team in NFL history to have six players catch 40+ passes in a season.

In 2008, Peterson led the NFL and set a Vikings record with 1,760 rushing yards and set a team mark with 10 games over the 100-yard mark. Free agent addition Bernard Berrian led the team with 964 yards tied an NFL record with a 99-yard receiving toss from Gus Frerotte.

The 2007 Vikings featured a dynamic backfield that set team records with 2,634 rushing yards and a 5.33 yard-per-carry average. The Vikings scored 22 rushing touchdowns, an improvement of 10 over the 2006 club.

Peterson burst onto the NFL scene in 2007 and left his name etched throughout the NFL’s and the Vikings’ record books. He won the 2007 Associated Press Offensive Rookie of the Year. In his fifth NFL game, Peterson broke the Vikings single-game rushing record with 224 yards at Chicago and three games later he set an NFL record with 296 yards on the ground against San Diego. Peterson ended the season with 1,341 yards to finish second in the NFL.

Peterson was the only offensive rookie in 2007 to earn Pro Bowl honors and was joined on the NFC squad by Tony Richardson, Matt Birk and Steve Hutchinson, who both repeated their trips from 2006.

In his first year as coordinator, the Vikings were led on the ground by Chester Taylor, who set a franchise record with 303 rushing attempts and the fourth-highest total in team history with 1,216 yards. The offense saw four different starting groups in the offensive line and only three players starting all 16 games across the front. Of the three players who did start every game, Birk and Hutchinson earned Pro Bowl berths.

Bevell worked with Green Bay for six years, serving the last three as quarterbacks coach, prior to his time in Minnesota.

He stepped into the Packers quarterbacks role in 2003 with solid results. Favre set a career-high with a 65.4% completion rate, led the NFL with 32 touchdown passes and earned his eighth career berth in the Pro Bowl.

In 2005, Green Bay led the NFL in completions (383) and attempts (626) and set a team record in both categories. The 2004 Packers set a team record with 4,449 net passing yards, breaking an 11-year old franchise record en route to ranking third in the NFL in total offense. After setting a team record for rushing yards the season before, the Packers became the first NFL team since the 1988-89 San Francisco 49ers to set team marks in rushing and passing in back-to-back seasons.

Along with Favre in his first year in 2000, Bevell worked with Matt Hasselbeck before his trade from Green Bay to Seattle.

Bevell entered the coaching ranks at Westmar University in Lemars, Iowa in 1996 where he worked as passing game coordinator and quarterbacks coach. He moved on to Iowa State in 1997 as a graduate assistant and then the University of Connecticut for two seasons in 1998-99 as wide receivers coach. The 1998 UConn Huskies posted a 10-3 record, a school-record 461 points, won the Atlantic-10 Conference North Division title and advanced to the Division I-AA playoff quarterfinals.

In college, Bevell helped turn the University of Wisconsin program into a national power. A four-year starter for the Badgers, Bevell helped guide the team to a 10-1-1 mark as a sophomore in 1993. The squad claimed a share of the Big Ten championship for the first time since 1962 and defeated UCLA in the Rose Bowl. Between his sophomore and junior seasons, Bevell helped UW go 18-4-2. He left Madison as the school’s all-time leading passer with 19 team records and a pair of Big Ten marks. His 67.8% completion mark set in 1993 still stands as the conference record while he was a 61.4% passer for his career.

A native of Yuma, Ari., Bevell was a standout at Chaparral High in Scottsdale where he played under his father, James. After redshirting in 1989 as a freshman at Northern Arizona, where Childress was on the coaching staff, Bevell went on a two-year Mormon mission in Cleveland in 1990-91.

Born on January 6, 1970, Bevell and his wife, Tammy, have three daughters, Kylie, Morgan and Hailey.