Sports blog information from USA TODAY.
With it being Thanksgiving Day, our staff talked about what we are most thanful for with the Minnesota Vikings
The Minnesota Vikings are quite an interesting franchise. They have sent the fans and those covering the team on a multitude of roller coaster rides throughout their 63-year history.
As we look back and reflect on both this and the entirety of the franchise, our staff at Vikings Wire talked about what we are thankful for with the franchise.
Here’s what folks are tweeting about Harvin today.
Every few months the name Percy Harvin is trending on Twitter. The reason? When he was at his peak, Harvin was one of the most electrifying playmakers in the entire sport.
In March of 2013 the Seahawks sent three draft picks including a first-rounder to the Vikings in exchange for Harvin. While that deal ultimately did not work out – Harvin was traded again to the Jets in the middle of the 2014 campaign – the Seahawks still got some special moments from him, including his epic kickoff return to begin the second half of Super Bowl 48. Here’s what folks are tweeting about Harvin today.
15 players have worn the No. 12 for the Minnesota Vikings, including WR Percy Harvin.
The Minnesota Vikings will kick off their 2023 regular season in 12 days at home against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sept. 10.
From now until then, we will take a trip down memory lane and count each day by revisiting the players who have worn that specific jersey number.
Quarterback Nick Mullens currently wears the No. 12 for the Vikings.
With 12 days until kickoff, here’s a look at every player to wear No. 12 in a regular season game with the Vikings (via Pro Football Reference):
The Minnesota Vikings drafted an elite route runner and separator in Jordan Addison, and that’s a perfect complement for Justin Jefferson.
The Minnesota Vikings have a really good history of drafting wide receivers in the early 20s. Randy Moss, Percy Harvin and Justin Jefferson were all drafted between pick 21-23. Jordan Addison joins that list after the Vikings selected him at 23rd overall during the first round of the 2023 NFL draft.
Addison won the Biletnikoff Award in 2021 as the best wide receiver in college football. He was winning with great route running and maximizing his play after the catch.
His athletic testing left something to be desired and that’s why he was the fourth wide receiver off the board. It is worth noting that he had to pull himself out of drills due to an injury.
The Vikings didn’t draft him for his athleticism, but rather how technically sound of a route runner he is. Addison is the best in the class at it and is a great complement to Jefferson.
Since the year 2000, the Minnesota Vikings have made 15 trades involving first-round picks.
The Minnesota Vikings have been a very active team in the first round. Since the year 2000, they have made 14 trades involving first-round picks, including multiple moves in 2020, 2014, 2013 and 2012.
The majority of those trades came by moving down due to former general manager Rick Spielman’s affinity for having a high quantity of draft picks.
Since 2000, five of their 14 trades involving first-round picks involved veteran players and that could happen again this season. Here are all the trades they have made in the first round.
The Oklahoma Sooners make the top 12 for a speedster out of Georgia, four-star wide receiver Zion Ragins
The Oklahoma Sooners are in the running for one of the fastest players in the 2024 recruiting class. Four-star wide receiver Zion Ragins trimmed his interest list to 12 teams, which included Oklahoma.
After landing [autotag]Jaquize Pettaway[/autotag] in the 2023 cycle, the Sooners hope to double down with another speedster in Ragins.
Oklahoma is joined in the top 12 by several Power Five schools, including Georgia, Tennessee, Penn State, Notre Dame, Colorado, Miami, South Carolina, Auburn, and Florida State.
Ragins looks a lot like Percy Harvin, the former Florida Gators‘ star. He can do it all. He plays out of the backfield as a running back and will split wide as a receiver. He’s equally adept at running out of the backfield as he is after the catch as a wide receiver.
His speed pops off the screen as he runs by and runs away from opposing defenses. According to 247Sports, he ran a 10.47 100-meter dash for Jones County High School. In addition to his elite speed, he also shows off fantastic athleticism with his ability to make people miss.
It will be a difficult road to land Ragins’ commitment, but Jeff Lebby’s offense provides a great fit to utilize Ragins’ speed and athleticism.
Hudl
The Athletic has released its retrospective for the coaches hired in the 2017-2018 hiring cycle, with Florida’s Dan Mullen looking favorable
The Florida Gators dismissed [autotag]Jim McElwain[/autotag] during the 2017 football season after amassing a 22-12 record that included two SEC East division titles.
Afterward, the Gators hired [autotag]Dan Mullen[/autotag] to become the 27th coach in Florida history. Mullen left his position as Mississippi State head coach after eight seasons to return to the place he won two national championships as the Gators’ offensive coordinator.
At the time, the hire was a no-brainer. Mullen was the architect behind the high-scoring offense that brought the best out of guys like [autotag]Tim Tebow[/autotag], [autotag]Percy Harvin[/autotag], and [autotag]Chris Rainey[/autotag]. He also rose the floor at Mississippi State, peaking in 2014 when Mullen led the Bulldogs to a No. 1 ranking in the inaugural College Football Playoff rankings.
His Florida tenure started off with a bang, going 10-3 in his first season including a Peach Bowl victory over Michigan. He followed it up by improving upon that record, going 11-2 in his second year and capping it off with an Orange Bowl victory over Virginia.
His third season fell short of expectations. After two 10-plus win seasons that ended with New Year’s Six bowl game victories, Mullen’s Gators went 8-4, losing multiple close games, and the team visibly gave up towards the end of the season. Mullen’s press conferences were filled with refusals to admit there were issues with the team, along with repeated deflections about the lackluster direction recruiting was going into.
Ultimately, Mullen was let go in the middle of his fourth season in charge. Lots of things were factored into the decision, with recruiting the topic fans latched on to in the aftermath. The Athletic’s regrade has the hire as a B. What was considered to be an A by multiple outlets at the time has to be brought down a bit given how the tenure played out.
Billy Napier is currently in his first season as Florida’s head coach. He started off strong with a summer that saw the Gators enter the top 10 in multiple recruiting rankings, and rode that momentum to a season-opening upset of Utah.
Napier’s next task is facing an LSU team that also has a first-year head coach in Brian Kelly. The game will take place at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville, FL. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. EDT. The game will be broadcast on ESPN.
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Let us know your thoughts and comment on this story below. Join the conversation today!
A Gators legend from the ’90s will don a yellow shirt and a blue and orange tie as the first Mr. Two Bits of the Billy Napier era on Saturday.
It wouldn’t be a Florida Gators game with the Two Bits cheer, and the honorary leader of it on Saturday will be former UF wide receiver [autotag]Reidel Anthony[/autotag], who earned All-America honors in the 1990s while playing for [autotag]Steve Spurrier[/autotag].
Since 2013, Florida has had celebrity dress up in the same yellow shirt and blue and orange tie made famous by Gators superfan George Edmondson to lead the Two Bits chant, and Anthony is the latest Gators legend to claim the honor. [autotag]Percy Harvin[/autotag], [autotag]Chris Doering[/autotag] and [autotag]Ike Hilliard[/autotag] are among the receivers that have been Mr. Two Bits.
An exciting player in college — he once lept into the stands of Tennessee‘s Neyland Stadium to celebrate a touchdown during a 31-0 rout of the Volunteers — Anthony’s routine should be one of the more explosive in recent memory. He’s not letting anyone know his plans, but the Head Ball Coach’s words of wisdom will be in the back of his mind.
“I haven’t gotten that far yet. First, I need to get the rules and regulations,” Anthony said to the UAA. “Coach Spurrier used to always tell me, ‘You know, Reidel, you’re the only one who ended up in the NCAA’s what-not-to-do video they show teams every year.’ I made it three years in a row, so I guess I better see what they allow.”
Single-game tickets have been sold out for the season opener, so there should be a good crowd in the Swamp for Anthony’s Two Bits. There’s excitement in the air for not only the start of the 2022 season but also for the start of the Billy Napier era at UF. Anthony couldn’t pass up a chance to add to that atmosphere.
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Take a look at the top dozen Gators running backs and where they rank, according to Pat Dooley.
Sometimes, you don’t have a long way to go in your memory files to come up with something. Other times, well, you have to look it up.
I had to look this one up, so I will present it in the form of a trivia question: Who was the last Florida running back to be named all-SEC?
Now you are the one racking your brain.
Obviously, it has been a while and it will be a while before I give you the answer. He is included in the latest Dooley’s Dozen as I bring you the 12 best running backs in Florida history.
This was not an easy list because some of the best running backs ever at UF were not technically running backs ([autotag]Tim Tebow[/autotag], [autotag]Percy Harvin[/autotag], [autotag]Wes Chandler[/autotag]) and others had injuries that shortened their careers (Nat Moore).
Before we get to the list, it is important to recognize the passing of former UF running back James Massey, who played during the late ’80s subbing for the first player on this list and starting when No. 1 was injured. He died in a car accident earlier this week.
Without further ado, here is this edition of Dooley’s Dozen, focusing on the 12 best backs in Gators history.
Most fans seem to believe he’s talking about the Percy Harvin deal, which was one of this team’s biggest mistakes during their peak run.
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The Seahawks have made some brilliant personnel moves during the Pete Carroll and John Schneider era. They’ve made some great Day 3 picks in the draft and signed some awesome players as undrafted free agents, including Doug Baldwin and Poona Ford. They have also fleeced a few teams in trades, especially the ones involving Marshawn Lynch and Quandre Diggs.
No front office is perfect, though and this one has also made several big blunders. The worst of them have usually involved giving up first-round picks in blockbuster trades for players that don’t play premium positions and didn’t even fit their organizational philosophy, as in some cases.
Speaking in an interview on former Falcons executive Thomas Dimitroff’s podcast The GM Journey, Schneider said at one point they traded for a player then made him the highest-paid guy on the team and he’ll never do that again.
Seahawks GM John Schneider:
"We traded for an individual and made him the highest player on our team and I would never, ever do that again. We just didn't know philosophically at the time what we were doing […] We should have known better"
Is this about Adams, Harvin or both? pic.twitter.com/8AZiIIgatA
— Computer Cowboy (@benbbaldwin) June 5, 2022
Most fans seem to believe that he’s talking about the Percy Harvin deal, which was one of this team’s biggest mistakes during their peak run.
To be fair, Harvin was one of the most dynamic players in football at the time. He was an exceptional receiver, rusher and kick returner and he made a few major splash plays during the team’s championship run in 2013.
Harvin was also extremely injury-prone and had been a literal headache for every team he’d ever played for. The legend goes that he clashed with coaches and teammates behind the scenes and infamously punched Golden Tate the week before the Super Bowl game against the Broncos. Even though they gave up a ton of draft capital to get him, Seattle traded Harvin to the Jets not even 18 months later.
It would be nice to believe that Schneider and Carroll learned their lesson from Harvin, but the Jamal Adams trade indicates otherwise.
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