Vikings' Gary Kubiak finds a healthy balance as an offensive coordinator

Gary Kubiak, the 59-year-old Super Bowl-winning head coach and offensive sage Mike Zimmer called the "best thing" that's happened to him in Minnesota, started laughing long before a reporter finished painting for him a hypothetical portrait of his future five months from now.

What if, Gary, a certain purple-clad team playing in its 60th season were to win its first Super Bowl in this, the most bizarre of 101 NFL seasons? And what if the Vikings offense outperformed last year's eighth-ranked scoring attack, and Kirk Cousins went to another level a year after posting a career-high 107.4 passer rating, good for fourth in the league?

And finally, Gary, what if another team looked toward the Upper Midwest for a certain assistant head coach/offensive coordinator to become its next head coach?

"Nope!" said the man who cited his well-publicized health problems for leaving the head coaching ranks after the 2016 season. "I am not going back to that. Teams might be looking, but tell them, 'Don't call me.' Maybe call my wife."

There was more laughter because Rhonda Kubiak might be the only person who's happier that Gary is perfectly happy toiling in the relative background as successor to former mentee Kevin Stefanski and old-school yang to Zimmer's defensive-minded ying.

"From the family's perspective, just excited that he's getting back to what he loves to do," said Klint Kubiak, the oldest of Gary's three sons and his quarterbacks coach. "But it's also a breath of fresh air he hasn't jumped back into a stress-filled environment."

NFL coordinator and gameday play-caller isn't exactly stress-free. But …

"There isn't enough time for me to describe the difference [in stress level] between being a coordinator and a head coach," Kubiak said. "Unless you've been a head coach, it's hard to explain. But there is a big, big difference. I can tell you that."

Kubiak is heading into his 36th NFL season. He spent nine years as John Elway's backup in Denver, 10 as a head coach in Houston and Denver, two on personnel in Denver and the rest as an assistant. He has four Super Bowl rings, one as 49ers quarterbacks coach, two as Mike Shanahan's offensive coordinator in Denver, and one from when he was Broncos head coach in Super Bowl 50.

"I wouldn't be back doing this in just any old situation," Kubiak said. "When I stepped down and went into the personnel side of things in Denver, I was happy."

Happy, but …

" 'Not as fulfilled' is how I'd describe those two years for him," Klint said of the 2017 and '18 seasons his father spent in the Broncos front office. "The reward of having to win and lose every day. I don't think he got that feeling staying behind a desk."

Gary Kubiak loves his "unique" situation with the Vikings, who first brought him on as an adviser in 2019. He loves renting a place in Edina, right down the road from his three grandsons, who "you can go hug and play in the yard with when football gets rough."

He loves that his transition from consultant to coordinator was made seamless by reuniting with longtime coaching cohorts Rick Dennison, the team's line coach and run game coordinator; and Brian Pariani, the tight ends coach.

And last but certainly not least, he said, "I love working for Coach Zimmer because I love how he runs his club and how he tries to win." And, no, that's not a universal feeling among all who have worked for Zimmer.

In other words, Kubiak and Zimmer are the rum and Coke of coaching compadres compared to the oil and water that was Zimmer and John DeFilippo, who lasted all of 13 games as offensive coordinator.

"I'm just so happy Gary is here with us," Zimmer said. "Gary was a very strong influence on Kevin. And what I see in the scrimmages this summer is I think Gary is pretty aggressive in his play-calling. He's obviously got a good feel for it. He's done it forever."

Under DeFilippo in 2018, the Vikings ranked 29th in run percentage (35.59). With Stefanski running a version of Kubiak's system last year, the Vikings returned to the top five in run percentage. They ranked fourth at 48.3%, the team's highest mark since 2015, when Zimmer won his first NFC North title with NFL rushing champ Adrian Peterson and an offense that ranked third in run percentage (48.88).

Sandwiched around the DeFilippo firing in 2018, Zimmer had two coordinators get hired as head coaches. Pat Shurmur ranked fifth in run percentage (45.93) when the Vikings reached the NFC title game in 2017. He was hired by the Giants. And Stefanski moved on to Cleveland.

"I think the thing you're going to continue to see is the trend going to more teams running the football," Zimmer said. "There are a lot of good backs in the league now. San Francisco made their hay on running the football and play-action passes last year. A lot of teams are not just sitting back and throwing the football as much as they were a couple of years ago.

"I think the trend now is a little more what we're trying to do now."

With Dalvin Cook as his focal point, Kubiak will use multiple tight ends and a fullback probably more than any team but San Francisco. It also appears from watching training camp that he will look to help the offensive line by moving the pocket more than Stefanski did.

"I've just always felt that if you can run the ball, it takes a lot of pride away from a defense," Zimmer said. "When you're just pounding them and pounding them and then all of a sudden you run play-action and hit them with a deep one. Whether it's old school or what, I think you're going to see that cycle come back a little bit."

There probably isn't a football fan who hasn't seen footage of Kubiak as Texans head coach collapsing at halftime as he jogged off the field at Reliant Stadium during the 2013 season.

He was taken by ambulance to a hospital, where it was determined that he suffered a "mini-stroke." Officially, it was called a TIA — transient ischemic attack, which is caused when a blood clot affects blood flow in the brain.

That was Kubiak's first public episode with deteriorating health.

"How scary was it?" asked Kubiak, repeating the question. "The way I would answer that is I'd probably say the first time, it was, 'Oh, just a bad set of circumstances that led to this.' I had good people trying to tell me, 'You better do this or you better do that.' "

Klint said the Kubiak family was very concerned and spoke freely to Gary about it.

"Honestly, he wasn't extremely forthcoming with how he felt, as you can imagine with a football coach and most men, I'm sure," Klint said.

Gary Kubiak was fired by the Texans at the end of that season. He spent 2014 as Baltimore's offensive coordinator before getting the Broncos' head coaching job in 2015.

No, he hadn't learned from 2013.

"I had a way I operated and ran my team that I knew I had to do to be successful no matter what," Kubiak said. "You've heard all the stories. I used to sleep in the office and those types of things. I had a way I functioned, and eventually I started to struggle doing it my way."

Kubiak made it through 2015, winning the Super Bowl. But on Oct. 9, 2016, he was hospitalized after a loss to the Falcons.

He was diagnosed with a complex migraine condition. Basically, he was fried. Doctors ordered him to take a week off to rest.

"That got me more than anything to sit down and think and say, 'Damn, you're not going to hold up if you don't figure this out,' " Kubiak said. "That's what I did."

On Jan. 1, 2017, after a 24-6 win over the Raiders at home, Kubiak walked into the locker room and told his players he was stepping down.

"It was a very emotional day," Kubiak said. "A tough day."

Sensing Kubiak's decision, the home crowd chanted "Gary!" during the game.

"Honestly, the game is going on and you're standing there thinking, 'OK, what's next for me?' " Kubiak said. "You're out there doing something you absolutely love to do and you've been doing it all your life. We all got the end coming someday. But you're thinking, 'What's next?' "

In his return to coaching, Kubiak is working out, eating right and respecting the human body's basic need for sleep. He still arrives for work at 5 a.m. but forces himself to go home every evening and get sleep.

"He's in good shape, he's healthier, he's working out, eating better," Klint said. "He's searching for ways to be better. To be healthier. Thank goodness for that."

So, Klint, say the Vikings win the Super Bowl with Cousins directing a standout offense. Would Gary answer that phone if someone called looking for a new head coach?

"I couldn't answer that for him," Klint said. "But that would be a good problem to have to deal with next year."