Should Mike Tice make it past Monday?

"Should he stay or should he go?"Just as The Clash have asked before, Minnesota fans wonder the same thing. The Vikings' season ends after Sunday's game against the Chicago. With the playoffs out of reach, the game's outcome is secondary to speculation about coach Mike Tice's future. To begin, any evaluation of Tice should be done with the understanding that the Vikings have underachieved the last two years. Obviously the solution is not so cut and dry; there are several reasons for the team's dissapointment:

Red McCombs' stinginess handcuffed the team from acquiring key free agents, and hiring additional coaches.The team went through three defensive coordinators in four years, team distractions on and off field. Whether it was Randy Moss, Onterrio Smith or the boat scandal, there were many things out of Tice's control, (although his scalping controversy didn't help).

There were plenty of things in Tice's control too. Tice's own self-professed timeline for the Vikings. where he repeatedly claimed to have a 3-year plan to get the Vikings to the Super Bowl. The team has not won a division title and made the playoffs just once in four years. The last three seasons the team struggled down the stretch.

Forget about injuries-every team deals with that, forget about other things that should have went right and didn't, the fact is that the Vikings have become stale and a fresh start is needed. It's not all Tice's fault, but the Vikings have too much talent to go 8-8 every year. To me Tice has not proven enough to keep him around for another year.