Chip Lindsey is Missouri’s newest offensive coordinator and I am extremely skeptical of this hire. To put it nicely. In order to show you why I think this/talk myself into this hire, I’m going to review his resume and offer a break out of how he’s done at each job he’s had previously.
I am not going to go over his stint as the head coach of Troy, however. Why? Couple of reasons:
- He was the head coach, not a sole offensive coordinator
- Mizzou is hiring him as an offensive coordinator, not as a head coach
- He’s the first Troy football coach since 1991 to not have a winning season, nor win at least one conference title; he clearly sucked and there’s no need to dive any deeper than that to prove to you that he sucked at Troy
This is the first entry: his two-year stint as Southern Mississippi’s offensive coordinator.
Chip Lindsey at Southern Mississippi
Role
Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks
coach
Offense inherited
- Overall: 116th
- Rushing: 123rd
- Passing: 114th
- Standard Downs: 114th
- Passing Downs: 117th
- Efficiency: 121st
- Explosiveness: 39th
- Quarterback: Nick Mullens (FR) – 136/276 (49.3%), 1,776 yards, 13 TDs, 14 INTs/15 rushes, 49 yards, 2 TDs
- Running Back 1: Kendrick Hardy (SR) – 93 rushes, 417 yards, 2 TDs/10 targets, 6 catches, 64 yards, 1 TD
- Running Back 2: Jalen Richard (JR) – 84 rushes, 307 yards, 0 TDs/31 targets, 21 catches, 168 yards, 1 TD
Year 1 (2014)
- Overall: 101st (+15 spots)
- Rushing: 114th (+9 spots)
- Passing: 105th (+9 spots)
- Standard Downs: 109th (+5 spots)
- Passing Downs: 105th (+12 spots)
- Efficiency: 109th (+12 spots)
- Explosiveness: 121st (-82 spots)
- Quarterback: Nick Mullens (SO) – 218/365 (59.7%), 2,470 yards, 12 TDs, 9 INTs/28 rushes, 173 yards, 0 TDs
- Running Back 1: Ito Smith (SO) – 136 rushes, 536 yards, 2 TDs/15 targets, 8 catches, 76 yards, 0 TDs
- Running Back 2: George Payne (JR) – 86 rushes, 271 yards, 6 TDs/12 targets, 8 catches, 109 yards, 1 TD
Lindsey was brought into Todd Monken’s Southern Miss team in Monken’s second full year on the job. Monken had taken over for Ellis Johnson, who took over an 11-2 team and promptly went 0-12, so the rebuild was always going to be tough.
But, remember, Todd Monken is a miracle worker. He took a 26-year old Brandon Weeden and helped steer Mike Gundy’s Oklahoma State squad to a few plays away from a national title appearance; he was the OC for the two recent Georgia Bulldog national titles with Stetson Bennett at QB; and he’s now terrorizing NFL defenses with Lamar Jackson in Baltimore. His college offenses are some of the best this sport has ever seen, and Lindsey used that Monken blueprint to help improve the offense.
It wasn’t noticeable in Year 1, however. There was improvement but of the “barely noticeable” kind, while the explosive plays went from 39th-best in the country to 121st.
Year 2 (2015)
- Overall: 41st (+60 spots)
- Rushing: 52nd (+62 spots)
- Passing: 55th (+50 spots)
- Standard Downs: 60th (+49 spots)
- Passing Downs: 30th (+75 spots)
- Efficiency: 46th (+63 spots)
- Explosiveness: 1st (+120 spots)
- Quarterback: Nick Mullens (JR) – 331/521 (63.5%), 4,476 yards, 38 TDs, 12 INTs/23 rushes, 92 yards, 3 TDs
- Running Back 1: Jalen Richard (SR) – 185 rushes, 1,098 yards, 14 TDs/x targets, 30 catches, 284 yards, 2 TDs
- Running Back 2: Ito Smith (JR) – 171 rushes, 1,128 yards, 10 TDs/x targets, 49 catches, 515 yards, 3 TDs
Year 2 was where the Monken/Lindsey partnership took off. Back in the day when G5 teams were able to hold on to their talent, develop it, and “being old” was a skill that could win you quite a few games at the G5 level, Southern Mississippi’s offense was an absolute terror, utilizing the Monken scheme to win 9-games and be nearly a Top 40 offense in the country. Even though I’m being a mega hater here I should note: Monken called plays in 2014 but handed over play-calling responsibilities to Lindsey in 2015.
What happened at the end of this tenure?
- Chip was hired away by Arizona State on December 10th, 2015, 16 days before Southern’s bowl game.
- Southern Miss lost the 2015 Heart of Dallas Bowl to a 6-6 Washington team, final score 44-31.
- Head Coach Todd Monken was hired away by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on January 24th, 2016.
- Nick Mullens stayed one more year at Southern Miss, broke a bunch of Brett Favre records, then signed as an undrafted free agent in the NFL where he is still a backup quarterback to this day.
- Running back Jalen Richard also went the undrafted free agent route and enjoyed a 6-year career with the Raiders.
- Running back Ito Smith was a 4th-round pick in the 2018 NFL Draft (126th overall) by the Atlanta Falcons and played for 3 teams over 4 years.
What’s the take away?
This was a good two-year stretch for ol’ Chippy. He got on to the staff of an offensive mega-mind, learned the intricacies of the system without all the pressure of calling plays in Year 1, then helped the thing take off in Year 2 and got himself a shiny new P4 job.
This Hater’s takeaway: success
