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 second entry: his single year as Arizona State’s offensive coordinator.
Part I – his time at Southern Mississippi – is right here.
Chip Lindsey at Arizona State
Role
Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks coach
Offense inherited
- Overall: 23rd
- Rushing: 17th
- Passing: 24th
- Standard Downs: 27th
- Passing Downs: 37th
- Efficiency: 40th
- Explosiveness: 10th
- Quarterback: Mike Bercovici (SR) – 318/531 (59.9%), 3,854 yards, 30 TDs, 9 INTs/72 rushes, 302 yards, 6 TDs
- Running Back 1: Demario Richard (SO) – 211 rushes, 1,132 yards, 7 TDs/48 targets, 31 catches, 303 yards, 3 TDs
- Running Back 2: Kalen Ballage (SO) – 125 rushes, 653 yards, 4 TDs/20 targets, 12 catches, 60 yards, 0 TDs
Year 1 (2016)
- Overall: 56th (-33 spots)
- Rushing: 114th (-97 spots)
- Passing: 65th (-41 spots)
- Standard Downs: 105th (-78 spots)
- Passing Downs: 68th (-31 spots)
- Efficiency: 108th (-68 spots)
- Explosiveness: 79th (-69 spots)
- Quarterback: Manny Wilkins (SO) – 197/311 (63.3%), 2,329 yards, 12 TDs, 9 INTs/98 rushes, 474 yards, 5 TDs
- Running Back 1: Demario Richard (JR) – 155 rushes, 593 yards, 3 TDs/23 targets, 17 catches, 136 yards, 0 TDs
- Running Back 2: Kalen Ballage (SO) – 126 rushes, 536 yards, 3 TDs/51 targets, 44 catches, 469 yards, 1 TD
Lindsey joined Todd Graham’s Arizona State squad in the third year of Graham’s tenure in an effort to revitalize a slagging offensive effort.
It didn’t work.
Faced with an untested sophomore quarterback who struggled with injury, every raw and advanced stat took a nose dive in quality from the previous year. And I do mean every stat – whether it be rushing SP+ standard downs, total yards, total points, efficiency, explosiveness, rushing yards per attempt, points per drive, etc. – crumbled. And that’s with returning their top two runners, including a 1,000+ yard rusher who didn’t even crack 600 yards under Lindsey.
Also, this is the second consecutive stop where a previously explosive offense dramatically dipped in explosive play production. Why do I point that out? Eli Drinkwitz likes efficiency and can fart an offense out that specializes in that with relative ease; it’s the explosive play generation part he needs help with.
What happened at the end of this tenure?
- Arizona State did not become bowl eligible for the first time since 2009.
- Lindsey was hired away by Gus Malzahn at Auburn on January 21st, 2017 to become the Tigers’ new offensive coordinator, replacing Rhett Lashlee who chose to leave The Plains to become the OC at UConn.
- Head Coach Todd Graham would enjoy one more year at Arizona State, going 7-6 in his final year before being replaced by Herm Edwards on December 3rd, 2017..
- Manny Wilkins had the best two years of his college career once Lindsey left, throwing for over 3,000 years in his junior and senior seasons under the tutelage of Billy Napier (2017) and Rob Likens (2018). He spent one year as an undrafted free agent with the Packers before becoming the St. Louis Battlehawks’ backup quarterback in both the XFL and UFL.
- Running back Demario Richard was able to eclipse 1,000 yards on the ground in his final year (without Lindsey) but could not catch on to any NFL roster as an undrafted free agent, nor make the final cut for any Alliance of American Football team.
- Running back Kalen Ballage was a 4th-round pick in the 2018 NFL Draft (131st overall, five spots after another former Lindsey running back was picked in the same draft!) by the Miami Dolphins. Ballage fought through injuries and wound up being on the roster for 4 teams over 4 years.
What’s the take away?
Not a good tenure. His resume will cite a “Top 11 scoring offense” in that one year while failing to mention that Arizona State started 5-1 and then lost their last 6 games thanks to Lindsey’s offense only scoring more than 30 points twice in that span. The top two running backs both had worse statistical years in their one season with Lindsey, while the young quarterback didn’t really begin to blossom until the year after. Obviously a sophomore quarterback is much different than a junior or senior QB, and injuries to the quarterback provide an argument that this is a test that can be properly adjudicated. But this is a results-oriented business and the fact of the matter is that his 2016 Arizona State offense was absolutely terrible.
It’s hard to see this as anything but a massive step back for an offense that was Top 25 before Lindsey got there.
This Hater’s takeaway: failure
