5 things you need to know about new Michigan football OC Chip Lindsey

Michigan football reportedly got its man (though it hasn’t been officially announced by the university as of yet) as Sherrone Moore has hired Chip Lindsey to be the team’s new offensive coordinator.

At 50 years old, Lindsey has been around the block, having spent most of his career in the ACC and SEC footprints. He’s spent time at Troy (as the head coach), Auburn, North Carolina (most recently), UCF, and even Arizona State.

There’s a lot to like about Lindsey and what he brings to the table for a Wolverines team that is looking to revamp its offense while also bringing in five-star quarterback Bryce Underwood. Here are five things that you’ll want to know about his philosophy, his track record as a recruiter, his offensive production, and more.

1. Previous coaching stops

Lindsey got his start coaching high school football in Alabama, working his way up from being an assistant to a head coach in that state to begin a high school coach in Georgia to becoming a quarterbacks coach at Troy in the Football Bowl Subdivision level. He’s had high-level jobs, mid-level, and low-level. He’s been a head coach in the FBS, as well — at Troy — where he was 15-19 at a place that’s generally difficult to win at.

Here is where he’s been:

2. Offensive philosophy

Working at the high school level, Lindsey was also a teacher in high school, so he specializes in really mentoring his players. But when it’s come to scheme, he’s been all over the place in some regard.

He was part of high schools that ran the Wing-T and the Air Raid, but once he got to college and cut his teeth for awhile, he learned from Todd Monken and Gus Malzahn and also counted Dana Holgorsen among his friends, and took pieces from all of them. But he really prioritized the Air Raid early in his college coaching tenure, working to innovate from that scheme.

After his time at Arizona State under Todd Graham, Lindsey reunited with Malzahn at Auburn where he oversaw Jarrett Stidham in 2017 and helped lead the Tigers to having 3,000 yards passing and 3,000 yards rushing in the same year. So if Sherrone Moore wanted balance, Lindsey understands the assignment.

According to Inside Carolina Football, Lindsey looks to have an offense not dissimilar from that run by Lincoln Riley.

He also said after arriving in Chapel Hill:

He has tended to run zone but isn’t married to zone concepts in terms of the run game, more wanting to fit the scheme to the players, instead of vice versa — as he notes in the quote above.

3. Most offensively successful years in college

Our preferred site, CFB Stats, only goes back to 2016, thus eliminating the Southern Mississippi years from contention. But here is how his offenses have ranked when he’s served as an offensive coordinator (thus also not looking at his three years as the Troy head coach):

By contrast, here are Michigan’s past four years offensively, keeping in mind that Michigan also played in at least 14 games from 2021-23 and has only played in 12 in 2024.

At best, Lindsey is on par with what Michigan’s offense did under Sherrone Moore (UCF in 2022 also played in 14 games and had a similar showing). His passing numbers at their best are similar to what you’d see Michigan having with an elite quarterback. Those numbers could go up with Bryce Underwood, but as you can also see, Lindsey wants to run just as much as he passes.

4. Players he’s worked with

At Auburn, he’s worked with QB Jarrett Stidham and RB Kerryon Johnson in 2017-18. At Troy, he recruited current Oregon standout wide receiver Tez Johnson, who stood out in both Lindsey’s final year with the program and the year after. When he was the QB coach at Troy in his previous stint, he coached Corey Robinson, who was the Sun Belt freshman of the year after throwing for 3,707 yards in 2010.

At UCF, he had a heck of a quarterbacks room in 2022 with John Rhys Plumlee as the starter, and Mikey Keene (currently at Fresno State) and Thomas Castellanos (Boston College standout) as backups.

At North Carolina, Lindsey had Drake Maye at quarterback (8th-most prolific passer in 2023 under his tutelage), and he had Omarion Hampton, who rushed for over 1,500 yards in each of the past two seasons.

5. As a recruiter

Lindsey wasn’t exactly a prolific recruiter at UNC, but he’s had his moments where he’s had his prowess on the recruiting trail. Here are some of the top recruits he’s brought in at various schools according to 247Sports.

Most of his recruiting success came in the 2019 Auburn class — which he didn’t get to coach as he took the Troy head coaching job. But that he was able to identify Tez Johnson — who was a three-star from Pinson (Alabama) Valley — shows he can find talent.

The majority of his recruiting wins came either in the state of Alabama and Georgia. If he’s going to put on his recruiting hat, he’ll need to hit those states hard for the Wolverines, as well. But, in recent years, he hasn’t really shown up on the 247Sports recruiter rankings.

This article originally appeared on Wolverines Wire: 5 things you need to know about new Michigan football OC Chip Lindsey