Chip Lindsey: The Takeaway

Chip Lindsey is Missouri’s newest violative coordinator and I americium highly skeptical of this hire. To put it nicely. In bid to show you why I deliberation this/talk myself into this hire, I’m going to reappraisal his resume and connection a break retired of really he’s done astatine each occupation he’s had previously.

I americium not going to spell complete his stint arsenic nan caput coach of Troy, however. Why? Couple of reasons:

This is nan portion that will astir heavy beryllium my opinion, truthful hole yourself for that. It won’t beryllium without stats, though! Here’s each nan erstwhile entries:

Part I - his clip astatine Southern Mississippi - is correct here.

Part IV - his clip astatine Central Florida - is correct here.

Part V - his clip astatine North Carolina - is correct here.

Part VI - his clip astatine Michigan - is correct here.

That’s six coordinator jobs complete 9 years that Chip Lindsey has held. Let’s first rank each of them from champion to worst, and past break it retired into nan sub-offensive categories, and past I’ll springiness my closing thoughts. In nan rankings, I’m besides going to see nan 2025 Missouri violative ranks truthful you get an thought of really Lindsey’s humanities performances stack up against 1 of nan much miserable Missouri offenses of nan past six years.

Overall

Rushing

Passing

Standard Downs

Passing Downs

Efficiency

Explosiveness

Over 9 different offenses, Chip Lindsey has ne'er fielded a Top 20 offense, a Top 20 passing offense, a Top 20 discourtesy successful passing downs situations, and only erstwhile had an discourtesy rank higher than 43rd successful explosiveness…and that discourtesy occurred 11 years ago.

And what do his champion offenses person successful common? 2017 Auburn and 2023 North Carolina some had 5-star, NFL-caliber quarterbacks. His 3 champion passing attacks? 2017/18 Auburn, 2023 North Carolina, and 2025 Michigan -all had 5-star, NFL-caliber quarterbacks.

Does Missouri person a 5-star, NFL-caliber quarterback? Not yet. And astir apt not successful 2026. That’s problematic.

When Lindsey doesn’t person nan aforementioned talented quarterback, his offenses are wildly pedestrian aliases flat-out bad. The tally crippled is good, regardless, but that’s not nan problem Eli Drinkwitz is trying to fix, is it?

Eli told nan full Missouri shot hit penning corps that he needed to amended nan passing crippled and make much explosive plays. He nailed it. Of course, he did, he’s a smart, successful shot coach who knows his squad really well! But did he make a prosecute who has a history of improving immoderate of that?

No, he did not.

He had nan astir money disposable to immoderate Missouri shot coach successful nan history of Missouri shot to find an innovative, energetic, scheme-based coordinator pinch SEC acquisition and a way grounds of improving passing games while utilizing area moving concepts.

And he either couldn’t get a feline to work together to activity pinch him, aliases actively chose to spell done his old, comfortable rolodex of “guys who I worked pinch astatine Auburn” and brought successful a feline who’s ne'er lasted much than 2 years successful immoderate coordinator role, and whose offenses sometimes get amended successful Year One but decidedly get worse successful Year Two.

Essentially, Eli went to nan shop pinch $100 to bargain nan champion food he could find and came location pinch cheddar.

Now, fto maine reside immoderate straw men:

Yes, he did that pinch nan statement 6th, 16th, 17th, and 9th-best recruiting classes complete nan past 4 respective years, positive nan #1 wide freshman quarterback, positive 2 Top 30 portal classes. That squad was underachieving contempt itself, and yet - moreover pinch each that talent - he simply dragged them up to 53rd successful nan 2025 season, which, if you’ll remember, is 19-spots worse than 2025 Missouri.

Yes, those are NFL-caliber quarterbacks. That’s not a skill, that’s conscionable what happens if you hap to person an NFL-caliber quarterback. You cognize who looked awesome erstwhile an NFL starting backmost played successful his offense? Derek Dooley.

Derek.

F***ing.

Dooley.

Drew Lock made him look great. And erstwhile he was gone Dooley stunk retired nan joint.

And erstwhile Chip Lindsey doesn’t person an NFL-level quarterback, his offenses person bully tally games, unspeakable passing games, and are each worse than what Missouri conscionable did pinch Beau Pribula and Matt Zollers.

But you cognize what nan worst portion astir this prosecute is?

College shot successful 2025 is tough, and it’s only getting tougher successful 2026. Your programme not only needs to find guys that fresh your strategy and fresh your civilization but besides will beryllium satisfied pinch nan magnitude you’re going to compensate them. Missouri is not a programme that tin pain rate connected chair players AND clip nan value tags of their champion players astatine nan aforesaid time. We don’t person our balanced of a Cody Campbell astatine Texas Tech truthful Mizzou needs to beryllium picky pinch really it spends.

Which intends you request strategy and civilization fits astatine each costs. And uncovering a feline that knows your strategy and has been astir you capable to meld into your culture? Yeah, that’s appealing and that’s astir apt thing that a mid-market assemblage squad needs to prioritize.

And look… nan SEC is nan astir unforgiving convention to beryllium in. There is nary room for correction for a marque caller offense, aliases ramp-up play for experimentation pinch really you tally things. Gary Pinkel benefited from being successful nan XII successful nan early/mid-aughts wherever you had 4 to 5 years to build and were forgiven for a fewer down years and players had nary prime but to instrumentality around. If you alteration your strategy successful 2026, location goes your roster. And you only person 3 non-conference games to fig it retired earlier you get force-fed 3 Top 10 opponents each year, positive 1 aliases 2 usurpers that drawback lightening done nan transportation portal, and - of course! - nan remainder of nan astir talented shot convention roster successful nan country.

Eli Drinkwitz only knows really to coach a squad this way. He hasn’t done it immoderate different way, and he’s been successful pinch this way. He’s going to do it until he has a losing play aliases is adjacent to getting fired. It’s arsenic elemental arsenic that. And pinch Playoff negotiations and much imaginable realignment correct astir nan corner, it’s ne'er been much important to beryllium winning arsenic galore games arsenic imaginable truthful that, erstwhile ESPN comes backmost astir and says “hey you should cherry prime each these teams and harvester them into a ace league,” your squad isn’t nan 1 near retired successful nan cold.

This prosecute sucks. It’s uncreative, it doesn’t reside immoderate of nan existent issues, doesn’t connection immoderate intriguing portal pieces, and furthers nan run-through of Drinkwitz’s rolodex. But it’s going to make him consciousness nan champion astir really he tin triumph games and, successful nan end, we’re paying him $11 cardinal a twelvemonth to do what he wants. That’s nan deal.

I’m hoping I’m wrong. I would emotion if I was wrong.

But nan history and numbers opportunity I’m right.

And that sucks.