INDIANAPOLIS – New Mizzou offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey has been a nomad within college football’s coaching sphere.
Since 2014, Lindsey has spent at least one full season at seven different schools. He was the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at six of them.
Last season, he was the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Michigan. Three former Wolverines spoke about their experiences playing under Lindsey at the 2026 NFL Scouting Combine.
The Wolverines weren’t exactly a juggernaut, averaging 27.5 points per game, which was right around the national average for FBS teams in 2025. But it was a major jump from 2024 in which UM averaged just 22 points per game and had one of the worst passing offenses in the nation.
Despite the arrival of five-star quarterback Bryce Underwood in 2025, Michigan’s offense largely centered around its rushing attack, which featured a productive duo in Justice Haynes and Jordan Marshall. Before suffering a foot injury that cost him the final five games of the season, Haynes led the Big Ten in rushing yards (857) and rushing touchdowns (10). Despite missing some time toward the end of the season with a shoulder injury, Marshall finished 2025 with 932 rushing yards and 10 touchdowns.
Former Michigan tight end Marlin Klein said the Wolverines used a bunch of different formations, including 14 personnel (in football, numbered personnel is a two-digit code that indicates how many running backs and tight ends are on the field at once in a certain formation).
Fourteen personnel means that there is one running back and there are four tight ends on the field at once.
“We never put the 10 personnel out because our tight ends were too good,” Klein said.
Whichever formation Michigan was in, wideouts always had to do their part in helping out the run game.
“The emphasis on blocking is always there for us,” wide receiver Donaven McCulley said.
Klein, who had 248 receiving yards on 24 receptions this past season, had to be a multi-faceted tight end, as he was often used in those heavy personnel groups.
“I was asked to do everything,” Klein said.
Similar things applied to Max Bredeson, who took snaps all over the field on offense in 2025. Of those, 188 were at tight end, 56 were at slot receiver and 14 were at outside receiver. He even took 44 snaps at fullback.
Bredeson had similar splits in each of his three previous seasons at Michigan, which included him playing fullback, a position that has all but disappeared in football. While Lindsey didn’t change much about Bredeson’s job description, Lindsey put Bredeson in new positions that helped propel Michigan’s rushing attack.
“He brought a lot of new ways to use me,” Bredeson said. “He added more wide zone, outside zone and just different ways for me to add value to that play, add value to the scheme.”
As for Underwood, he had an up-and-down season, completing just 60% of his passes for 2,428 yards and 11 touchdowns to nine interceptions. He showed promise as a runner, tallying 392 rushing yards on 88 carries and scoring six touchdowns.
Michigan ran a lot of run-pass options, plays that Underwood excelled in executing at Belleville High School, located about 25 minutes southwest of Ann Arbor, Michigan. Although Underwood had plenty of rough moments and games in 2025, McCulley noticed growth out of the true freshman as the season went along.
“I definitely saw him get more comfortable in the deeper passing game,” McCulley said.
So, why should this matter for Mizzou? At the very least, Lindsey’s short stint at Michigan showed that he can adjust his offense around different personnel (past stops have also proven such). He’s also been credited with developing quarterbacks who went on to play in the NFL, including Nick Mullens at Southern Mississippi, Jarrett Stidham at Auburn, and most notably, Drake Maye at North Carolina.
What Mizzou’s offense looks like under Lindsay remains to be seen. But reviews from Indianapolis suggested an optimistic future for Lindsey with the Tigers.
“He’s awesome. He’s so much fun. He’s hilarious,” Bredeson said. “{He’s} a guy that every person in the locker room respects.”
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