NFL Head Coach Says New Mizzou Coordinator Chip Lindsey is 'Elite Coach'

INDIANAPOLIS — Missouri's new offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey has one of the more unique paths and networks.

He's worked in several different schemes, at multiple levels of college and in high school, mentored plenty of quarterbacks to success, and collaborated on staffs with a number of influential offensive minds.

His first offensive coordinator job at the college level came in 2014 at Southern Miss under head coach Todd Monken, who has guided several succesful offenses at both the collegiate and NFL level.

Now, Monken is preparing for his first season as the Cleveland Browns' head coach, his first stint as a NFL head coach. While speaking to reporters at the NFL Scouting Combine on Wednesday, Monken had plenty of praise for his coordinator from a decade ago.

"He's an elite football coach, connects with the players, great staff guy, adaptable systematically, He's not aligned to just one scheme," Monken said.

The systematic flexibility Monken praised Lindsey for is evident in comparing Southern Miss' offense at the time to what Lindsey has run elsewhere.

"Philosophically, we were aligned," Monken said. "At the time, we were running air-raid. I mean, it's four-wide, you're throwing it around, minnimal run schemes."

While Southern Miss' offense was built around wide passing schemes, other Lindsey-led units have been built on option runs or RPOs.

Monken trusted Lindsey enough to hand over the play-calling duties over to him, despite the fact that Lindsey had just two years of collegiate coaching experience under him.

"We wouldn't do what we did at Southern Miss without him," Monken said. "That (Lindsey handling play calling) allowed me to be a hell of a lot better of a coach."

Michigan offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey watches warm up ahead of the Central Michigan game at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor on Saturday, Sept. 13, 2025. | Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

At Southern Miss with Monken, Lindsey had his first success project of developing a quarterback to elite play, mentoring Nick Mullens, now entering his 10th season in the NFL. Mullens is Lindsey's most thorough development project yet, as he was Mullens' high school head coach at Spain Park High School in Alabama before the two reconnected at Southern Miss.

With Lindsey as the play caller, Mullens threw for 4,476 yards, 38 touchdowns and 12 interceptions in 2015 to be named the Conference USA Offensive Player of the Year.

With Missouri, Lindsey will look to serve a similar role as a play caller that can allow the head coach to focus on all other parts of the job.

Having another coach be the offensive play caller was one of the main motivators for Drinkwitz to originally hire an offensive coordinator for the first time in his stint at Missouri in 2023, citing that not having play calling on his schedule allowed him to take care of the additional responsibilities of a head coach that have come with the new college calendar.

"I spent so much time worried about Xs and Os that I forgot about the mindset of our players, making sure that was ready each and every week," Drinkwitz said at the 2023 Cotton Bowl, reflecting on how having to manage the play calling duties interfered with the rest of his roles.

Because of that, one of the priorities for Drinkwitz when making the hire for his next coordinator this offseason was previous experience play calling. For Lindsey, the first of that experience came under an influential and experienced coach in Monken.