What Mizzou Offensive Coordinator Chip Lindsey Hopes to Accomplish in Spring

Chip Lindsey is just one new piece of what will be a new-look Missouri offense, with the offensive coordinator taking over a unit that will have to replace six starters from 2025. That newness has made the last two months since Lindsey took the job after coming over to the staff from Michigan, plus the next month of spring practices, all the more important.

Lindsey started his process of getting to know the team by attending a few of the team's practices leading up to the Gator Bowl. Since the players, including the newcomers returned in the winter, acquainting himself with the whole team has been an emphasis.

"Coach Drink does a great job of really forcing the issue from the standpoint of getting to know everybody in the program," Lindsey said. "That's all the way down, players, coaches, equipment, people, everybody. It's been fun. ... It's been fun to get to know them personally, not just on the field. I think that's an important part — guys really don't care what you know until they know you care about them, that old saying."

In that process, Lindsey has quickly made a good impression with the roster.

"Chip is great," wide receiver Donovan Olugbode said. "It kind of brings a new a new juice to the offense, a new flow. But overall, he's a good coach and a good person. I like him a lot."

"He's awesome," offensive lineman Cayden Green said of Lindsey. "He knows what he's talking about. He knows what he's doing. ... These past three days have been really fun, So I'm excited to keep learning."

Through the early teaching and install of the scheme, what's helped is what Lindsey believes are strong similarities between his offensive scheme with Drinkwitz's. Both were influenced early in their careers by Gus Malzahn, the former head coach at Arkansas State and Auburn.

"I think Coach Drink and I have a very similar background offensively," Lindsey said. "So whether you call something 'red' or something 'blue,' it doesn't really matter — it's the same concept."

Drinkwitz and Lindsey have never been on the same staff, but faced off against each other as head coaches in 2019, with Drinkwitz at Appalachian State and Lindsey at Troy. In the two years before that, Lindsey was the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Auburn, the same place Drinkwitz earned his first collegiate job.

"He has a lot of experience in this league," Drinkwitz said on Thursday ahead of spring practices. "He's been through these battles and wars, he's coached at a really high level in a lot of different places. And feel like he has a low ego, high output."

Lindsey already has plenty of experience of teaching scheme to new players. Over the past five years, he's worked with four different teams. Plus, the amount of roster turnover that the transfer portal has brought in has made teaching and installing the offense to new players a never-ending process.

"In this day and age, when you have a lot of new players with a portal and so forth, high school guys coming in early, there is an element of reteaching it all the time," Lindsey said. "So you're always, wanting to stay fresh, change maybe what you call or what you how you identify certain things."

But outside of the scheme install, Lindsey is looking for what players to build the offense around.

"I think the biggest thing for us, no matter if we run these concepts or plays here before or not, is find out who our playmakers are, figure out what we do the best, and just try to keep doing that over and over," Lindsey said.

Missouri's offense finished last in the SEC in passing yards per game in 2025, but even through that, the game-changing players of Missouri's offense were clear. Ahmad Hardy and Jamal Roberts at running back are two players an entire offense can be built around.

At wide receiver, Olugbode was already elite at contested catches in his freshman season. Meanwhile, Ole Miss transfer Cayden Lee has proven to be a slot receiver capable of breaking off a big play at any moment. But there's still opportunities for another key player to emerge.

"It goes back to identifying your best players," Lindsey said of building the offense. "'Who are the five guys that we have to get the ball to? Obviously our running backs are probably gonna be in that mix."

Oct. 11, 2025; Columbia, Missouri, USA; Missouri Tigers Wide Receiver Donovan Olugbode catches a 27 yard pass from Beau Pribula. | Sam Simon/MissouriOnSI

Olugbode in particular, along with speedy Cincinnati transfer Caleb Goodie, could play a significant role in reviving a part of the offense that was a weak point for the Tigers last year, but Lindsey is looking to make an emphasis in this one — the deep passing game.

"I want to a mindset that we're going to take our opportunities down the field and and really try and really make an emphasis of, 'Hey, we're going to attack the field vertically.' To do that, you got to have guys that can do it, whether it's the receivers or whether it's the protection or or even the quarterback."

Lindsey will be tasked with figuring out if Missouri has the right personnel to create those explosives and grow the offense from what it was last season. Even through the struggles, a potential elite core shined through that Lindsey will have to work with.