Chip Lindsey Discusses Leaving Auburn

[fredst 9,064]

I’m super excited we have this thread so that we can discuss the professional and personal dynamic between Gus and a coach that is no longer at Auburn, lol. I’m pretty sure that this will help a bunch of people on both sides of this argument to change their minds.

[AuJoe 79]

7 hours ago, AUght2win said:

He spoke again today in an interview and it seems very clear he called the plays. Why lie at this point? Everything he said also contradicts that he hated working for Gus. Spoke very, very highly of Malzahn. Again, why lie?

Yup, he was asked point blank, who was calling the plays and without hesitation or eye-rolling or winking or anything like that he said he was calling the plays. “I called the plays: the good ones and the bad ones", that's an exact quote. He also added that “Sure, oh yeah (I had freedom with play calling). Definitely, I was the offensive coordinator." Now having said that he also went on to add when asked “Any head coach you work for, whether it is Gus Malzahn or anyone, has certain parameters to work under and work through, but coach is a great guy...” I guess you can translate that to mean a lot of things and I'm sure some on here will but I take it to mean that he was working from a list of plays that had been set up during game planning most likely all approved by Gus. 

Bottom line though, Chip made the calls according to his own words. Why would he lie? Is there a reason he couldn't have said something else if it's not true? He could've said "most of the time I made the call" or "sometimes Gus cut in" or something like that but he did not. To me, at least, this puts it to bed. I always thought it was somewhat dumb (like I read on some posts here and/or other sites) to think that anytime there was a bad play call, Gus was making the call but when there was success, like at the end of the TA&M game, it was all Chip and Gus got out of the way for some mysterious reason because you know he had been interfering the whole game until then.

Now I'm pretty sure some will hammer me on here and that's fine, we're all entitled to our opinions or maybe my heart will be blessed also, or who knows. There will be some folks who will persist, I'm sure. As for me, I'm done with it. Like fredst hinted at, I don't think there will be a whole lot of minds changed one way or the other.

[triangletiger 1,599]

10 hours ago, AuJoe said:

Yup, he was asked point blank, who was calling the plays and without hesitation or eye-rolling or winking or anything like that he said he was calling the plays. “I called the plays: the good ones and the bad ones", that's an exact quote. He also added that “Sure, oh yeah (I had freedom with play calling). Definitely, I was the offensive coordinator." Now having said that he also went on to add when asked “Any head coach you work for, whether it is Gus Malzahn or anyone, has certain parameters to work under and work through, but coach is a great guy...” I guess you can translate that to mean a lot of things and I'm sure some on here will but I take it to mean that he was working from a list of plays that had been set up during game planning most likely all approved by Gus. 

Bottom line though, Chip made the calls according to his own words. Why would he lie? Is there a reason he couldn't have said something else if it's not true? He could've said "most of the time I made the call" or "sometimes Gus cut in" or something like that but he did not. To me, at least, this puts it to bed. I always thought it was somewhat dumb (like I read on some posts here and/or other sites) to think that anytime there was a bad play call, Gus was making the call but when there was success, like at the end of the TA&M game, it was all Chip and Gus got out of the way for some mysterious reason because you know he had been interfering the whole game until then.

Now I'm pretty sure some will hammer me on here and that's fine, we're all entitled to our opinions or maybe my heart will be blessed also, or who knows. There will be some folks who will persist, I'm sure. As for me, I'm done with it. Like fredst hinted at, I don't think there will be a whole lot of minds changed one way or the other.

I don't think he's lying, but the reason one might lie in that situation is that you don't say anything in public that might be considered disparaging to your former employer or colleagues.  Don't burn bridges unnecessarily, because you never know when doing so could come back to bite you.

[Strychnine 1,802]

On 1/14/2019 at 8:57 AM, McLoofus said:

I don't see anything in this interview that contradicts anything I've seen reported.

Chip is a high-character, level-headed dude. He understands the business he's in and he's probably got the capacity to separate work from personal life. I have no problem believing that he maintains a positive personal relationship with Gus after terminating a negative working one. 

Also, I fully believe that Gus has worked hard to help almost all his guys- coaches and players- have the softest possible landing at their next stop. 

The only people he seems to genuinely dislike are the media, lol. And who knows, maybe he's justified after everything that went down when he was here as OC. 

 

I think a lot of coaches are uncomfortable and disinterested in dealing with them, good press or bad press.  In Gus' case, one cannot find a friendlier media personality for Auburn coaches than Rod Bramblett after a win, and Gus seems to be as interested in doing the Auburn Football Review as he is press conferences.

[McLoofus 35,182]

9 minutes ago, triangletiger said:

I don't think he's lying, but the reason one might lie in that situation is that you don't say anything in public that might be considered disparaging to your former employer or colleagues.  Don't burn bridges unnecessarily, because you never know when doing so could come back to bite you.

Could possibly also be a bit of pride at play. Even though the product on the field sucked, he might not want to appear emasculated. 

No matter what, fans have got to learn to take what any coach says in a press conference with a grain of salt. Even the good, "honest" ones. 

And no, Gus didn't call all the bad plays and Chip didn't call all the good ones. But there were certain series and possessions where we saw plays that went against all of Gus's tendencies, and then there were sustained periods and even entire games where it was nothing but his greatest hits, and we looked absolutely nothing like Chip's previous offenses. Sometimes Chip had more control than others. And there's a reason that he left the minute his bonus kicked in. 

[McLoofus 35,182]

3 minutes ago, Strychnine said:

I think a lot of coaches are uncomfortable and disinterested in dealing with them, good press or bad press.  In Gus' case, one cannot find a friendlier media personality for Auburn coaches than Rod Bramblett after a win, and Gus seems to be as interested in doing the Auburn Football Review as he is press conferences.

Good point. saban is one of those you're talking about. Yet, he understands how important they are and he uses them. He plays them like a fiddle. Gus seems to have neither the ability nor the inclination. 

[McLoofus 35,182]

And @triangletiger, obviously my comments about the play calling weren't in response to you, but to comments that others made. 

[Strychnine 1,802]

2 minutes ago, McLoofus said:

Good point. saban is one of those you're talking about. Yet, he understands how important they are and he uses them. He plays them like a fiddle. Gus seems to have neither the ability nor the inclination. 

 

In almost all such appearances, Gus seems to clearly radiate the vibe that he would rather be anywhere else, doing anything else.  I can relate to it.  Promo was my least favorite part of being in touring bands, even at the indie level I was at.  There is always at least one member in a band that loves it though.  Head coaches do not have that luxury.

[triangletiger 1,599]

I would also add that (contrary to everything being just peachy between Gus and Chip), based on the product that we saw on the field, Chip and Gus (and maybe other offensive coaches) were, at a minimum, not always on the same page.  That doesn't mean that they didn't try to make it work and don't have respect for one another, or that any of them are bad coaches, but a lot of the time it just wasn't effective.  It was clear in the bowl game that things ran much smoother with Gus taking over the play calling.  Gus claims that the difference was due entirely to the players executing better, but it seems to me that the communications from the sideline was much smoother and coherent.  

[auburnphan 6,050]

17 minutes ago, McLoofus said:

Could possibly also be a bit of pride at play. Even though the product on the field sucked, he might not want to appear emasculated. 

No matter what, fans have got to learn to take what any coach says in a press conference with a grain of salt. Even the good, "honest" ones. 

And no, Gus didn't call all the bad plays and Chip didn't call all the good ones. But there were certain series and possessions where we saw plays that went against all of Gus's tendencies, and then there were sustained periods and even entire games where it was nothing but his greatest hits, and we looked absolutely nothing like Chip's previous offenses. Sometimes Chip had more control than others. And there's a reason that he left the minute his bonus kicked in. 

Agreed.

Is there a better way to disrespect your own coach and show lack of faith in him to your players than how this was handled.  Information would not have gotten leaked if it was done professionally .   Gus is known as one of the nicest coaches off the football field but he is heading in the opposite direction when it comes to managing his staff, mainly offensively. 

[abw0004 10,108]

Radio show interview:

Did Lindsey call the plays under Auburn coach Gus Malzahn:

“I called the plays: the good ones and the bad ones," Lindsey told WJOX. "It was one of those deals where you have a lot of good coaches there at Auburn. We collaborated. It was a good situation.

“Sure, oh yeah (I had freedom with play calling),” he told WNSP. “Definitely, I was the offensive coordinator. It was a good two years.”

On whether he ran only Gus Malzahn’s offense or did he add his own wrinkles:

“Any head coach you work for, whether it is Gus Malzahn or anyone, has certain parameters to work under and work through, but coach is a great guy,” Lindsey told WNSP. “We did a lot of great things at Auburn that had never been done before.”

On Gus Malzahn:

“Coach Malzahn is a great mentor of mine,” he told WNSP. He’s done a fabulous job there, and I enjoyed my time there. Auburn’s a great place and a great place to live."

[The Freak 2,526]

1 minute ago, abw0004 said:

Radio show interview:

Did Lindsey call the plays under Auburn coach Gus Malzahn:

“I called the plays: the good ones and the bad ones," Lindsey told WJOX. "It was one of those deals where you have a lot of good coaches there at Auburn. We collaborated. It was a good situation.

“Sure, oh yeah (I had freedom with play calling),” he told WNSP. “Definitely, I was the offensive coordinator. It was a good two years.”

On whether he ran only Gus Malzahn’s offense or did he add his own wrinkles:

“Any head coach you work for, whether it is Gus Malzahn or anyone, has certain parameters to work under and work through, but coach is a great guy,” Lindsey told WNSP. “We did a lot of great things at Auburn that had never been done before.”

On Gus Malzahn:

“Coach Malzahn is a great mentor of mine,” he told WNSP. He’s done a fabulous job there, and I enjoyed my time there. Auburn’s a great place and a great place to live."

Summary: "Yes, I'd like to be considered for the HC job at Auburn next year."

[AU64 10,122]

Folks talking about Chip's tendencies?   ....just wondering if they studied his play calling out in Arizona State?   Right before he came to AU. 

35 passes per game, 40 rushes and 390 total offense per game and the W-L record was 5-7 when it was his offense.     Just saying.....not sure he showed anything different than we saw here....

JMO but if he had not come to AU when he did, he would probably have gotten fired along with Todd Graham the next season.   Got a good paying job at AU and another career stepping stone to a HC job.  

[McLoofus 35,182]

25 minutes ago, AU64 said:

Folks talking about Chip's tendencies?   ....just wondering if they studied his play calling out in Arizona State?   Right before he came to AU. 

35 passes per game, 40 rushes and 390 total offense per game and the W-L record was 5-7 when it was his offense.     Just saying.....not sure he showed anything different than we saw here....

JMO but if he had not come to AU when he did, he would probably have gotten fired along with Todd Graham the next season.   Got a good paying job at AU and another career stepping stone to a HC job.  

64, man, come on. You're going to try to use his run/pass splits and W/L record at Arizona State to tell us what kind of offense he actually ran? Have you actually watched any of their plays from 2016? I have. Seemed a prudent thing to do when we hired him. 

Also, were you aware that they had multiple starters at QB that season and that the guy who started the season had never thrown a pass before? Do you think maybe you'd be pointing that out if we were talking about Gus?

Did you know that Arizona State still finished 9 spots higher in total offense than Auburn did that season? That was in Chip's first and only year at ASU. 2016 was Gus's 4th year at Auburn. So even if your stats were relevant to your case, they would point to Lindsey being better at this offense thing than Gus.

Chip wasn't our problem this past season any more than any other scapegoat OC would've been. Removing that redundancy will improve our offense but the schematic shortcomings will still exist. Forgive those of us who don't get excited when we out-talent and outpace a few teams before the players "fail to execute" the same few plays we've been running since Marshall left against the better teams on our schedule. 

[Tiger 8,818]

33 minutes ago, AU64 said:

Folks talking about Chip's tendencies?   ....just wondering if they studied his play calling out in Arizona State?   Right before he came to AU. 

35 passes per game, 40 rushes and 390 total offense per game and the W-L record was 5-7 when it was his offense.     Just saying.....not sure he showed anything different than we saw here....

JMO but if he had not come to AU when he did, he would probably have gotten fired along with Todd Graham the next season.   Got a good paying job at AU and another career stepping stone to a HC job.  

One thing to note is that Arizona State had to use their 5th string QB and put WRs in at QB during the season because of injury during Chip's last year. I don't think you can take anything about Chip's OC ability from that season at Arizona State.

[abw0004 10,108]

4 minutes ago, Tiger said:

One thing to note is that Arizona State had to use their 5th string QB and put WRs in at QB during the season because of injury during Chip's last year. I don't think you can take anything about Chip's OC ability from his last season at Arizona State.

Wholeheartedly agree.  The only thing I will say is that people on this forum would not take this into consideration at the end of the 2016 season when our starting QB was injured and every single one of our running backs were hurt, to the point that we converted WR's to RB's.  In the UGA game, even our converted WR's got hurt so we had no one.  But people would not consider this to because it did not fit their own narrative.

[McLoofus 35,182]

1 minute ago, abw0004 said:

Wholeheartedly agree.  The only thing I will say is that people on this forum would not take this into consideration at the end of the 2016 season when our starting QB was injured and every single one of our running backs were hurt, to the point that we converted WR's to RB's.  In the UGA game, even our converted WR's got hurt so we had no one.  But people would not consider this to because it did not fit their own narrative.

We had at least 1 completely healthy RB who was not used. 

Also, our starting QB was injured, but that doesn't mean that we had to resort to our 5th string QB, nor does it mean that we tried. Gus left Sean in there when he was clearly injured with John Franklin and Jeremy Johnson on the bench. Kerryon Johnson was the only other Auburn player to attempt a pass. 

Yes, injuries heavily influenced the 2016 DSOR, and Gus taught a master class on how not to respond to adversity. 

[abw0004 10,108]

7 minutes ago, McLoofus said:

We had at least 1 completely healthy RB who was not used. 

Also, our starting QB was injured, but that doesn't mean that we had to resort to our 5th string QB, nor does it mean that we tried. Gus left Sean in there when he was clearly injured with John Franklin and Jeremy Johnson on the bench. Kerryon Johnson was the only other Auburn player to attempt a pass. 

Yes, injuries heavily influenced the 2016 DSOR, and Gus taught a master class on how not to respond to adversity. 

I was really referring to our RB's in that post, not our QB situation as it related more.  It just so happened that our starting QB was injured too.  And who was our completely healthy RB?  I'm drawing a blank.

[McLoofus 35,182]

1 minute ago, abw0004 said:

I was really referring to our RB's in that post, not our QB situation as it related more.  It just so happened that our starting QB was injured too.  And who was our completely healthy RB?  I'm drawing a blank.

Stanton Truitt, who is now at UNC as an APB. He got 2 carries in that game. Also, are we sure Kam Martin was injured? He had 21 carries the next week.

Thing is, KJ had 99 yards. Our run game wasn't even a major problem until uga realized that they had no need to defend the pass.

One of Gus's worst days in a short career that includes many bad ones. 

[abw0004 10,108]

3 minutes ago, McLoofus said:

Stanton Truitt, who is now at UNC as an APB. He got 2 carries in that game. Also, are we sure Kam Martin was injured? He had 21 carries the next week.

Thing is, KJ had 99 yards. Our run game wasn't even a major problem until uga realized that they had no need to defend the pass.

One of Gus's worst days in a short career that includes many bad ones. 

Truitt was the converted WR I was referring to that got injured after the first drive going for the first down in the redzone.  Everyone else was injured for that one.  KJ had the ankle issues, and KP didn't play due to his injury.

[McLoofus 35,182]

2 minutes ago, abw0004 said:

Truitt was the converted WR I was referring to that got injured after the first drive going for the first down in the redzone.  Everyone else was injured for that one.  KJ had the ankle issues, and KP didn't play due to his injury.

Converted WR or not, he was talented enough to play. And like I said, Kam Martin ran 21 times the very next week and I'm pretty sure he was dressed out, so if KJ's situation was that bad, then he probably could've gone. Or Chandler Cox could've gotten some carries.

Nobody's saying that Gus didn't have to deal with problems that game, but 164 yards of total offense? Give me a break. He sucked at his job that day. 

[abw0004 10,108]

6 minutes ago, McLoofus said:

Converted WR or not, he was talented enough to play. And like I said, Kam Martin ran 21 times the very next week and I'm pretty sure he was dressed out, so if KJ's situation was that bad, then he probably could've gone. Or Chandler Cox could've gotten some carries.

Nobody's saying that Gus didn't have to deal with problems that game, but 164 yards of total offense? Give me a break. He sucked at his job that day. 

I think you are confusing my intentions in my post.  Yes Truitt was very cable and could flat out run.  But he was not built to be a RB through weight training (was built out for a WR), which is how he got injured so fast.  My point was the amount of attrition in that game affected every single RB option we had.  Not a single person was healthy for that game.  Kam also had an ankle injury from the week prior I believe.  So our only option was to try and throw, which was difficult to do with an injured QB.  All I was trying to say was Gus was faced with the same problems as Chip that Tiger was referring to, that's all.  Definitely not trying to dig this conversation back up.  

[I_M4_AU 7,773]

22 minutes ago, abw0004 said:

Truitt was the converted WR I was referring to that got injured after the first drive going for the first down in the redzone.  Everyone else was injured for that one.  KJ had the ankle issues, and KP didn't play due to his injury.

Great discussion, guys. Just have to correct one thing; didn’t Truitt start off the 2016 season as a QB in the Clemson game?

[I_M4_AU 7,773]

12 minutes ago, keesler said:

THANK YOU for posting this '64!

I never understood why Chip was hired in the first place, or why fans were enthused about Gus bringing him in.  What was so special about Lindsey that Gus thought he just had to hire him to vamp up the stagnant and ineffective offense that Lashlee left behind?

Pure speculation, but CCL was a buffer between JJ’s insistence in Gus allowing his OC to call the plays and, with a new AD, transitioning to Gus taking over the play calling duties himself. Gus was just waiting out the retirement of JJ.  A true conspiracy theorist opinion, so fire away!!!

ETA:  It probably wasn’t the plan initially, but was revised as the 2018 season unfolded as discussions with the new AD and President advanced. 

[AU64 10,122]

1 hour ago, Tiger said:

One thing to note is that Arizona State had to use their 5th string QB and put WRs in at QB during the season because of injury during Chip's last year. I don't think you can take anything about Chip's OC ability from that season at Arizona State.

Don't know where you get that...Wilkins was a starting QB for four years including some the year before Chip arrived.