By Micheal Germanese
Last season one of Michigan’s weaknesses was the ineptitude at the quarterback position giving the offense of the Wolverines no ability to sustain drives.
Michigan’s offensive coaching staff should have seen the problem coming in last year’s spring game and ultimately decided to go with the guys they had in the room. While the QB position was a weakness, an even bigger one was the offensive play calling that put the QBs and other positions in situations to fail.
Michigan’s former OC Kirk Campbell called an offense for the talent he wanted to have, not the talent he had on the field. Davis Warren didn’t look comfortable in the offense until changes were made before the Northwestern game. It felt like Campbell tried to turn Warren into a version of JJ McCarthy, even though Warren’s game wasn’t suited to that style of play.
Campbell’s refusal to adapt is why Michigan averaged a just 129.1 passing yards per game and less than one passing TD a game. Navy (123.8 ypg), Air Force (89.8 ypg) and Army (80.6 ypg) were the only offenses that averaged fewer passing yards than Michigan. It’s still remarkable that despite having no throwing game whatsoever Michigan still found a way to go 8-5.
At the end of the season Sherrone Moore showed two essential characteristics you look for in a coach. The first one is the ability to admit when you are wrong with a hire. Moore let Campbell go after one season. The second is understanding your own weaknesses. Many programs are moving toward younger OC hires with little experience, but Moore zagged and decided to go with a more established and experienced guy in Chip Lindsey.
Michigan has announced Chip Lindsey as its new offensive coordinator.
— Nicole Auerbach (@NicoleAuerbach) December 13, 2024
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Most of the attention in Ann Arbor, Mich. has been around heralded quarterback Bryce Underwood but Michigan’s biggest key to success in 2025 is the Lindsay hire. The hire does two things. It puts another experienced play caller around Moore, and gives Michigan the ability to change the offensive identity from run-first to a much more balanced one.
Michigan hiring Lindsey immediately improves four areas: offense, defense, development and recruiting. Here is how Lindsey will impact each area.
On Offense
Defenses have mainly needed to focus on stopping the run against the Wolverines. Michigan’s offensive philosophy has been a run-heavy one. Even with McCarthy under center, Michigan still had a run-first approach. Now with Lindsay in the picture, Michigan will become much more balanced and threatening on offense.
Michigan’s longest passing play in 2024 was 36 yards, which shows why defenses didn’t have to account for any kind of threat from the passing game. Michigan didn’t have a QB who could throw a forward pass, something Lindsey won’t have to deal with in 2025. Lindsey now has possibly two QBs to work with giving him options at the most important position on the field.
Lindsey’s strength comes from building an offense that is balanced and can adapt year to year depending on the talent. In 2024, Michigan’s offense put their players in situations that were going to have a low success rate. Under Lindsey, Michigan’s offense won’t make the same mistakes. In 2023 at North Carolina with Drake Maye as QB Lindsey’s offense ranked 14th in passing yards per game, 26th in passing attempts and averaged 491.2 yards per game game. After Maye was drafted by the New England Patriots Lindsey changed the offense to a run-first approach, yet the Tar Heels still put up more than 400 yards of offense per game.
With a proven track record and a balanced approach that helped develop QB Drake Maye and RB Omarion Hampton, Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore brought in offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey to immediately revitalize the offense: https://t.co/oqXny1YBpV
— Maize n Brew (@MaizenBrew) March 26, 2025
Lindsey’s ability to adapt his offense will give Michigan an advantage by making the defense guess just how they will attack them. It will also help the offensive line by not facing seven-to-eight man boxes upfront on each play.
Michigan looks to already have QB1 emerging in Underwood, who from all accounts is already showing the ability to make all the throws. Having Underwood along with running backs Justice Haynes and Jordan Marshall will let Lindsey change his offensive approach game-to-game depending on what the defense is giving them. Lindsey being able to attack a defense in different ways will make Michigan a dual-threat offense for the first time.
On Defense
Lindsey’s hire will make the defense better in 2025 just by being able to sustain drives. Last season Michigan constantly put defensive coordinator Wink Martindale in terrible positions with the offense unable to stay on the field. But even with an offense that offered little to no support the defense ranked 19th in points allowed per game with 19.9 ppg and 10th in total yards a game, allowing 307.
Last season Michigan only averaged 22 points per game, ranking No. 112 in college football. On third down Michigan only converted 42 percent of the time, ranking them 11th in the Big Ten. The defense will be put into a more ideal situation in 2025. With more talent and better offensive options Lindsey should be able to not only sustain drives, but put points on the board.
Michigan’s defense understood the offense wasn’t going to score points, which put increased pressure on that side of the ball. That pressure will be lifted in 2025. Michigan’s offense will be more capable in 2025 of scoring and maintaining drives. That will keep the defense off the field more giving them time to recover and making them more effective and aggressive.
Development, Recurring
Michigan made headlines when they flipped Underwood, the No. 1 QB in the 2025 class from LSU, and now with the hiring of Lindsey, Moore doesn’t just get a play caller, he gets a coach who can develop talent at the QB position.
Maye, who was the No. 3 overall pick in the 2024 NFL draft, made it a point to call Moore and attest to just how big a role Lindsey had in his development.
Before Michigan played in the ReliaQuest Bowl Moore talked about what Maye said and how it played a role in the decision to hire Lindsey.
Moore said Maye told him “he progressed more in his career in that year with Chip than he did at any point in his career.” Moore also added that Maye said he “really felt like without him he wouldn’t have got the chance to go so high in the draft”
Drake Maye called Sherrone Moore and encouraged him to hire OC Chip Lindsey.
"He felt that he progressed more in his career in that year with Chip than he did at any point in his career."https://t.co/u1xkdEtX2J
— Alejandro Zúñiga (@ByAZuniga) December 30, 2024
With reports that Underwood will take the QB1 spot out of spring practice having a coach like Lindsey will be a big advantage. Underwood has a ton of talent but will still make freshman mistakes at times if he wins the starting role. Lindsey’s ability to help in his development will speed up the transition from high school to college, minimizing the freshman mistakes seen with other freshman quarterbacks.
Underwood having success in his first season will have a chain reaction for Michigan on the recruiting trail. Michigan showing that they can elevate talent combined with NIL will lead to Michigan competing year in and out for top talent.
The Wolverines redefined its NIL approach in 2024 and can now compete in recruiting with every program in the country. Lindsey gives Underwood a high chance of finding success in his first season in Ann Arbor. In turn, Lindsey also gives Michigan a higher chance of continuing to find success on the recruiting trail.
The Spring Game (May 19) will have fans heading to Ann Arbor to get their first look at what “Team 146” will look like.
Fans want to see Underwood take the field for the first time along with trying to see what players look to be excelling around him. None of those fans will be showing up to see Lindsey. But it’s Lindsey who will play the biggest part in Michigan finding success in 2025.
