New Michigan OC Chip Lindsey talks position battles as spring practice begins: Takeaways

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Chip Lindsey talks quickly, with a southern twang that signals a new direction for Michigan’s offense.

Lindsey has been all over the map in his coaching career: Southern Miss, Auburn, Troy, Arizona State, UCF and North Carolina. When he wants to make a point about his coaching philosophy, he often references his time as a high school coach in Alabama. That experience should come in handy with Lindsey’s current pupil, 17-year-old quarterback prodigy Bryce Underwood.

Lindsey, Michigan’s new offensive coordinator, was around the program during bowl preparation, but the start of spring practice on Tuesday will mark his first chance to evaluate Underwood and Michigan’s other quarterbacks in a live setting. The plan is to give Underwood, Mikey Keene and Jadyn Davis equal reps and see which one emerges. There’s no timeline to name a starter, but don’t hold your breath waiting for a decision in the spring.

“I don’t think that’s probably realistic, just to be honest,” Lindsey said. “You’d love to know when you know.”

Here are five takeaways from Lindsey as Michigan opens spring practice.

Starting a freshman QB

Lindsey doesn’t have much experience with playing true freshmen at quarterback. Nick Mullens, the quarterback Lindsey coached at Spain Park High in Alabama, started as a freshman at Southern Miss, but that was the year before Lindsey joined Todd Monken’s staff. Many of Lindsey’s other quarterbacks, including Drake Maye at North Carolina, Gunnar Watson at Troy, Jarrett Stidham at Auburn and Manny Wilkins at Arizona State, were upperclassmen or returning starters.

It’s fair to say Lindsey hasn’t had a freshman quarterback quite like Underwood or a competition quite like the one that will unfold at Michigan. If Underwood is ready to play, Lindsey said, Michigan won’t hesitate to put him on the field.

“In the South when I was growing up, in the ’90s, nobody became the starting quarterback until they were redshirt juniors and they were 20 or 21 years old,” Lindsey said. “It’s just different now. Kids are more advanced in general throughout the country. A lot of trainers now start with these kids really young. You go to different parts of the country when you’re recruiting and you can tell these kids have been working a long time.”

Developmentally, Underwood is ahead of the curve, Lindsey said. The quarterback running game is an element of Lindsey’s offense, and Underwood is built to carry the ball at 6-foot-4. The goal for spring is to put the quarterbacks in as many situations as possible — red zone, two-minute drills, third-down blitzes — and see which one performs the best.

“At the end of the day, it’s about who affects the other 10 guys the best,” Lindsey said. “I think (that’s) the guy that’s going to play.”

The case for Keene

Underwood and Keene come from different ends of the QB spectrum. Underwood has prototypical size and arm strength but lacks experience. Keene is undersized at 5-11 but has a veteran’s savvy in the pocket, backed by two years as a starter at Fresno State.

Another point in Keene’s favor: He wasn’t intimidated by the prospect of competing against the No. 1 recruit in the nation.

“He never flinched,” Lindsey said. “He didn’t even really ask about anybody else that was here. He just wanted the opportunity to come to Michigan.”

Keene was thinking ahead to a career after his playing days, Lindsey said, and wanted to take advantage of the platform that comes with playing at Michigan. In the meantime, he’ll try to show that he’s capable of leading the team if Underwood needs more time to develop.

“Having a previous relationship with Mikey, knowing how he’s wired, I thought he was the perfect fit for what we were looking for,” said Lindsey, who coached Keene at UCF in 2022. “He’s thrown for over 8,000 yards and completed a bunch of balls. I think that was important. We needed a guy who could come in that had a lot of experience.”

Battle begins at left tackle

Spring practice is a phase for learning names, not a phase for naming starters. The competition at left tackle, like the competition at quarterback, isn’t likely to be resolved in the next month. But it appears the competition will pick up roughly where it left off in the ReliaQuest Bowl, with Evan Link at left tackle and Andrew Sprague at right tackle.

“We’ve got a good young group, for sure,” Lindsey said. “Some of them haven’t played as much as you’d probably like. I think we’ve got a great idea of how we’re going to rotate guys during spring.”

Michigan has to replace left tackle Myles Hinton and guard Josh Priebe but returns center Greg Crippen and guard Giovanni El-Hadi. After an up-and-down season at right tackle, Link started at left tackle in the bowl game and held his own against Alabama, as did Sprague on the right side. It would take a lot for freshman Andrew Babalola to shoot to the top of the depth chart at left tackle, but for Babalola, Ty Haywood and Michigan’s other freshmen, the answer is the same: If they’re ready, they’re going to play.

“Realistically, are they going to be ready to play left tackle as freshmen?” Lindsey said. “(Babalola) is going to be a really good player. Is he ready yet? I don’t know. There’s probably some more veteran guys in front of him.”

McCulley expectations

Lindsey isn’t spending a lot of time analyzing what went wrong with Michigan’s passing game last season. Missed throws, breakdowns in pass protection and a lack of playmakers at wide receiver all contributed to a passing attack that ranked dead last in the FBS at 5.4 yards per attempt.

Michigan addressed the quarterback situation by signing Underwood and Keene. The upgrades at wide receiver weren’t as dramatic, which means Michigan will be asking a lot of its biggest acquisition, Indiana transfer Donaven McCulley.

“He’s a long, athletic guy that’s somewhat of a veteran guy, a little bit older,” Lindsey said. “He can really sink his hips and get in and out of breaks, which I think is, for a tall guy, sometimes a hard thing to do. I’ve been really impressed with that.”

The challenge for McCulley is to win one-on-one matchups, Lindsey said. The same goes for the rest of Michigan’s wide receivers, a group that collectively struggled to create separation last season.

“My challenge to those guys has been, ‘Who’s going to be the playmaker?’” Lindsey said. “We’ve got to figure that out. Who do we need to get the ball to? It’s a great opportunity this spring for those guys to get a lot of reps, get a lot of balls. Who can make one-on-one contested catches? Who can get open versus tight coverage? Who can play the position at a high level?”

Underwood’s confidence

Underwood’s comments on the “Rich Eisen Show” about hoping to win “a couple Heismans and at least one natty” didn’t cause much of a stir inside Schembechler Hall, at least not in Lindsey’s view.

“I didn’t even know he said that, to be honest with you,” Lindsey said. “One thing about Bryce is, he’s confident in himself. Since he’s been here, he’s not come across as too confident or over-confident or anything. I think he’s just confident in our program and in himself and his ability.”

Lindsey isn’t worried that Underwood’s confidence might be shaken if he takes some lumps during the spring. Great quarterbacks want to be pushed, Lindsey said, and Underwood is no exception. This spring will be an early chance to challenge Underwood and see how he responds.

“At the end of the day, I’m going to coach him just like I coached the rest of ’em,” Lindsey said. “We’ve had that conversation. I think that’s what he wants. That’s what he’s excited about.”

(Top photo by Ed Zurga / Getty Images)