Chip Lindsey

[Snaggletiger]

Good article by Skrubdinski.  The bolded blurb towards the bottom is my one and only concern about this year.  If CGM stays true to his word, I think we're going to be really good. If he flip-flops again and tries to jump back in the game...8-5.


By Kevin Scarbinsky,
 kscarbinsky@al.com
 

Oh, sure, he doesn't bring the Bill Belichick/NFL pedigree of Brian Daboll or the Broyles Award finalist rep of Matt Canada, but Chip Lindsey owns a unique distinction of his own as preseason practice begins for the 2017 college football season.

Auburn's offensive coordinator is the most important new coordinator in the Southeastern Conference.

There's no trophy for that mythical title. Yet.

Daboll has never been a college offensive coordinator, but Alabama has a toolbox full of shiny toys, including the reigning SEC offensive player of the year in quarterback Jalen Hurts. It's possible to not get the most out of those weapons - see the underwhelming performances of Lane Kiffin and Steve Sarkisian in last season's College Football Playoff - but who wouldn't want those weapons?

Canada doesn't inherit that kind of talent and depth at LSU, but if his offense can muster even one field goal against Alabama and two touchdowns that count against Auburn, it'll be an improvement. In other words, he's not trying to leap a high bar in Baton Rouge.

Lindsey will shoulder a bigger burden at Auburn. He's joining a program that's proven it can win championships in the Nick Saban/Alabama era but only when it possesses an elite offense.

SEC and BCS championships happened in 2010 with Malzahn as offensive coordinator. An SEC title and a BCS title shot happened in 2013 with Malzahn as head coach and Rhett Lashlee as his OC.

If the Tigers are going to challenge Alabama's three-year stranglehold on the division and conference championships, they'll need Kevin Steele's defense to do its part, but they'll also need Lindsey's offense to be more than one-dimensional.

As long as Malzahn is head coach, Auburn is not going to stop featuring the run game - the Tigers became the first SEC team to lead the nation in rushing in 2013 - but remember this nugget. The most important touchdowns of the program's last two championship seasons came by air, not land.

In 2010, Auburn scored three of its four touchdowns in its epic comeback against Alabama, including the game-winner, on Cam Newton passes. In 2013, the Tigers scored the winning touchdown against Georgia on a Hail Mary and the tying touchdown against Alabama on a pop pass.

And those Auburn teams didn't feature a quarterback whose primary strength was his arm. That will be the case this season whether much-hyped newcomer Jarrett Stidham is the starter, as most everyone in the free world believes, or battle-hardened veteran Sean White shocks the world and keeps his job.crimmages?

Gus Malzahn has not had his potential starting quarterbacks go live during fall practices since Nick Marshall did so in 2013.

That quarterback competition is another reason Lindsey is the most important new coordinator in the SEC. Auburn is on the very short list of teams in the league that appear to have a roster capable of making Alabama sweat, and it's the only contender - Alabama included - acting as if it really hasn't decided who will start behind center.

When and how Malzahn and Lindsey make that decision and present it to the team will matter in terms of getting everyone on the same page heading toward the Sept. 2 opener against Georgia Southern.

Which brings us to one more reason Lindsey is the most important new coordinator in the SEC for 2017. Unlike Daboll and Canada, he's working for a head coach whose expertise is on his side of the ball.

As much as Malzahn has expressed full faith and confidence in Lindsey, the head coach vowing that he's retired his own clipboard, they've yet to face a game-day crisis together as head coach and offensive coordinator.

What happens if Auburn struggles to put points on the board for a second straight season against Clemson in Week Two? It's a different dynamic than the one Malzahn has said worked so well in 2013 with him as the head coach and Lindsey as an offensive analyst.

No pressure, but if Lindsey debuts with a splash - as Steele did last year as the new defensive coordinator - the Tigers stand a good chance of validating Malzahn's supreme SEC Media Days confidence. All the head coach did at that event was compare this team's hunger to 2013.

Lindsey should remember that special year on the Plains. He was there. He'll play a much bigger role this time around.