Sherrone Moore and Chip Lindsey aim for balanced, dynamic Michigan offense in 2025 season

USA Today

a day ago

Michigan football fans got a small preview of what the new-look offense might be in the spring game, but not fully. The team was in a split-squad, but not in an A offense vs. B defense sort of way, as the teams were selected via draft. So what Chip Lindsey brings to the table as the Wolverines' new offensive coordinator remains to be seen.
What will be interesting is how he meshes with head coach Sherrone Moore's vision. As the former offensive coordinator for the maize and blue himself, Moore's offense was smashmouth, and there's no indication that that will change overall. In fact, as Moore said at Big Ten media days, while 'SMASH!' is the primary directive of that side of the ball, there was a lot more capability we didn't see, situationally -- but this year it might be different.
"I think where me and Chip are really similar is just he wanted to do the best for what's best for our offense, what's best for our players," Moore said. "And even when I was calling offenses it wasn't about like I wanted to just -- people say, 'Oh, we just wanted to run the football.' That's not really true. There's times we did, but I wanted to be balanced. Sometimes that balance got out of whack because either I got mad or we wanted to set a tone, and we did that, but it's really about balance.
"And people say we didn't throw the ball. J.J. McCarthy was quarterback of the year in the Big Ten, as voted by the coaches. So you can't say that we can't throw the ball when the quarterback is the quarterback of the year. So I really feel strongly that it's all about balance and he wants that."
As Moore notes, it's all about balance, but balance doesn't mean equal reps of run and pass or even equal outcomes. But it is about setting the expectation, having prolific production from multiple positions, and keeping a defense off-kilter.
And that's something that Lindsey is familiar with.
"He's been a guy that's had a 1,000-yard rusher, had a 3,000-yard passer," Moore said. "Fun stat about Chip, he was the offense coordinator at Southern Miss that had 2,000 yard rushers and a 3,000 and a 4,000-yard passer, and I was at Louisville at that time and had like a 1,000 yard rusher and 3,000 yard (passer). So he understands football, he understands the game.
"Where we're different, I don't know. There's a lot of different things -- we think about different plays differently. Not necessarily total philosophy, but Chip's not like a, 'Hey, I just want to be an up-tempo, spread guy.' He's a balanced guy and does whatever's best for your program and team. We'll have those elements in the game. We'll be able to do things like that, but we've always had that. We just chose not to do it as much, where we might, where we might not. I think that all depends on the situation in the game."
Fans will get their first opportunity to see the new-look Michigan football offense on August 30 when the Wolverines host New Mexico for the 2025 season opener.