Chip Lindsey has reunited with Gus Malzahn at UCF where he will be the Knights' offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.
Lindsey, the head coach at Troy for the past three years, previously held the same OC/QB position at Auburn under Malzahn in 2017-18. And it was Malzahn who helped mentor Lindsey's entry into the college ranks and later hired the former high school coach as an analyst in 2013.
On Wednesday, Lindsey met with the media to talk about his new job as well as the incoming transfer class. Here's a recap of his 15-minute interview:
-Lindsey said he's excited to be here, noting that Dec. 28 was his first day on the job. He said it's been an interesting process dealing with the new recruiting timeline of the transfer portal.
-On working with Gus Malzahn again:
"He's a guy I've always had a lot of respect for. I think he changed the way college football was played way back when he first got into the SEC at Arkansas. I'm excited to reunite with him and some of the other guys I've worked with."
He says there's a lot of "energy" within UCF.
"Guys ask me, some of my friends, what's it like there? The energy here, I think you can feel that. From our fanbase as well as our players."
He added he's really looking forward to spring practice.
-On TE transfer Kemore Gamble, Lindsey sees a big, athletic guy who caught "40-something balls" at Florida last year.
"I think he can play all three spots at tight end, flexed out, attached as well as playing the hip. I think he's a guy that will play at the next level. I think he brings a different dimension to our offense. That's what we were looking for... I think he's an impact player for us. It's a big get for us."
-On WR Kobe Hudson, Lindsey recruited him when Kobe was in ninth grade and he was still at Auburn.
"For us, it was a no-brainer. Great family. He caught 40-something balls for those guys as well. He's a dynamic guy. He's got great balance and body control. Great ball skills. Obviously good athlete and can run and all those things. Really competitive and wants to be really good."
On QB John Rhys Plumlee, whom Lindsey also recruited him previously.
"Boy, he is a true dual-threat guy without question. Obviously he plays baseball and football, so you know he's a great athlete. He's a great person. He's come in and connected with his team. Some guys have personalities, I've learned over the 25 years I've been doing this, that it takes some time to interact with their teammates, to build those relationships. John Rhys naturally does that. You can feel the energy from him. He's off to a great start in the weight room and conditioning while moonlighting over there with baseball. I really think he could bring a really big dimension to our team from the standpoint of being a dual-threat guy."
Lindsey added Plumlee brings experience to a QB room that is lacking experience except for Mikey Keene's starts this past season.
On OL Ryan Swoboda:
"If you haven't seen this guy yet, he's huge. He has to duck down walking through the door. 6-10 guy, maybe 6-11. Two and half year starter at Virginia. Recruiting him was interesting too because he's an older guy coming in as a graduate transfer. A guy that really understands what he's looking to do. He wants to continue his development. Probably could have gone to the NFL. Who knows where he would have ended up, but he wanted to try to improve his stock so to speak. Obviously Herb Hand did a great job recruiting him and Gus Malzahn. Herb having the reputation of really developing guys, I think the numbers speak for themselves, I think that really excited Ryan."
I asked Lindsey to recall how the relationship with Gus Malzahn began. It was during the late 2000s when Lindsey was the head coach at Marietta (Ga.) Lassiter and TE Philip Lutzenkirchen was one of his top players being recruited by Malzahn at Auburn.
(Lutzenkirchen went on to become of the best tight ends in Auburn history, but died in a car crash a year after his graduation. Lindsey noted he was always close with that family, said Philip's sisters used to babysit his kids).
Anyway, he was really awestruck when Gus started to visit the school.
"This is Gus Malzahn coming in," Lindsey said. "He was kind of the first one in the SEC to start going fast. I was like, this is awesome. He came in to recruit him and I wanted to sit down and talk some ball with him. He wouldn't tell me anything. He's secretive. I tried to get him on the board, can you show me this? As we built this relationship and Philip became a good player for him at Auburn... That's how I met Coach and over the years we stayed in touch."
Lindsey got the QB coach job at Troy in 2010, and said Malzahn helped him prepare for that interview. He later was coaching at Spain Park High School in Alabama when Malzahn hired Lindsey as an analyst.
From there, he was an OC at Southern Miss and Arizona State before being hired by Malzahn as Auburn's OC in 2017.
"He's been a huge influence on my career for sure," Lindsey said.
-What did he know about UCF previously?
"I know they kicked our tail in 2017 when I was at Auburn," Lindsey said. "From afar, this has been always an intriguing and exciting job. The excitement, the energy. I remember that bowl game, the fans. I think it was probably three-fourths UCF fans. That said a lot. They were excited to be there. They wanted to be there. They were competitive and had a really good team. A lot of those guys are still playing in the NFL.
"I thought it was a program on the rise. I think Coach mentioned it. The future of college football I believe is here. I believe it 100 percent. When you're around this program and feel the energy, obviously moving to another conference in another year is big too, and we have an AD (Terry Mohajir) that is unbelievable. I've known him. We were in the same conference the last three years.
"Just a lot of positive, exciting things going on here. Our players enjoy being here. The one thing I've noticed about our players is they're very confident, but very humble. They do what we ask them to do. I'll be honest with you, college football with the transfer portal and mixing personalities, sometimes that's hard to do. But I think the system Coach has in place and the culture he's developed, I've seen it before, I think it helps those guys transition quickly and buy into what we're doing... I'm thrilled to be here. This is a great place to live and work. My family is excited to move as well."
-In regards to the QB competition, Lindsey told the players all he can go by is what they do on film and how they present themselves to their teammates. It's not always who has the best arm and who runs the fastest.
"It's going to be a lot of fun watching these guys develop. We sure hope a guy steps up to the front and separates himself quickly," Lindsey said.
-On the February signing day becoming somewhat irrelevant due to the early signing period in December, Lindsey says that's been the trend. He likes players that are all in and ready to sign. He honestly feels players should be able to sign even earlier.
-On adapting to using the transfer portal, Lindsey said relationships are always key, noting they've known Kobe Hudson for a long time. Most transfer players don't have a lot of time when they hit the portal in December and are trying to enroll in January.
-On the staff holding things down for Gus while he remains with Kristi who has been hospitalized:
"We've all been praying for Kristi. Her health and improving and I think she's making a lot of good progress. I'll let him speak on all that. If you know him, he's going to always stay in touch. It's not like we haven't heard from him. He's Zoomed in for staff meetings and done things like that. We've just tried to support him.
"The best way we can support him is handle our business here at work and in recruiting. I think we did a nice job of that. Coach was involved in that as well. Trying to keep the day-to-day things that come up that we can handle, to keep it out of his lap so to speak, I think was one way to do it. Everybody doing their job.
"This staff is very close. Coach has always had staffs that were close. Having a high school background, I think that feeds a lot of that. All of us hang out together and do things together, our families. No different with Coach Malzahn. We want to support him every way we could and take a load off him while he helps Kristi get her health back."
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