Texas Tech win was ASU OC Chip Lindsey’s coming-out party

TEMPE, Ariz. — A reporter asked Kalen Ballage on Monday to describe the process of game planning for Texas Tech last week alongside offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey.

“I didn’t have to do a thing,” Ballage said, smiling. “The man is a mastermind so he put it all together and we went out there and we just executed the plays.”

It’s never that simple; it just looked that way with Lindsey calling the shots in Saturday’s 68-55 win at Sun Devil Stadium. Of ASU’s 14 offensive drives that were not interrupted by the half (one play) or the end of the game (four plays), nine ended in touchdowns, one ended in a field goal and just four ended in punts (three in the first half).

ASU ran 90 offensive plays, it racked up 652 yards and it had the ball for 34 minutes and 30 seconds, keeping quarterback Patrick Mahomes and the Red Raiders offense from inflicting more damage than they did to a defense still playing without some key players.

Ballage stole all the headlines with his NCAA record-tying eight-touchdown performance, but this was just as much a coming out party for Lindsey as it was for the junior running back. While Lindsey preached simplicity and efficiency when he began the season, everyone knew he’d massage in some wrinkles as he grew more familiar with his personnel and their strengths.

Saturday’s wrinkles came mostly in the form of a Wildcat formation that ASU has renamed Sparky for obvious reasons. Ballage scored six touchdowns taking direct snaps from center, but Lindsey also unwrapped a creative flea flicker in which running back Demario Richard took a hand-off, ran right and then tossed the ball to receiver Tim White, running left. White pitched the ball to quarterback Manny Wilkins, who found Ballage wide open down the sideline for a 39-yard touchdown and a 23-21 lead.

A lot of teams have abandoned the Wildcat because it has not proven effective, but Lindsey clearly saw something in the Tech defense, even if he wouldn’t admit it.

“We’ve been working on that for a while,” Lindsey admitted. “It wasn’t necessarily planned for Texas Tech. I just felt like it gave us the best chance to score. You’re always looking for something fresh. My wife said it would probably be a good idea so I did it.”

Lindsey said that when the offensive staff gets together to devise a gameplan (assistants Jay Norvell, Chris Thomsen, John Simon and Del Alexander the other key members), a lot of ideas get tossed around, but only a handful make the cut.

“When you look at our practice schedule, you only have so many slots to run so many plays, so you may have all these great ideas on Sunday night and Monday but you can only put so many in,” he said. “Is it a certain number? I don’t think so. I don’t ever say ‘oh, it’s five or 10 or it’s 20,’ but at the end of the day, if you haven’t been able to practice it enough, it’s not going to be any good.”

Personnel also play a major role.

“You have to ask ‘what can we execute? What are our players good at?’ If it looks good up there because the New England Patriots do it, we might not be able to do it. Your ideas have to fit your team. We can’t go and reinvent a new scheme each week.

“And then, not only do you have to rep it, you have to rep it against all the different looks. You might run the same play but they might give three different looks on defense. That’s a huge deal. Those are the details of the game that people don’t get. They say ‘why don’t you just run that play again?’ Well, because it’s not good against a different look.”

When asked about his offense’s ability to execute so often, Lindsey countered that the key to the game was the three consecutive stops ASU’s defense got in the second half, including an interception. You’ll get more chest–thumping in a monastery than you’ll get from Lindsey.

The three stops comprised a turning point in the game, but Tech still scored 55 points. Lindsey faced enormous pressure to keep up with coach Kliff Kingsbury’s offense and he devised a game plan to do it.

You can argue that Tech’s defense wasn’t very good (most analysis would concede that point), but with an inexperienced quarterback and offensive line, the pre-game thread was that ASU would not be able to score enough points.

“The gameplan is always to score every time you get it so this was nothing new,” Lindsey said laughing. “I have a lot of respect for Kliff Kingsbury and Texas Tech and what they do on offense, so we knew going in we needed to play well. Our guys did a good job protecting the ball and committing few penalties and scoring enough to win.”

When coach Todd Graham hired Lindsey to replace Mike Norvell, he touted the continuity the move would foster and Lindsey’s familiarity with his offense. On Saturday, he expanded on that thought.

“I wanted to get back to the pure form of our offense,” Graham said. “What we’re trying to do, if you want to win – I know all the fancy plays, everybody likes all that – you have to run the ball. You have to be a physical football team.”

ASU was on Saturday. While the offense was balanced with 351 passing yards, the Sun Devils ran 53 times for 301 yards (5.7 average), helping keep the Red Raiders offense off the field. Three games into Lindsey’s ASU’s coaching tenure, the Sun Devils are averaging 51.3 points per game, leaving Graham gushing with optimism.

“I knew he and I believed the same way because we come from the same coaching family,” Graham said. “He’s just getting started.”

Follow Craig Morgan on Twitter

Related

Register to win an autographed James Conner helmetReport: Colts would entertain idea of trading for Marvin Harrison Jr.Which Cardinals are trending up 4 games in? Who needs to step up?Cardinals-Lions Week 5 injury report: Jeremiyah Love limited for 2nd straight dayASU’s Graham Rossini says program is ‘days away’ from naming next hockey head coachMarvin Harrison Jr. is ‘paying no mind’ to all that trade talk