Did Dale Lindsey retire?

USD head football coach claims he didn’t despite USD announcement

Amara Brooks / Sports Editor / The USD Vista

As the news of Coach Dale Lindsey’s retirement from coaching spread, fans and players alike were shocked. USD football announced the longtime head coach’s retirement on Mar. 21 and was met with an immense amount of support from Torero fans and both past and current players. In his 10 seasons with the Toreros, Lindsey accumulated an impressive 80-30 record, achieving the same number of wins as his age. However, Lindsey claims his retirement announcement was just as much of a shock to him, stating he never wanted to stop coaching. 

A day after the announcement, Lindsey spoke to The San Diego Union-Tribune and denied the university’s retirement claims.

“I did not (bleeping) retire,” Lindsey said. “I was shown the door and would like to coach. That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.” 

The USD football Instagram page announced the coach’s retirement; shortly after, comments and reshares poured in with statements like “da greatest,” “the best to ever do it” and “GOAT.”

The Union Tribune reached out to Associate Vice President and Executive Director of Athletics Bill McGillis to ask if Lindsey was actually fired. 

“What I can share is that by every measure of success, Dale Lindsey has been absolutely tremendous,” McGillis stated. 

Despite his age, Lindsey claims that he wasn’t ready to retire and in fact still had a lot more he wanted to give to the USD football program. 

“I wasn’t planning on retiring,” Lindsey said. “I know chronologically how old I am. But I don’t function like an 80-year-old man. If you just sit at home, you become a vegetable — and vegetables die sooner or later. I’ve seen too many coaches work their ass off for 40 years, think they’re going to go off to some golden parachute retirement. Then they’re dead in six months. I don’t want to be one (of those), nor do I intend to be one.”

Previous player for the USD football team Devvin Gitchuway shared that Coach Lindsey was a great coach and claimed that Lindsey always stated he would coach until his “death bed.”

“People would always ask him if and when he was going to retire. He would always say never,” Gitchuway explained. “Dale Lindsey was a great coach when it came to football. He was a coach of his winning program because he had a ‘if it’s not broke don’t fix it mentality.’”

The 80-year-old coach came to USD in 2012, where he was named the 13th head football coach in USD history. Lindsey arrived in San Diego with an excellent reputation, having 40 years of coaching experience at various levels, including high-school, college and professional. Lindsey himself has an impressive football history playing with the University of Kentucky and Western Kentucky University, where he was a part of the infamous undefeated 1963 team, which won that year’s Tangerine Bowl now known as the Citrus Bowl. 

In 1965, Lindsey was drafted to the Cleveland Browns as a sixth round pick where he played for seven years, before he signed with the New Orleans Saints in 1973. After his NFL playing career, Lindsey coached for six NFL teams including the Green Bay Packers, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the San Diego Chargers to name a few. 

After announcing the coach’s retirement McGillis made a statement in a press release sharing Lindsey’s successful history with the university. 

“Coach Lindsey is leaving an incredible legacy at the University of San Diego,” McGillis said. “Beyond the extraordinary level of championship success our program has achieved under his leadership, Coach Lindsey established a standard of excellence for the young men in our program, and the lessons they’ve learned from him will last a lifetime. The numbers speak for themselves, but they don’t even begin to tell the story of the impact he’s made at USD. His emphasis on and commitment to the value of a college education has been the true hallmark of his leadership from day one. He will retire from USD as one of the greatest head coaches in our university’s history and one of the elite head coaches in college football. Tremendous man. Tremendous coach. Tremendous leader. Coach Lindsey led our program with great integrity, and he has built a model program in every sense of the word. His presence and leadership have been a gift to our scholar-athletes, alumni, coaches and community. We have been blessed.”

USD junior Chase Lyons shared how Lindsey coached his players on and off the field. Alongside the program’s long standing relationship with Autism Tree and providing assistance in the community, Lyons shared how Lindsey helped players not just become better players but men as well. 

“He’s always been almost like a grandfather figure to all of us,” Lyons stated. “He worked very closely with my position group and was a mentor for me and always inspired me to do good things. He’s impacted how I compose myself in the real world and on campus. I try to be better so that the football team doesn’t get a bad stigma and to carry myself in a better way and be a better man in the world. ” 

Coach Lindsey finishes his time at USD as the winningest coach in the program’s history, and leaves with the fourth best win percentage (72.7%) in Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) history. His career with the Toreros also includes seven Pioneer Football League (PFL) championships, five FCS Playoff appearances and three-time PFL Coach of the Year Awards. 

Cody Tescher Director of Football Operations & Player Personnel speaks on his experience working alongside Lindsey not just as a co-worker, but as a past player as well. 

“I have nothing but love, respect, and appreciation for everything Coach Lindsey did for me as a player and in my career,” Tescher explained. “I would not be where I am today without him and without the opportunities he afforded me. Coach Lindsey is a real straight shooter and what you see is what you get and it’s something I admire a lot about him. He is very old school but he has always cared about the players and was always there to listen and do what he could to make everyone’s experience better. What he and USD Football accomplished with him as Head Football Coach is incredible and he is unquestionably the most successful HC in our program’s history.”

When asked to speak on the claims that Lindsey was possibly forced he explained Tescher could only address the positive impact Lindsey had on him. 

Lindsey shared to Union-Tribune that he was in a meeting with McGillis, where he was told he was no longer the head coach for USD football. 

“Anytime you’re called into the principal’s office, you know something’s wrong,” he said. “I didn’t get a reason. I’ve been fired before. You never get a reason. I can’t tell you any more than I was told, ‘You no longer work here. Goodbye.’”

The Vista contacted Vice President of University Operations Ky Snyder to provide comments on Lindsey’s statement that he was “shown the door” but was informed that “all inquiries are to go through Media Relations.” Media Relations failed to respond to the inquiry. 

Aware of the conflicting statements from both sides, Lyons shared that he wishes both parties could have had some resolution before a decision was made. 

“I just think it was hard between both parties between the AD (Athletics Department) trying to make decisions for the football team and the future of it and (coach) wanting to stay as long as he can. I don’t know if it could’ve been handled any better but it’s just unfortunate on both ends and I’m just really sad that it went down that way and there wasn’t anything resolved before the decision was made.”

The Vista reached out to Dale Lindsey for comment but received no response from the former coach. Assistant coaches Steven Irvin and Garrett Robinson were reached out for comments on Lindsey’s claims that he was pushed out and what the program would be looking for in a new coach but received no response. No announcement has yet to be made on who the new head coach will be.