Joey Lynch wasn't hired to run Vanderbilt's offense, but he has for two seasons | Estes

When Joey Lynch first took over Vanderbilt football's offense, his was a promotion largely in secret. There was no big announcement. No party. No press conference to discuss it. The public, in fact, didn't learn about it for weeks.

That's how sensitive and difficult the situation seemed at the time.

As Vanderbilt's Clark Lea said, “Being a head coach is just a sequence of hard decisions," and this was one of Lea’s toughest.

About a week into fall practice in 2021, Lea shifted control of his offense and play-calling duties to quarterbacks coach Lynch, rather than David Raih, who’d been initially hired as Vanderbilt’s offensive coordinator. It was unconventional at best, and at worst, worrisome that Lea had essentially opted to be on a second offensive coordinator weeks before his first game coaching the Commodores.

That’s not a step taken abruptly, especially for a defensive-oriented head coach.

Looking back, Lea said he gave it a lot of thought. He had just seen enough to know what he felt needed to happen, and there was no sense in waiting.

“It’s hard for me to look at something that I don’t think is working and not be true to myself in knowing that something needed to change,” Lea said. “I had this feeling that lingered through the summer and into fall camp. There was enough evidence there that it wasn’t clicking together, that there needed to be kind of a new voice of leadership to bring it together and that I had the perfect person on our staff to do it.

“Because I knew how good Joey was.”

Born into football

When colleague Justin Lustig, Vanderbilt’s associate head coach and special teams coordinator, describes Lynch, he talks about a unique passion. It's the kind that someone is born possessing.

“He came out of the womb, probably, drawing plays,” Lustig said.

He's from a Midwestern football family. Brothers went into coaching. Lynch’s father is Bill Lynch, a well-known football veteran of more than 40 years who was once the head coach at Ball State (1995-02) and then at Indiana (2007-10).

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From the time Joey was old enough to sit still, he was learning football in college teams' meeting rooms. He went on to become a prolific quarterback at Ball State, where he’d later work as an assistant coach for 11 years.

That lengthy tenure, rare in coaching, can be explained by the fact that he and his wife have six children ‒ five sons and a daughter ‒ ranging in age from high school to kindergarten.

“I don’t want to get in that world of bouncing around (to different jobs) with six kids,” Lynch said. Such a statement speaks to how much he believed in Lea when he opted to leave Colorado State – where he was offensive coordinator – after one season in 2020 and head to Vanderbilt, where again, he wasn’t originally hired to call plays. Never mind that Lea's staff was also inheriting a disheveled team that had gone winless the previous season.

“We knew what we were getting into,” Lynch said, “but what an opportunity, understanding that we have a chance to do something here that hasn’t been done in a long, long time in college football.”

As Lynch nears the end of his second season running Vanderbilt’s offense – but his first, technically, as offensive coordinator – the Commodores have been picking up steam. They enter Saturday’s regular-season finale against Tennessee with a two-game win streak that has them one victory away from bowl eligibility.

'It's not about us'

In 2022, Lynch has managed different quarterbacks – going from Mike Wright to freshman A.J. Swann and then back to Wright when Swann was injured – and a mercurial offense that has gone from very hot at times to very cold at others. When it’s good, the scheme can be explosive with either quarterback.

And recently, Vanderbilt's offense has been heating up again. Wright directed a game-winning drive to beat Kentucky and earn the program’s first SEC victory since 2019. The following week, Vanderbilt went 7-for-14 on third down to shock Florida despite passing for only 108 yards.

Is that a “Joey Lynch offense”? Conceptually, at least.

But he’ll tell you that it’s more reacting to what he’s got on the field.

“I don’t believe you can come in, us personally, and say ‘Hey, we are running this offense,’” Lynch said earlier this season. “It’s not about us and what we know as a coaching staff. It’s what our players can execute and what their skill sets present. I think that’s really, really important.”

Progress in Year 2

Early in its 2018 season, a top-10 Notre Dame team survived a home game against Ball State, 24-16, that made an impression on the Fighting Irish's defensive coordinator.

Notre Dame would finish 12-1 that season, losing only to Clemson in a College Football Playoff semifinal. In that early game, though, Lynch’s Ball State offense produced scoring drives of 19, 13 and 13 plays against Lea's defense.

“He had given me fits,” Lea recalled.

Lustig had worked with Lynch at Ball State, and as one of the first arrivals on Lea's new Vanderbilt staff, Lustig recommended one to the other, facilitating the hire.

Meanwhile, Lea brought Raih in from the NFL, enamored at the time with an Air Raid type of offensive style.

After Lea made the switch to Lynch, Raih remained on staff, coaching wide receivers until he exited the program after the 2021 season.

“That’s a hard hand to deal (Lynch),” Lea said. “Him inheriting that role in fall camp, that’s not an easy task. There’s very little you can do to put your fingerprints on something.”

“We were establishing as we went and doing a lot of things from week to week, to be honest with you,” Lynch said of last season. “Whereas this year, though spring practice and fall camp, it was all in. The kids were familiar with it. So now we can pick and choose going into a game plan.”

Tennessee is up next, bringing perhaps the more fearsome offense in college football and a clear demand: Lynch’s offense is going to have to score points to keep up and have a chance to win.

While not likely, it looks more possible now for Vanderbilt than it did just a few weeks ago.

Hard decisions have led to that point. In a program that has been in flux, things – and plans – can change quickly, and while the Commodores may still be rebuilding, they’re at least closer to where they’d like to be.

On offense, as well as everywhere else, Year 2 has been easier.

Reach Tennessean sports columnist Gentry Estes at gestes@tennessean.com and on Twitter @Gentry_Estes.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Joey Lynch's path was unique as Vanderbilt's offensive coordinator