San Diego Athletics

One of the most successful coaches in FCS history and a man who leads through accountability and discipline, Dale Lindsey has put his stamp on the San Diego football program in his nine years at the helm. Lindsey became the winningest coach in program history in 2021, and has compiled a 75-25 overall record, including 64-6 in PFL play.
 
Lindsey, who enters his 10th season leading the Toreros in 2022, was named the 13th head football coach in USD history on December 29, 2012. He has more than 40 years of coaching experience at the high school, college and professional levels, including 21 in the NFL and 16 in Division I football.
 
In nine years at USD, Lindsey has won the PFL Championship seven times, reached the FCS Playoffs five times, been named the PFL Coach of the Year three times, national coach of the year finalist four times, and only lost six conference games overall.
 
In short, Lindsey is a football legend. He made USD one of the most dominant teams in the 2010 decade – after a football career that consisted of him being an All-American player, a nearly decade-long stint as an NFL player, more than four decades as a coach all over the United States and Canada, and a trip to the Super Bowl.
 
The former NFL player and coach is 75-25 overall in his USD coaching career, including 64-6 in conference play. He is one of only two coaches in PFL history with a career winning percentage above .800. Also, with his help, the Toreros finished the 2010s with the fourth-best winning percentage by an FCS team.
 
In addition to being USD’s head coach for nine years, he was also the team’s defensive coordinator for the 2012 season before earning the top job. Under his direction, the USD defense finished 14th in scoring defense (19.27), 15th in rushing defense (120.0) and 19th in pass efficiency defense (114.56). Helped by the defensive effort, the Toreros won a share of the PFL title with a 7-1 conference record and finished 8-3 overall.
 
The stint as USD’s defensive coordinator was his second as an assistant with the Toreros. In 2008, he was the linebackers coach under then-head coach Ron Caragher and helped the 9-2 Toreros hold their opponents to just 18.9 points a game and 322 yards of total offense per contest.
 
Including his time as an assistant coach, Lindsey has helped lead USD to eight conference championships. 

Prior to joining the Toreros as the defensive coordinator, Lindsey spent three years at New Mexico State. He was the assistant head coach and linebackers coach in 2009 and 2010 before serving as the defensive coordinator in 2011.

While he has experienced significant success at USD, Lindsey was a member of many notable NFL coaching staffs as well. He has worked with seven different NFL and had two stints each with the Washington Redskins and San Diego Chargers. In his two stints with the Chargers, Lindsey was the defensive coordinator on the 2002 and 2003 teams as well as the linebackers coach on the defensive staff from 1992 to 1996. During that mid-1990s run, Lindsey helped guide the Chargers to a pair of AFC West titles (1992 and 1994), three playoff appearances (1992, 1994 and 1995) and a trip to Super Bowl XXIX after winning the AFC Championship in 1994.  
 
A former linebacker and fullback at Western Kentucky, Lindsey was an All-American linebacker with the Hilltoppers in his senior season and helped the team go 10-0-1 and win the Tangerine Bowl as a junior in 1963. In his two years at Western Kentucky, the team was 16-3-2. He was also a two-time All-OVC pick and named to the all-time OVC Team in 1988. His #44 jersey was retired by the school on September 15, 2007.
 
A Bowling Green (Ky.) High product, Lindsey was drafted in the seventh round of the 1965 NFL Draft by the Cleveland Browns and in the sixth redshirt round of the 1965 AFL Draft by the New York Jets (both drafts were held on the same day). He went on to play eight seasons at linebacker for the Browns before finishing out his nine-year NFL career with the New Orleans Saints in 1973. He played in 111 career NFL games, including 71 starts, and was teammates of Pro Football Hall of Famers Jim Brown, Lou Groza, Leroy Kelly and Gene Hickerson.

In 2008, Lindsey was inducted into the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame in Louisville, Kentucky.
 
Lindsey and his wife, Eva, reside in Rancho Bernardo, and have five children - Blan, Jennifer, Kim, Johnny and Derek.