Gene Chizik

Gene Chizik
Title	Head coach
College	Auburn
Sport	Football
Conference	SEC
Team record	7–5
Born	December 28, 1961 (1961-12-28) (age 47)
Place of birth	Tarpon Springs, Florida
Annual salary	$1,900,000
Career highlights
Overall	12–23
Coaching stats
College Football DataWarehouse
Awards
Broyles Award (2004)
Playing career
1981	Florida
Position	Linebacker
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
1990–1991 1992–1995 1996–1997 1998–2001 2002–2004 2005–2006 2007–2008 2009–present	MTSU (DE) SFA (LB) SFA (DC) Central Florida (DC/DB) Auburn (DC/DB) Texas (Co-DC/AHC/LB) Iowa State Auburn

Gene Chizik (born December 28, 1961 in Tarpon Springs, Florida) is the current head coach of the Auburn Tigers football team.^[1] Previously, he was the head coach of the Iowa State Cyclones football team during the 2007 and 2008 seasons. Chizik played linebacker at the University of Florida during the 1981 season.^[2]

Personal

Gene is married to Jonna Chizik. They have identical twin daughters named Landry and Kennedy, as well as a son, Cally.^[3]

He earned a bachelor's degree in education from the University of Florida in 1985, and went on to receive a master's degree in guidance and counseling from Clemson University in 1991.^[3]

Coaching career

Coaching style

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Chizik, as a defensive coordinator for Auburn University, began to show visibly his style of defense. He preferred a tough, physical brand of football which eventually helped Auburn to a 13-0 season. Chizik's conspicuous defensive style also lead to many Auburn players becoming early-round draft picks. He is known as a great communicator when it comes to recruiting, but is soft-spoken and often low-key at press conferences. As Auburn head coach, he has implemented many recruiting efforts such as the Big Cat Weekend, the Tiger Prowl, and setting up billboards along highways persuading prospects to visit Auburn.

Early years

He began his coaching career at Seminole High School, serving as their defensive coordinator and inside linebacker coach from 1986-1988. He then became a graduate assistant at Clemson from 1988-1989, working with the outside linebackers. During his time at Clemson he coached in the 1988 Citrus Bowl and the 1989 Gator Bowl, under secondary coach Bill Oliver.^[4]

His initial full-time coaching job was as the defensive ends coach at Middle Tennessee State University. He served in this capacity from 1990–1991. In 1990, the Blue Raiders won the Ohio Valley Conference championship. His next assignment was at Stephen F. Austin, serving as their linebackers coach from 1992–1995. SFA advanced to the Division I-AA semifinals in 1995.^[3] He was then promoted to the defensive coordinator role, which he held from 1996–1997. He then served as the defensive coordinator and secondary coach for Central Florida from 1998–2001.

While at Central Florida in Orlando, Chizik frequently visited practice sessions of the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers studying the Bucs' defensive scheme developed by then-Bucs head coach Tony Dungy, defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin and linebackers coach Lovie Smith.^[5]

Chizik later employed a very similar scheme at Auburn, where he served again as the defensive coordinator and secondary coach from 2002–04. During this time, he had some of the greatest successes of his career to date. He coached in three bowl games, the 2003 Capital One Bowl, 2004 Music City Bowl, and 2005 Sugar Bowl. His 2004 defensive unit led the country in scoring defense, giving up 11.3 points per game,^[6] and the total defense ranked 5th, which is the same ranking the 2003 team recorded.^[7] He garnered the 2004 Broyles Award, which is given each year to the top assistant coach in the nation. He also guided Carlos Rogers to capture the 2004 Jim Thorpe Award, which is given to the top defensive back in the nation annually. The 2004 Auburn Tigers football team finished 13-0 that year, won the SEC title, and defeated Virginia Tech in the Sugar Bowl. It placed second in the final AP and Coaches polls.^[8]

In 2005 he was hired by Texas Longhorns to serve as their co-defensive coordinator, assistant head coach, and linebackers coach.^[9] During his time with the Texas Longhorns, the team won the 2005 NCAA Division I-A national football championship by defeating USC in the 2006 Rose Bowl. He also coached two Jim Thorpe Award winners in Michael Huff and Aaron Ross, who won the honor in 2005 and 2006, respectively.

Iowa State

In November 2006, Chizik was hired to replace outgoing coach Dan McCarney as head football coach of Iowa State University. McCarney resigned after going 4–8 in his final season, despite 5 bowl appearances during his tenure, the most of any Iowa State coach. Chizik's contract with ISU was a six-year deal worth a guaranteed $6.75 million. With incentives, the total had the potential to be more than $10 million.^[10] In Chizik's first season, Iowa State finished 3-9, including a 15-13 upset victory over Iowa, and back-to-back wins against Kansas State and Colorado. The Cyclones also experienced a notable improvement on defense. In the year prior to Chizik's arrival, Iowa State was ranked 102nd nationally in total defense^[11] and in Chizik's first year, they improved to 65th.^[12]

In 2008, Iowa State won their first two games against South Dakota State and Kent State before losing their final 10 games to finish the season 2–10. Among all 119 Division I FBS teams, the team ranked 111th in total defense, 115th in passing defense, and 95th in rushing defense.^[13] Following the season, Chizik fired two assistant coaches and demoted both his offensive and defensive coordinators. Chizik's name came up frequently as a coach who would be on the hot seat for the following season, though all acknowledged the difficulty of the job given the lack of resources and difficult schedule.^[14][15][16]

Auburn

Transition efforts

On December 13, 2008, Auburn University hired Chizik to succeed former head coach Tommy Tuberville, who was fired from the position after finishing 5–7 in the 2008 season.^[17] Auburn athletic director Jay Jacobs released a statement that said: "I know that we have found the right fit for Auburn. Gene's body of work during his 23 years in this profession is remarkable. He has a strong knowledge of this athletics program, this university and the community, and he knows how to be successful in the Southeastern Conference. He is a high-energy coach that is an outstanding motivator and demands a tough, physical style of football."^[18][19]

Chizik retained James Willis to continue coaching linebackers (although Willis would leave the school a month later) and then hired Gus Malzahn as his offensive coordinator, a hire lauded as Malzahn enjoyed the nation's top offense at Tulsa the previous two seasons. He subsequently hired nationally renowed coaches and recruiters, Curtis Luper and Trooper Taylor, to coach running backs and wide receivers. Chizik also brought special teams guru Jay Boulware from his ISU staff to be the special teams coordinator and hired former Auburn player Tracy Rocker away from Ole Miss to coach the defensive line. The final hire was UNC linebackers coach Tommy Thigpen as safeties coach.

Chizik's incentive-laden contract at Auburn is for 5 years with a salary of approximately $1.9 million per year, an $800,000 increase from his Iowa State contract.^[20][21] Iowa State was paid a $750,000 buyout for Chizik's early departure.^[22]

Chizik won his first five games at Auburn, matching his total over two years at Iowa State.

Notable accomplishments

• Won 2004 Broyles Award, given to nation's top assistant college football coach

Head coaching record

References