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Iowa State's Gene Chizik reportedly to take Auburn job

Queasy

Queasy

Moderator<br>Console Gaming
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An odd hire for Auburn given Chizik's record at Iowa State. But then again, Iowa State doesn't exactly have a storied history behind it...

Iowa State coach Gene Chizik has been hired as the next football coach at Auburn, Iowa State athletic director Jamie Pollard said in statement.

"Gene [Chizik] confirmed for me today that he is accepting the head coaching position at Auburn, Pollard said "I'm disappointed for our Iowa State fans and student-athletes that he has chosen to leave our program after only two seasons.

"I understand that it [Auburn] is a dream job for him, but the timing and the way it played out has been hurtful and disappointing. Although this is a significant set back, we will get through the challenge because the Iowa State University athletics program is far greater than one person."

A former Auburn defensive coordinator, Chizik will succeed Tommy Tuberville, who resigned following 10 seasons. The hiring was first reported by several media outlets, including AuburnUndercover.com, the Birmingham News and the Mobile Press-Register.

Auburn athletic director Jay Jacobs has not confirmed the hiring.

"I think that if everything continues to go well in the next few days, we'll have the process narrowed down pretty well," Jacobs told reporters after landing in Auburn on a university jet. "We'll just go from there."

Asked if he had hired Chizik, Jacobs said: "We're just still working through the deal."

Jacobs was on the plane with university President Jay Gogue and other athletic department officials, reportedly returning from a trip to Memphis, where Chizik's agent, Jimmy Sexton, is based. A couple of dozen fans greeted the plane and some of them heckled the Auburn officials for apparently choosing a coach with a losing record.

An Auburn spokesman said no announcement was scheduled and an Iowa State spokesman also said he couldn't confirm the reports. Sexton declined to comment. Iowa State athletic director Jamie Pollard was out of town and unavailable for comment, spokesman Steve Malchow said.

Chizik is 5-19 in two seasons at Iowa State after stints running the defenses at Auburn and Texas. He coached the nation's top scoring defense in 2004 in his third and final season with the Tigers. That defense allowed just 11 points a game and Auburn went undefeated.

Iowa State athletic director Jamie Pollard had acknowledged on Friday in a statement that he was aware Chizik had met with Auburn officials and was a serious candidate for the job.

Before coming to Iowa State to replace Dan McCarney, Chizik was one of the hottest defensive coordinators in the country. He led teams at Auburn and Texas to a 28-game winning streak over two-plus seasons before losing in 2006 to Ohio State while at Texas. He was Frank Broyles national award winner in 2004 and served as the coordinator on Texas' 2005 national championship team.

But he's gone just 5-19 in two seasons at Iowa State -- including a 2-10 mark in 2008. The Cyclones went winless in Big 12 play this season, and their win total has dipped in each of the past three seasons.

Chizik's defense regressed in every major statistical category this season. The Cyclones worsened from 65th to 111th nationally in total defense, 93rd to 110th in scoring defense, 44th to 95th in rushing defense and 91st to 115th in total defense.

Their struggles were particularly apparent in the Big 12 game, which has become one of the nation's highest-scoring conferences in the last several seasons. The Cyclones allowed at least 28 points in every conference game this season and at least 422 yards of total offense. Iowa State also had allowed 28 points in 14 of 16 conference games under Chizik.

Iowa State currently has a 10-game losing streak which ranks tied for the second longest in FBS football with SMU. Washington has the longest at 14 games.

But the Iowa State program has traditionally struggled in the latter stages of the Big Eight and Big 12 conferences. The Cyclones had 17 non-winning seasons in a 19-year period before Dan McCarney took them to five bowl games during a span of six season from 2000-05. McCarney was let go after a 4-8 record in 2006.

Iowa State has never notched an outright conference championship in the 117-season history of the progam. The Cyclones shared Missouri Valley Championship titles as co-champions in 1911 and 1912.
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Fuck Auburn football. I love my alma mater but I'm done with AU football until Lowder, Raines and Jacobs are gone. Auburn had a chance to get what appears to be a damn fine coach in Turner Gill and instead gets a coach on a 10 game losing streak.
 
Originally posted by: hdeck
guess they put a lot of stock in the fact that he was their d coordinator
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And the assitant head coach and d coordinator for the 2005 national champion UT team.
 
Originally posted by: alexjohnson16
Coming from a Hawk fan, I do think Chiz is a good coach and will have a certain level of success at Auburn.
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Yeah, he'll end his 2nd season with a 9 game losing streak instead of 10? The decision makers in the AU athletic department are fucking morons. This hire is an unmitigated disaster.
 
Even Sir Charles is not happy

Former Auburn and NBA star Charles Barkley ripped his alma mater on Monday, saying the only reason the Tigers did not hire Buffalo's Turner Gill as the school's new football coach is because Gill is black.

...

"I think race was the No. 1 factor," said Barkley, who played basketball for three seasons at Auburn during the early 1980s. "You can say it's not about race, but you can't compare the two resumes and say [Chizik] deserved the job. Out of all the coaches they interviewed, Chizik probably had the worst resume."

Gill, a former Nebraska quarterback, took over one of the country's worst programs at Buffalo three years ago. He guided the Bulls to an 8-5 record and their first MAC championship this season, upsetting previously unbeaten Ball State 42-24 in the Dec. 5 conference championship game.

The Bulls won 10 games in their first seven seasons at the Division I-A level. Gill guided Buffalo to 13 victories during the last two seasons combined.

"I'm just very disappointed," Barkley said. "I just thought Turner Gill would be the perfect choice for two reasons: He's a terrific coach and we needed to make a splash. I thought we had to do something spectacular to bring attention to the program. Clearly, if we'd hired a black coach, it would have created a buzz."

Barkley, who works as an NBA analyst for Turner Network Television, said he spoke with Gill before Gill interviewed with Auburn officials last week.

"We talked about the whole race thing in Alabama," Barkley said. "I told him it's there and it's going to be anywhere you go. I told him you can't not take the job because of racism. He was worried about being nothing more than a token interview. He was concerned about having a white wife. It's just very disappointing to me."

Barkley, an 11-time NBA All-Star and two-time Olympic gold medal winner, said he served on Auburn's search committee for a new basketball coach after the 2003-04 season. Barkley said he told Auburn officials he would serve on the committee only if the school was ready to hire a black coach.

Barkley said he presented three African-American candidates for consideration: former Indiana coach Mike Davis, then-Virginia Commonwealth coach Jeff Capel and then-UAB coach Mike Anderson.

Barkley said all three candidates wanted to coach at Auburn. Instead, the Tigers hired then-Chattanooga coach Jeff Lebo, a white candidate. Lebo has a 61-68 record in his fifth season at Auburn.

Barkley said he was removed from Auburn's search committee before Lebo was hired.

"Out of all the basketball coaches they interviewed, they picked the only one who hadn't been to the NCAA tournament," Barkley said.

There are only four African-American coaches among 119 programs in the NCAA's Football Bowl Subdivision. Illinois offensive coordinator Mike Locksley was hired as New Mexico's coach last week; the others are Gill, Miami's Randy Shannon and Houston's Kevin Sumlin.

Two African-American coaches, Washington's Tyrone Willingham and Kansas State's Ron Prince, were fired during the 2008 season, and Mississippi State's Sylvester Croom resigned.

Barkley said he wanted Gill to become Auburn's coach because Auburn is a school where an African-American coach could be successful.

"My biggest problem with the black coaches is they're not getting jobs and they're getting [expletive] jobs when they are hired," Barkley said. "They're not getting good jobs. They're not getting jobs where they can be successful. That's why I wanted Turner to get the Auburn job. He could win consistently at Auburn. You can't win consistently at New Mexico. You can't win consistently at Kansas State. He could have won at Auburn."
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maybe they think he's got recruiting connections there and will be able to get players? nick saban wouldn't even be able to do anything at iowa state.
 
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