Q&A: Coach Gene Chizik on Auburn ouster, team's current success

Dan Wolken | USA TODAY Sports

AUBURN, Ala. – Gene Chizik has been crossing a lot of items off his bucket list lately. In September, he took a quick trip to Boston see a game at Fenway Park. In a couple weeks, he's attending the Army-Navy game, something he'd always wanted to experience. This weekend, he's taking his son Cally to an NFL game for the first time to see the Kansas City Chiefs play the Denver Broncos.

Before getting fired as Auburn's head coach on Nov. 25, 2012, those were the kinds of things Chizik was never able to do for himself and his family. So in some ways, the past year has been a blessing.

But Chizik is also a football coach, and one who occupies an unusual position in this week's Iron Bowl matchup between No. 1 Alabama and No. 5 Auburn.

Auburn's season has been defined by a remarkable turnaround from 3-9, a disastrous record that cost Chizik his job, to 10-1 under first-year coach Gus Malzahn. Often forgotten is that nearly all of the key contributors were recruited by Chizik, who led Auburn to a national championship in 2010 and found himself unemployed just two seasons later.

Chizik, 51, has remained in Auburn this season but been out of the spotlight for the most part. Aside from a role on Sirius XM radio and working for ESPNU as a signing day analyst, he has mostly avoided talking publicly about the meltdown at Auburn last season after going 8-5, 14-0 and 8-5 in his first three years.

Until now.

With the Iron Bowl looming, Chizik sat down with USA TODAY Sports at his home Tuesday morning to talk about getting fired, why he switched from Malzahn's spread offense to a pro style in 2012, being a member of the media and what he thinks of this Auburn team.

Q: So, what have you been doing for the last year?

A: I've had a great opportunity to spend a lot of family time. I've always said I'm a husband and a father and a coach. That's what I am. So I've really been able to kind of lay back, spend some great, great family time and do some really creative and cool things. This Saturday I'm taking my son to his first pro football game. I've been able to do that, and I've obviously done some TV and some radio. Not too much. Again, in this time I've really wanted to lay low and spend a lot of great family time, so I haven't fully devoted to the radio and TV world but I've done some of it. I've spent a lot of time, believe it or not, studying the game and really staying up on the game.

I had a really great conversation with Jon Gruden months ago after I got let go. He made a comment to me that made total sense. He said, "Gene, when I got out of coaching I feel like I'm a better coach today than I was then because of how much time I can spend now studying the game." I thought that was pretty interesting, so I've done that. I've really spent a lot of time on the X and O front. Football changes every year, but I've stayed sharp on that and I've kept up with recruiting. I've been busy with those three sections of my life. My family, my media responsibilities and still studying the game.

Q: I was up at Notre Dame earlier this year and Brian Kelly mentioned you had been there and that you'd told him how much you enjoyed seeing different campuses and how different programs are doing things. What did you get out of that?

A: That was very valuable for me. Sirius XM does a great job with their campus tours during two-a-days, and I picked five schools – with the exception of Texas – four other schools I'd never been to before to see their operation. I wanted to see how other head coaches run their programs. We got a chance to see practices. It was very enlightening. You get so much into tunnel vision as a coach, this is the way you do it, and you don't ever really get that perspective.

Again, on the studying football front, I was able to go to Notre Dame and watch Brian, who I thought was awesome. I was able to go to Michigan and that was great. Gary Patterson (at TCU), Kevin Sumlin (at Texas A&M) and Texas with Mack as well. I spent a day at each one of them, and it was very refreshing for me, very interesting, and you take away different things from different people. But one of the things you take away from all of those people is you can see immediately why they have success. It's a feel when you get there, the way they're organized, the way they run things, the way their practices unfold, you can see pretty quick why those guys are successful.

Q: Do you like doing the media stuff? On signing day, I saw a lot of positive comments about your role.

A: It certainly has been interesting and it's a new perspective for me being on the other side. Matter of fact, one of my co-hosts was saying the other day, "Coach, I've got to admit, I love doing the show with you. You've got great insight, I love your personality. But as a football coach, your interviews stunk." I said, well, that was by design. A wise man told me a long time ago, the less you say as a coach, the less you have to take back.

That was kind of the theory I went by, but I've got a whole different idea of that now. And let me tell you something, I have a very high level of respect for the media. I have a very high level of respect for the people in the media that do their job with integrity and do it correctly. One of the reasons I really like Sirius XM is it's a very credible show with very credible guests, coaches, ADs and everybody on the show does a really, really good job. One reason I wanted to do that is I felt like it would be fun and I like that part of it, so the transitioning part to the media for me has been fun. It keeps me really kind of like you. You've got to know what's going on at UCLA and at Florida. That's been really good for me, really healthy on a national level to look at that.

Being part of the media now, I've even got a greater sense of what you guys do – or what we do now, I should say, because I have to interview coaches. Not that I didn't before, but I have a great deal of respect for that and it's been very eye-opening and interesting on how it is on this side of the fence.

Q: How much time do you spend looking forward vs. looking back on what happened at Auburn?

A: I'm a guy that is always reflective, but I really feel like part of wasted energy is worrying about what happened in the past. I think you always reflect on things to get a perspective on how you can improve and that's always me. I always want to know how to improve and get better. I always want to be the best.

I've reflected on the past. I haven't dwelled on the past. I'm a guy that always looks forward and always try to stay very positive in what can sometimes be a very negative world. But I choose not to go down that path because one thing I have realized, particularly in coaching, is that for the guys that it didn't work out at one place or another for them, coaching-wise, I've seen them very bitter where they look back and refuse to take responsibility for whatever happened. It was everybody else's fault.

What I've found from those guys is, everybody else moves on. The fans move on, the coaches move on, the players move on and the only one left bitter is you. I refuse to do that. Have I been reflective on the good and the bad? I've had 27 years of a dream career as an assistant and head coach, but if you stay in it long enough you'll have to deal with some of the downside of it to, and I've done that. I've definitely moved on, but I'm reflective as well.

Q: You made the choice to stay in Auburn, be in town. I don't know how much you go out or talk to people, but why'd you make that choice, and what's that been like?

A: First of all, this is a phenomenal community. If it wasn't, we wouldn't have stayed here. Our children are extremely happy here. It's a great education, it's a great community. Everybody here has been fantastic. They've treated us with a lot of respect. It's a great place to raise your family, and to be honest for our children and as much as we've moved around, this is home for them because we've been here twice.

Our children, if you ask them where they were born, they can tell you. If you ask them where they're from, there was a point in time where they couldn't tell you. Now if you ask them, they'll say they're from Auburn. That's very important to me. They've given up a lot because of my career and how it required you to move, and I didn't think it would be fair at all that just because dad isn't working for the university that we just up and moved again.

We put a lot of thought into that, and we love it here. People have definitely treated us with great respect, and I felt like when I was relieved of being the head coach at Auburn I felt like we left the right way as well. It's been good our kids are happy and we're in a place that feels like home.

Q: So what's it been like to be the former head coach in this town watching that team of players you recruited win all these games?

A: I think you'd have to start with the players. What people don't understand is from a coaching perspective when you struggle like we struggled last year, you hurt so much for the players. The players, you brought them there and told them that this is the way it's going to be and give them this vision of championships and things of that nature. And when it doesn't unfold exactly like that and go through the struggle we went through last year you hurt for the players. So I'm ecstatic for the players.

I couldn't be happier to sit there and watch them win these games, particularly these close ones, however they pull it out and we all know how that's gone this year. It's an absolute joy for me to watch them celebrate and be happy and win. I think without question, that's what I get the biggest joy out of.

Gus has done a fantastic job, and he and I worked together for three years and he's done a fantastic job of regrouping the troops and them buying into him and the staff he brought in and it's really nice to see those guys rebound and do what we recruited them to do and that's win. They're definitely a talented group of young men, and they're great kids and they deserve this.

Q: When you kicked off against Clemson in the season opener last year, did you think it was even possible you'd end the year out of a job?

A: No, absolutely not.

Q: So what happened?

A: Again, as you look back and reflect, there's a couple things that I don't want to complicate as I look back. It's pretty simple. It was really the perfect storm scenario and if you stay in coaching long enough sometimes you hit a perfect storm scenario. I think it was that.

If you start out and look from a roster standpoint, in 2010 after we won the national championship we lost somewhere in the area of 27 players – 24 seniors and our three best juniors in Cam (Newton), Nick (Fairley) and Darvin Adams. And when you lose that many players, you're basically starting over. So we knew 2011 and 2012 we could take some lumps in both of those years. We felt that. Obviously not to the degree that it happened in 2012, but again, we knew those two years would be basically starting over.

So you have that on one front. From an X and O front, you had two brand new coordinators coming in, which we knew that takes time and that you have to go through some growing pains. That's just the way it is.

What we probably didn't anticipate was, we didn't anticipate the struggles at quarterback. And we struggled mightily at quarterback, to the point where the last four or five games we started a true freshman. And you now in this league, that's just hard.

So you've got new coordinators, struggles at the quarterback position, and if you just look at this league, the teams that play at a high level, you're getting high-level quarterback play. That's just the way it is. So you've got those two dynamics put together and then there was a momentum issue in there.

My previous three years, we would play close games in the fourth quarter and win a lot of them. Most of them. You mentioned the Clemson game. That's a tie ballgame going into the fourth quarter. We can't pull it out. There was five out of six of our losses were seven points or less in the fourth quarter that typically we win some of them. We couldn't get any momentum.

Q: I imagine after LSU (a 12-10 loss) you probably felt OK?

A: I felt like we were making progress, but the same thing happened on the road at Ole Miss. Same thing happened on the road at Vandy, which had the best team they've had in the history of the school. But we're still in the game in the fourth quarter with a chance to win and can't pull it out.

There was just momentum issues that you need, particularly when you have new coordinators and new quarterbacks. You have to have some momentum in there, and we just had a real hard time closing the door on those fourth quarter games. Then momentum started rolling the other way and here you are at the end of the year and you play Texas A&M, Georgia and Alabama – and I don't care what anybody says, you're looking at arguably three of the best teams in the country with no momentum, playing a freshman quarterback.

Those aren't excuses. That's real. That's just real. That's the reality of it. So momentum in this game, it happens in the NFL too. Look at Mike Smith. How is he a couple minutes from playing for the Super Bowl last year, and they've got two wins with a lot of close losses? You can say it with Andy Reid, Will Muschamp this year, Gary Patterson. It's part of the game. Perfect storm scenarios happen, and momentum plays a part of that.

Hey, it's my responsibility. I take full responsibility for everything that happened at Auburn, period. But you asked as you reflect back, that's what I see. And I will say this: I don't think we were near as far off as the record indicated.

Q: This year would sort of indicate that's true, but a lot of people have pointed to changing coordinators and changing philosophies on offense and saying after you'd been successful with Gus, why not continue running the same type of system with players that were recruited to play in that system?

A: That question I'm sure is floating out there. For me, what we tried to do is look at in our league, what type of offense was, through the test of time, consistently productive and winning? And we wanted to kind of shift gears somewhat. It wasn't a wholesale shift to a pro-style offense, because if you look at consistency of success in our league you're looking at the Georgias and Alabamas and LSUs because they can recruit really good players that you could win with in that type of pro system.

So we looked at the consistency and what stood the test of time in this league. That was No. 1. We felt like we were on the right track recruiting wise to be able to do that. We were still young. And we knew it would be a transition, but we felt like we were getting there with our offensive line. We were getting there with some of our tailbacks we were recruiting. We were getting there to the point where there was really, in my eyes, if you were ever going to make that change you'd do it when there's a change in coordinator.

Because the other thing we heard in recruiting all the time was, can this offense get me to the NFL? It was a recruiting thing as well. Ultimately, all these kids want to know if they can play at the next level and that question continuously popped up. Is this offense conducive to me going to the NFL? So we just looked at what stood the test of time in this league and recruiting and who we were recruiting against in the Alabamas, LSUs and Georgias who could say, hey these are pro-style offenses and this gets you to the next level.

Not that (recruiting) drove it. We really wanted to be able to get to the point where we recruited well enough to be very physical, we could sprinkle in some of the spread stuff but we wanted to transition to more of the pro style.

Q: I've heard Bobby Bowden say before that he coached like he was on a one-year contract. The way this played out with you, you clearly made some long-term decisions that hurt you in the short term. Looking back, would you have still done that?

A: I'd have never dreamed I had one year. That never crossed my mind. I was making decisions to transition to something I thought through the test of time would be the right thing to do, and looking back on it, knowing I had one year, there's two things that come to play for me when I look back. No. 1, I'd always make sure that I had viable options at the quarterback position. And No. 2, I'd be very cautious in changing so much so quickly meaning coordinators and offense.

I'd have to really evaluate that. Knowing I only had one year, I probably wouldn't have done that, to be honest with you. But I never in a million years thought that. I thought we could make the transition, take some lumps, but the upside would be exactly where I wanted this to go. It just didn't work out that way.

Q: At what point last season did you start to think you might get fired?

A: You know, you can just feel it near the end of the year. It's really hard to describe. Because the bottom line is, I've never paid any attention to the outside world. I know a lot of coaches say that, and most of them probably don't. Some of them do. I didn't because I felt like if I'm paying attention to that, I'm paying attention to the wrong things.

But you can feel it. It's a terrible feeling. It's the first time I've ever had to deal with it. I've been doing this 27 years, and never got relieved of my job anywhere. So it was all uncharted waters for me, but you can feel it. Administratively, you can feel it. Fan-wise, you can feel it.

And the most disheartening thing for me is how your family feels it. It's my wife and children that I had to face the last month of my job and they were asking me, Daddy are you going to keep your job? Are you going to keep your job? My answer was, you know baby, we're going to work really hard and however it plays out, that's how it plays out, knowing in the back of your mind that it doesn't look good. That's the dishearting part that your family has to go through that. We signed up for this, they didn't.

But you could tell, certainly, things started really going south after the A&M game.

Q: But no one came to you and said, you've got to beat Alabama, you've got to do X, Y, Z to keep your job?

A: No one had to say that to me. No one had to say that to me. I knew what we had to do, and I mean the bottom line is, I had a great plan on how to fix it in my mind. I wish I'd have had the opportunity to sit down with the people that made the decision and for them to say to me, we've got problems, we've got issues, what's your plan to fix it? Then they hear my plan. And if they don't like the plan, they make the decision. But that was never done.

Q: Is that just a product of the pressures of this day and age?

A: I think so, I think it is. People have to make business decisions; I just wish they had all the information because, again, I knew this team and these kids as well as anybody. But the reality of it is, this is a business, they have to make decisions they think are the best for them, and I totally understand it. That's why – and I'll make this real clear – I'm not angry and I'm not bitter. Because everyone has moved on, including me, and if I'm that way, I'm the only one that's that way.

Q: The crazy thing is, you exceeded expectations in your first three years in the job. There's no argument about that.

A: I was the winningest coach in the history of the school my first three years with three bowl wins and a national championship. So when you ask the question, did you ever dream in a million years that you wouldn't have time, absolutely not.

Q: There was a lot written the last couple years about off-field problems, the Michael Dyer situation, ESPN did a story about drug issues. Did you feel like you evaluated kids correctly that you brought into the program, and is there anything you'd have changed about the discipline structure?

A: We did a great job of evaluating those kids and when you have 125 of them, you're going to have some issues with some young men. There's no question about it, but I will say some of the issues that were brought up were brought up incorrectly. It was a situation where we had some young men that we had to guide and lead and that's part of our job. But for anyone to think you have a team of 125 guys and all 125 of them are going to do exactly what they need to do all the time and not make bad decisions, that's just unrealistic.

Q: Did you feel under siege in some respects? There was a lot going on at that time in terms of the coverage of this program, even after the Cam Newton stuff. As the coach in the center of it, how did you feel about managing all of that?

A: I've probably been through more in six years as a head coach in terms of experience and just experiencing everything. Experiencing the absolute highs in holding up the crystal football to accusations and scrutiny that, in the end, none of it was true. And having to endure that particularly during a season, enduring the Cam Newton situation. At times, you do feel like your program is under siege, as you put it, but I learned a lot from that.

To me, I always try to put things in a positive light. The NCAA came into Auburn for two years, and there were a lot of accusations and rumors and innuendos that started with Cam Newton and continued on. But they were here for over two years and when they come in for that long, all you have to do is point to Miami, Ohio State, they're going to find (something).

They found exactly what I thought they would find: Zero major violations of any sort. We did it right here. So at times you feel like it's under siege, but at the end of the day, I know we did it right.

And even though at the time you don't want to go through it, it was a great experience for me learning how to go through all that when the NCAA is coming in and turning over every stone to figure out if any of these rumors are true. I've experience literally winning a national championship and then actually having to endure the opposite of that and getting relieved of your duties as a head coach. So I've grown a lot in terms of experience.

Here's what I really believe: I've got a lot of great years of coaching left in me, if that's what I choose to do because I don't know if there's anybody who's experienced everything I've experienced in the last four years. What I've experienced and what I've gone through has done nothing but made me reflect and become better moving forward. I really believe that. So, you know, I don't look back and regret anything other than I wish I could have been able to give these young men a more productive year last year so they didn't have to endure what they endure.

Q: There aren't many coaches who have a national championship, working or not working. Do you think you'll get back in, and what kind of job would you want?

A: I'm in a good place right now. I want to make this clear. Coaching is what I do. It's not who I am. And I say that because I think some coaches who experience getting relieved of their job feel like they have to jump right back in because that's who they are. I don't feel that. I don't feel that at all. I love coaching, and it's what I do, and I feel like I'm really good at it.

But I don't have to jump in because that's who I am. So when I say I'm in a good place, if the right situation comes along that fits and me and fits what I'm looking for, I'll sit down with my family and we'll really talk through it and decide if that's the direction we want to go. We'll sit down with my teen-agers and my wife and say, are we ready for this? Because I want to do it, I'm excited about the prospects of that happening, but by no means am I jumping into a situation that isn't really, really conducive for me in the professional world and my family.

That's one path that could potentially be for me. Then if you look down the other path, there's going to be some other opportunities potentially for TV and radio if I want to continue down that path. So I'm in a good place because mentally, where I am and dealing with all this stuff, I feel very good. I'm going to enjoy the first Thanksgiving I've had in 27 years without the pressure to win a game and I'm going to enjoy that. But if the right thing hits, that will be great because I am a football coach.

Q: Have you talked to Gus at all this season?

A: We talked before the season started, and I have not … I know how busy he is. He has a lot of things on his plate. But I want to make clear: I'm really happy for Gus. He's doing a tremendous job and Gus and I are friends.

Q: When Auburn was going through its coaching search, a lot of people said this is a very difficult job because of what Nick Saban has done and that the constant comparison to Alabama makes it hard on the Auburn coach. As someone who lived it, how did you feel about it?

A: You have to get up every day trying to figure out how to beat Alabama in everything, and if you don't get up every day and strategize on how you're going to beat them on the field and in recruiting, it's going to be hard to do it. It's going to be hard to beat them. You have to think about it every single day.

One of the tough things when we took this job in 2009 is Nick was just starting to get that thing to be arguably one of the best runs in college football history. We got it right in the beginning and in the middle and what he's done there has been pretty amazing.

Q: As you reflect back on 2010, is there a way to quantify what winning the championship did for this school, especially coming in the middle of Alabama's run?

A: There's really not. Literally, if you went with me to this gas station up here, somebody would get out while I'm getting gas and say thank you for the national championship year. It's something the Auburn people will never, never forget. It was absolutely huge for the school because I don't think people globally understand how hard it is to win a national championship.

I've been blessed to be part of one at two different schools, and it's hard. And the thing you have to remember is that embrace it while it's happening because the odds are, for most schools, that it may not happen again in your lifetime. Certainly while you're coaching.

That's how hard it is, so I think it was huge for the people of this community, for the Auburn fan base, particularly to say that you stuck a national championship in between ones that Alabama has won. That takes a little bit of the sting out of it, at least somewhat, for the Auburn fan base.

Q: Did you get to embrace it as much as you should have?

A: You never do when you're in it. You never do. I think that's one of the things that, as you look back on your career, you probably regret more than anything is that all the successes you had both as an assistant and a head coach you probably don't embrace it and hold onto it and appreciate it enough while you're doing it.

Darrell Royal told me something one time on a flight to an away game. I asked him, "Coach, why'd you get out of it?" He said, "Gene, I got out because every single win I didn't enjoy because that's what we were supposed to do. And every loss ate me up and I didn't enjoy the wins nearly as much as the losses affected me. So I knew it was time to get out."

Most coaches will tell you that who have been on championship runs, that looking back they wish they could have taken the time to enjoy it more, even when the season ends. But when the season ends you don't enjoy it and you're back in recruiting and your cycle starts all over again. You don't really ever embrace it maybe as much as you should.

Q: Do you have a prediction for Saturday?

A: I don't. I think it's going to be a great game. I think Auburn's played fantastic. Their makeup right now, offensively, gives them a chance. A lot of times games aren't just player for player and who's got better players. A lot of times it's matchups based on schematically what you do versus what they do. Schematically, Auburn matches up well.

Q: Do you think Florida State could potentially beat an Alabama?

A: I think Florida State is playing at as high a level as anyone in the country, maybe higher. I think they're explosive on offense, they have a quarterback that definitely will lend them to be able to be a national championship contender without question. I think defensively, everywhere across the board, when you look at Florida State you just don't see any weaknesses. There's no question in my mind they'd be able to compete with whoever they play if they make it to the national championship game.

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Dan Wolken, a national college football reporter at USA TODAY Sports, is on Twitter @Dan Wolken.