Auburn to name Iowa State's Chizik as coach

[BIGREDIOWAN]

Horrible hire in my opinion, this guy has proven nothing except he's good at losing.

[hack]

this is a better hire for auburn than what a lot of other people think.

 

look, winning in ames isn't easy. attracting talent isn't any easier. chizik has a history with auburn and he'll be able to recruit the south.

 

long run, auburn will come out ahead. iowa state? back to the drawing board, i guess.

[strigori]

this is a better hire for auburn than what a lot of other people think.

 

look, winning in ames isn't easy. attracting talent isn't any easier. chizik has a history with auburn and he'll be able to recruit the south.

 

long run, auburn will come out ahead. iowa state? back to the drawing board, i guess.

So he will be Auburn's very own Bill Callahan. Can recruit but cant coach. 5-19. They fired a guy who had 5 wins or more most seasons, including 5 bowl games, winning big is next to impossible in Ames, but just over .500 is not. The fact of the matter is that Auburn passed on coaches who posted winning records at schools that are as as bad as ISU. Auburn will be looking for a new coach again in about 4 years.

[Husker Runner]

Harsh words about Chizik on ISU's Rivals site:

 

EXCERPT:

When Chizik told the players he inherited that he wasn't going to come down to their level, his legacy of all-hat-no-cattle sound bites was in motion. Few of those players had ever been part of anything as wretched as the two seasons Chizik presided over. He'd have been fortunate to have them bring him up to their level. And when he made the players spend 20 minutes of the first spring practice of 2007 precisely lining up their helmets, you wondered if a real life Captain Queeg hadn't taken over the ISU football program.

 

Chizik's game day performance speaks for itself and his Saturday state of confusion was boderline comical, if you subscribe to the idea that it's better to laugh than to cry. He might someday have the mental capacity to manage a game as head coach, but it's not there yet. The next opposing coach that Chizik outsmarts will be the first. Without superior athletes, he was rendered impotent as a coach and when all three phases became his ultimate responsibility, he gagged on it. Chizik coordinated defenses at Auburn and Texas; but as a head coach, all he coordinated was disarray. The Cyclone sideline resembled a fire drill more often than not in crucial situations and the number of delay of game penalties and wasted time outs that could be attributed to him and his staff was a career's worth, not two season's worth. The defense was ultimately dumbed down not so the players could understand it, but so the coaches could manage it. And even then they failed.

 

Would Chizik have eventually been able to win more games at Iowa State and perhaps even get to 6-6 and a bowl game? Maybe, eventually. Had he at least been stubborn enough not to quit, it was possible. After all, he had a brilliant rebuilding plan in place – get better players. Who could fail with a plan like that? But when you consider the games that his Iowa State teams choked away against very beatable opponents these last two autumns, even better players might not have mattered. Because the players he had at Iowa State were collectively good enough to go .500 or better in each of his two seasons in Ames. He and his coaching staff were the problem, not the players. Had the coaches been as good as the players, ISU would have won more games. Even if the players were horrible – say 5-19 horrible – that still means that Chizik and his staff generated a grand total of zero wins with their talent. The players, of course, were not 5-19 horrible, which means the reality is that Chizik and staff cost Iowa State victories as opposed to making them happen.

[Husker Runner]