Former Auburn head coach Gene Chizik, who led the 2010 national championship team, was vociferously defensive of current head coach Gus Malzahn in an ESPN Radio interview on Friday morning.
The show’s host, Rick Neuheisel, asked Chizik about the reported post-season contract negotiations at Auburn with Malzahn, as well as the unique atmosphere of coaching the Auburn program.
Chizik went into a four-and-a-half-minute response, where he defended Malzahn, explained the genesis of the issues, and criticized the people that he said aren’t helping the “institution” of Auburn.
“It’s different at Auburn, to say the least,” Chizik said, starting his diagnosis of the issue. “Part of the reason, Rick, as you know, is, first of all, there’s no professional sports in the state, right? So what does everybody hang their hat on? Look, when you’re in first grade, about a 75-year-old gentlemen told me one time, he was surrounded by five guys, and in first grade on the playground, he had to decide whether he was Alabama or Auburn. And that’s no joke, and you decide who you are. And then you never flip, you never flip flop. And that story is a microcosm of what happens in this state simply with the Auburn-Alabama rivalry.”
Chizik continued on to explain that Malzahn inevitably gets compared to Alabama head coach Nick Saban, who is quickly forming a reputation as the greatest coach in college football history. He said the frustration is reactionary to seeing Alabama do so well in contrast Auburn’s struggles.
“We win a national championship several years ago, Gus goes back and plays for it again,” Chizik said. "So were’ in the fight, but it’s not good enough because you’ve got a guy that’s been to every college football playoff since the inception of it, the national titles that he’s won. He’s getting ready to play it again. He just cleaned up in recruiting with a class that we haven’t seen the likes of maybe ever, OK? And then you’ve got Gus over here holding on for dear life.
Malzahn was on Chizik’s staff at Auburn for three seasons as the offensive coordinator. He came back as the head coach after Chizik was fired following a 3-9 season in 2012.
So Chizik himself has gone through the personal toil of struggles in a must-win program. He said the key to more success at Auburn is an attitude change from the “power brokers” who need to be more focused on helping the coach succeed than hurting his image and hampering his abilities.
“But the people at Auburn have a knee jerk reaction or at least in the past they have, because of what’s going on across the state. And it’s never gonna change.”
“... Because all of the things outside of that that are negative, do not help whoever the head coach is be successful. Former players that want to go out and trash the coach, that doesn’t help the institution. Everybody on a national perspective looks at Auburn, ‘Yeah, they won seven games, OK? They got beat bad by Alabama like everybody else did.’ Instead of cutting the head off of a $49-million guy, lets rally the troops behind the scenes and say, ‘Guess what guys, all you power brokers, let’s get to the man and figure out what we can do to help him win, not figure out what we can do to cut his head off.’”
“... You can’t tell me Gus is a bad coach.”