gene chizik
Gene Chizik (born December 28, 1961 in Clearwater, Florida) is the head football coach at Auburn University (Though it is still unofficial, his departure from the same position at Iowa State University has been confirmed by the Iowa State Director of Athletics.) He was most recently the head coach of the Iowa State Cyclones, where he compiled a record of 5-19 in two seasons.
Chizik played linebacker for the University of Florida during the 1981 season, competing in the Peach Bowl. He graduated from Florida in 1985.
Personal
Gene is married to Jonna Chizik. They have identical twin daughters named Landry and Kennedy, who attended an acting camp in Austin, Texas, and a son named Cally.
Coaching career
Early years
He began his coaching career at Seminole High School (Pinellas County, Florida), 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.
Chizik begins at Iowa State.
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. His next assignment was at Stephen F. Austin, serving as their linebackers coach from 1992-1995. 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, the so-called ‘Tampa 2′, developed by then-Bucs head coach Tony Dungy, defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin and linebackers coach Lovie Smith.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. He won the 2004 Broyles Award, which is given each year to the top assistant coach in the nation. His 2004 Auburn Tigers football team finished 13-0 that year, won the SEC, was ranked second in the nation, and played in a BCS bowl.
In 2005 he was hired by Texas Longhorns to serve as their co-defensive coordinator, assistant head coach, and linebackers coach.[3] 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.
Iowa State
In November 2006, Chizik was hired to replace outgoing coach Dan McCarney as head football coach of Iowa State University. McCarney was fired 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.In Chizik’s first season, Iowa finished 3-9, including a 15-13 win over Iowa, and back-to-back wins against Kansas State and Colorado. 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. 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.
Auburn
On December 13, 2008, the Iowa State Director of Athletics confirmed the un-official reports that Chizik had accepted the vacant head coaching position at Auburn University.