Players are still playing hard - Gene Chizik

[Barnacle 9,095]

"The kids have been great," Chizik said Sunday. "Of course, there's frustration that goes, and there's challenges that go, with being where we are right now. But I've got to give them a lot of credit. We watched that film and they played hard the whole game again."

http://www.al.com/au...f_losing_b.html

I think that quote says it all.

[selias 2,398]

Does anyone really believe anything that comes out of Chizik's mouth anymore?

[AU-Jess 0]

Does anyone really believe anything that comes out of Chizik's mouth anymore?

Nope.

We'll have another "great week of practice", "lot of excitement", "great challenge ahead", and then Saturday, we'll give Vandy another SEC victory.

Hurts to say, but that's how it is, IMO.

[Barnacle 9,095]

Well, I think it's what he didn't say that is so telling. If Chizik believes that the players are going out and working hard, practicing well, and playing hard, then he is essentially admitting that he and the rest of the staff are doing a poor job.

[AU Counsel 64]

So "good", "crisp" practices with a roster full of 3, 4 and 5 star players "working hard" yields a 1 and 5 record, including an OT win over LA Monroe and blowout losses to OM, MSU, and the worst Arkansas team in many years?

Coach Chizik seems to have stuck his head in the noose with that interview...

[cvfoster 0]

Well, I think it's what he didn't say that is so telling. If Chizik believes that the players are going out and working hard, practicing well, and playing hard, then he is essentially admitting that he and the rest of the staff are doing a poor job.

DIng, ding, ding! We have a winner!

I'm sorry, but the one programming the "great" practices we are having for (2) weeks before Arkansas and the week before Ole Miss must be missing the boat.

[PoetTiger 1,901]

There is one simple problem, an inept offense. We all want to say its this and that, players quitting, etc...but this offense is not working. Players are not being used correctly, play calling has been baffling...is it a case of Chizik meddling or CSL just being in over his head....who knows. But this offense goes backwards more often than forwards.....I mean they had like 5 straight three and outs against Ole Miss....really?

[AUcivE09 582]

There is one simple problem, an inept offense. We all want to say its this and that, players quitting, etc...but this offense is not working. Players are not being used correctly, play calling has been baffling...is it a case of Chizik meddling or CSL just being in over his head....who knows. But this offense goes backwards more often than forwards.....I mean they had like 5 straight three and outs against Ole Miss....really?

We know QB play is weak so we just cannot afford to have offsides that negate a shanked punt, false starts, personal fouls!!!!!, and Mosely could not have picked a worse time to throw that pick. Once again Ill say OMac needs to show he will cut it up inside. Those 2 and 3 yard losses are very hurtful and I know he can do alot to help. Sometimes a single works as well as a homerun in the course of the game.

[Rednilla 5,439]

Well, I think it's what he didn't say that is so telling. If Chizik believes that the players are going out and working hard, practicing well, and playing hard, then he is essentially admitting that he and the rest of the staff are doing a poor job.

That's how I took it as well. Not that he's lying, but that he is accepting the blame. If that is, indeed, what he's saying, then I can't help but to respect that...even if I am coming around to think that we might not need to keep him for even one more season in spite of everything else.

[TecmoBoJackson 65]

There is one simple problem, an inept offense. We all want to say its this and that, players quitting, etc...but this offense is not working. Players are not being used correctly, play calling has been baffling...is it a case of Chizik meddling or CSL just being in over his head....who knows. But this offense goes backwards more often than forwards.....I mean they had like 5 straight three and outs against Ole Miss....really?

We know QB play is weak so we just cannot afford to have offsides that negate a shanked punt, false starts, personal fouls!!!!!, and Mosely could not have picked a worse time to throw that pick. Once again Ill say OMac needs to show he will cut it up inside. Those 2 and 3 yard losses are very hurtful and I know he can do alot to help. Sometimes a single works as well as a homerun in the course of the game.

I say this with all sincerity and future remorse.....I honestly, honestly feel sorry for my tv if I watch another O-mac toss sweep for a loss.....

[tigerrules 517]

Coach Chizik is a smart man, he knows what is going on. Problems are bigger than SL, but that will be resolved at year end. I don't think CGC is the type of man to let SL go now. Not that I think that would make him a bad man, I just think for CGC to do that it will have to get very, very bad,SL will have to be disrespectful, or he is told he has no choice.

[ertrader 214]

Coach Chizik is a smart man, he knows what is going on. Problems are bigger than SL, but that will be resolved at year end. I don't think CGC is the type of man to let SL go now. Not that I think that would make him a bad man, I just think for CGC to do that it will have to get very, very bad,SL will have to be disrespectful, or he is told he has no choice.

I'm not sure I understand this - are you saying Chizik is simply throwing away this entire season because he doesn't want to hurt Loeffler's feelings?

[WarAJEagle 5]

His head is so far up his *insert body part here* that it's unbelievable.

[AU Counsel 64]

I don't agree with your "smart" assessment of CGC.

[ertrader 214]

Well, I think it's what he didn't say that is so telling. If Chizik believes that the players are going out and working hard, practicing well, and playing hard, then he is essentially admitting that he and the rest of the staff are doing a poor job.

That's how I took it as well. Not that he's lying, but that he is accepting the blame. If that is, indeed, what he's saying, then I can't help but to respect that...even if I am coming around to think that we might not need to keep him for even one more season in spite of everything else.

I'm not sure I see him accepting blame. More like he is just shrugging his shoulders and saying "sometimes #!#! happens and no one is to blame". I assume he is really good at masking his emotions, because he gives me the impression that losing doesn't really bother him all that much. And I can't imagine a coach getting to his level that didn't hate losing.

[Strychnine 1,808]

Nope.

We'll have another "great week of practice", "lot of excitement", "great challenge ahead", and then Saturday, we'll give Vandy another SEC victory.

Hurts to say, but that's how it is, IMO.

And then we'll hear that Vandy is a "really good football team".

[Rednilla 5,439]

Well, I think it's what he didn't say that is so telling. If Chizik believes that the players are going out and working hard, practicing well, and playing hard, then he is essentially admitting that he and the rest of the staff are doing a poor job.

That's how I took it as well. Not that he's lying, but that he is accepting the blame. If that is, indeed, what he's saying, then I can't help but to respect that...even if I am coming around to think that we might not need to keep him for even one more season in spite of everything else.

I'm not sure I see him accepting blame. More like he is just shrugging his shoulders and saying "sometimes #!#! happens and no one is to blame". I assume he is really good at masking his emotions, because he gives me the impression that losing doesn't really bother him all that much. And I can't imagine a coach getting to his level that didn't hate losing.

Oh I can assure you that he hates losing, but I certainly don't know that he meant it the way I took it (I only read the transcript; if I'd seen his demeanor while saying it, maybe I'd think differently).

[Tiger 8,853]

Chizik has an ego just like every other coach in the country. He WANTS this Loeffler hire to work out. On some level his ego won't let him just fire SL mid-season (not to mention it would turn this 5 car accident into an 8 car accident if we just fired an OC after his first 6 games -- which would be terrible for recruiting, etc).

[Autigers71 0]

His ego might want to check the point spread for this weekend. We are a stinking 7 point dog to Vandy!!!!

If you have a team full of walk ons or 1 and 2 star guys, you can use that playing hard card, because they are not as talented as the teams they face. But not with the classes this staff has signed.

[ChrisInInverness 0]

This article from Iowa St's beat writer makes me believe he's just in over his head:

Paul Clark

CycloneReport.com Publisher

Finally. After two years of holding my tongue and being a good soldier - or shill as KXNO's Marty & Miller not so inaccurately said - I can put it all out there regarding what I've thought from day one about former Iowa State football coach Gene Chizik.

When Chizik was hired, I told some media colleagues in confidence that his stay at Iowa State would be three years maximum. Either he would fail miserably and be fired or he would have a little success and jump on the very first opportunity that came along to move back south. Now I must admit, even I am surprised at the bizarre turn of events whereby he failed miserably at Iowa State and still got to jump on the very first opportunity that came along to move back south. What the hell Auburn is thinking is anybody's guess. And who cares. Because it just unburdened Iowa State of its most unprepared, overmatched and incompetent head coach of the modern era.

The red flags began popping up almost immediately. When Chizik said that winning is hard everywhere - that it was hard to win at Texas and Auburn, too - you knew he had no comprehension of the task at hand. Chizik's resume is built on winning with superior players, something anybody can do. It's not hard to win at Texas or Auburn; it's hard to lose. When he was given the third-highest assistant coach salary pool in the Big 12 and immediately set about hiring his old buddies for jobs they weren't qualified for at a pay rate twice what he could have gotten them for, you knew he was playing head coach instead of actually being one. 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.

Iowa State had some good individual talent on its coaching staff. I was impressed throughout the past two seasons by coaches like Tony Petersen, Scott Fountain, Jay Rodgers and Mike Pelton. But when the CEO is swimming in confusion and the coordinators are ten years past their primes and their primes weren't all that good to begin with, there's only so much individual position coaches can do. When word came down that Petersen was losing his job in the staff reorganization, it was clear evidence to me that ability didn't carry much weight in the Cyclone football organization. Instead, clearly, it was a lot more about being part of Chizik's confederate clan than it was about coaching ability.

A two-word phrase will serve as Chizik's epitaph when it comes to his burying his dismal tenure at Iowa State: "firmly entrenched." That phrase was part of his disingenuous explanation regarding comments attributed to him by a Dallas radio show host by way of an Oklahoma State assistant coach. Now, those comments supposedly made by Chizik about being sorry he took the ISU job may have indeed been false. Or they may have been true. Whether they were ever spoken or not doesn't matter, they were definitely being thought. The truth was, Chizik couldn't have been less firmly entrenched at Iowa State. If the Chiziks even bothered to fully unpack, it would be a stunner to me. Never has someone so obviously had an eye on the exit immediately after coming through the entrance.

Chizik's decision to bolt for Auburn - while fine and good in and of itself - is obvious proof that he did regret coming to ISU and that he had quit on the job and given up on accomplishing anything in Ames. And it certainly shows that he was not firmly entrenched. Whether or not he ultimately got the Auburn job was immaterial once he had interviewed. The real story of the last two days was the Chizik was not up to the task and he knew it. As did many of us. It's nothing short of a blessing that Auburn took him off Iowa State's hands. It was quick and painless and just gives ISU a one-year head start on cleaning up the mess that Chizik created. He never hesitated to let people know how much work there was to be done and what a bad situation he stepped into. Well, the next guy will have it a lot worse, thanks entirely to Chizik. But the next guy will probably be a lot better head coach, so it's still a net gain for Iowa State.

Gene Chizik was Plan B for Iowa State. While even that was too high considering the candidates interviewed, it's at least reassuring to know that someone better than him wanted the job in 2006 and was even offered the job, but just couldn't pull the trigger fast enough to take it. ISU settled for Chizik and got what it got. Even though he was packaged and sold as a rock star, he wasn't hired as one. The rock star got away, so Iowa State took the back-up singer. It's Auburn's problem now. While he has a better chance of winning in general there - because he'll have better players - he'll be up against it in a job where so much is riding on one rivalry game a year. Beating Alabama trumps all else at Auburn and Nick Saban will probably floss with Gene Chizik on an annual basis. It's a coaching mismatch of epic proportions. I mean, if Mike Sanford and Tom Amstutz and Doug Martin hand you your lunch with inferior talent, what's Saban going to do with superior talent? When the clock ticks down to 0:00 on future Iron Bowls, there will be nothing left to do but I.D. the Auburn bodies.

Good luck, Auburn, you'll need it.

[yeaauburn 21]

Washing machines work hard too.

[PowerOfDixieland 3,236]

Assuming that commentary is at least three years old, that is unbelievably prophetic. I can understand they felt betrayed, but wow.

[miska_maniac 0]

Chizik is great at getting really good players to come to Auburn. He's also really good at getting really good coaches to come to Auburn. Since 2010 with a team that already had a bunch of leaders, he has been unable to put a team together with all of the good parts. It's not just the offense that has no identity now. It's the entire program from what I can tell.

[AUgrad00 7]

Does anyone really believe anything that comes out of Chizik's mouth anymore?

Nope.

We'll have another "great week of practice", "lot of excitement", "great challenge ahead", and then Saturday, we'll give Vandy another SEC victory.

Hurts to say, but that's how it is, IMO.

Just once could mr robot show some passion and fire like this guy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qZzqrhJ7Y0

[AU-24 3,128]

Coach Chizik is a smart man, he knows what is going on. Problems are bigger than SL, but that will be resolved at year end. I don't think CGC is the type of man to let SL go now. Not that I think that would make him a bad man, I just think for CGC to do that it will have to get very, very bad,SL will have to be disrespectful, or he is told he has no choice.

Dude, the strength and experience of this team was supposed to be the D-line. CGC is a defensive guy! How is the D line playing? That is besides the rest of the team which is a running train wreck!

Wake up!