Boos for Chizik at Auburn
We won’t pile on the hiring of Gene Chizik. It is not the reason someone threw a shoe at George W. Bush. And in fairness if Auburn announced it was hiring a former defensive coordinator and assistant head coach from Texas there would be joy on the Plains of Auburn today. They just hired the wrong one for fans in bringing in Chizik from Iowa State rather than Will Muschamp. But Chizik’s years at Auburn were better than Muschamp’s.
Let’s talk instead about some of the reasons Chizik can succeed. First relating back to our study of pro hires that my grad student Pat Petriello and I did, once-fired head coaches dramatically outpaced the average in their second job. In fact so much so, that the outcome of the study almost suggested firing your current coach only to hire him back later on with some added character. Chizik hasn’t been fired, but his experience, 5-19 in two seasons, at Iowa State and his reception at Auburn probably have him thinking like he has been and that is beneficial.
nationalfootballpost.com
12/16/08
