http://blog.al.com/kevin-scarbinsky/2009/08/scarbinsky_gene_chizik_vows_he.htmlSays he is no Nutt.
Scarbinsky: Gene Chizik vows he won't meddle with Gus Malzahn, offense
Posted by Kevin Scarbinsky -- Birmingham News August 19, 2009 5:35 AM
Categories: Auburn Football
Auburn offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn will have a free hand with the Tigers' offense, head coach Gene Chizik says. (The Birmingham News / Jeff Roberts)
Tim Tebow isn't his quarterback. Julio Jones isn't one of his wideouts. So Gus Malzahn can't be the happiest offensive coordinator in America.
Judging by the rare but smile-a-minute media visits from his cross-state counterpart, that title might belong to Jim McElwain.
Malzahn may not be bouncing off the walls, despite his legendary coffee consumption, but Auburn's mild-mannered mad scientist has to be happier than the last time he stood on the sideline for an SEC West program.
Because Gene Chizik isn't Houston Nutt.
Ask the Auburn head coach how he plans to conduct himself alongside his offensive coordinator/play-caller on game day. Chizik speaks the words that have to be Beethoven to Malzahn's ears.
"I'm simply going to be another set of eyes that can intelligently look at a defense and be able to help," Chizik said. "There's a huge, huge difference between helping and meddling. I don't want to be a meddler."
In short, Chizik doesn't want to be a Nutt.
You didn't have to be Nostradamus to see trouble ahead when Malzahn joined the Arkansas staff in 2006. He wasn't just jumping from high school to college and going to work for an offensive-minded head coach.
He was going to work for a head coach who had coordinated his own offense and called his own plays.
Malzahn was a surrogate parent. His offense was still Nutt's baby.
At Tulsa, Malzahn thrived under head coach Todd Graham, a former defensive coordinator. At Auburn, Chizik is an old defensive whiz himself.
"If anybody understands defenses," Malzahn said, "it's him."
It's another plus that Chizik hasn't been a head coach long enough, or been successful enough at it, to delude himself into thinking he's all-knowing.
"Gus has done a great job with the offense, and he knows the offense inside and out," Chizik said. "His expertise is calling it on game day, not mine."
Sounds good, but how many times did long-ago Auburn offensive coordinator Jack Crowe try to explain that concept to his defensive-minded boss, Pat Dye?
Till he was blue and orange in the face.
For a head coach, even one who cut his teeth on defense, the temptation to meddle on offense is strong.
That said, it is important that the head coach do something more on game day than turn things over to his play-caller and listen to Springsteen on his headset.
Chizik and Malzahn have spent plenty of time working toward a meeting of the minds so they bang heads as little as possible on the sideline.
"One of the things that Gus and I do, we work constantly on the way each other thinks," Chizik said.
Malzahn added, "There's no gray area."
They watch cuts from TV copies of games, the ones that include the play clock and game clock. They study end-of-half and end-of-game situations. They discuss how they'll handle those situations when the time comes.
"I don't think people spend near enough time doing that," Chizik said. "It's not just about calling plays. It's about a philosophy. What are we thinking when we do get in these situations? That's what I'm big on.
"In two years, which ain't many, I've been in a bunch of those (situations). I go back and relive those and say, 'Were those handled right?'"
Coaching is all about relationships. The most important relationship for this new Auburn staff is the one between Chizik and Malzahn.
Will they mesh or clash? Is this the beginning of a beautiful friendship -- or the sequel to Tommy Tuberville and Tony Franklin?
Auburn has to believe Chizik is a man of his word. The last thing this family needs is another drive-by divorce.
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