Link: At first when he came here, he was perfect, going undefeated ever since Auburn...but this year, there has been some glaring flaws in his defense IMO. The secondary seemed to give up huge holes in the zones and his blitz's never got through. Question now is...who's our next stud def. coordinator? Chizik in Ames; appears to be Cyclones' new coach ESPN.com news services AMES, Iowa -- Iowa State plans to announce its new head football coach Monday night. And based on the fact that University of Texas defensive coordinator Gene Chizik and members of his family were seen by reporters Monday being picked up at the Ames airport by Iowa State athletic director Jamie Pollard, Chizik is the man who will replace Dan McCarney. A school source told ESPN that the coach who arrives at the airport would be announced as the school's new football coach. Earlier today, WOI-TV in Des Moines reported that Chizik would be the Cyclones' new football coach. Chizik, 43, has never been a head football coach at any level. Iowa State has scheduled a 7 p.m. ET news conference to make its announcement official. Reports earlier indicated that Central Michigan coach Brian Kelly, who has led the Chippewas to an 18-16 record the past three seasons, was regarded as the leading candidate to succeed McCarney. Nebraska offensive coordinator Jay Norvell and San Diego head coach Jim Harbaugh also were considered candidates. School officials said Sunday they'd made a decision, but would not reveal it. In a letter to Iowa State fans, Pollard wrote that the new coach was "our number one choice from the first day of the search." Chizik is wrapping up his second season as the assistant head coach/co-defensive coordinator at Texas. He previously was the defensive coordinator at Auburn from 2002-04 The San Diego Union-Tribune reported Wednesday that Harbaugh's agent, Jack Bechta, said Harbaugh was no longer a candidate. Iowa State was 4-8 this season and 56-84 overall under McCarney, who resigned this year, and snapped a 22-year postseason drought with five bowl appearances in McCarney's final seven seasons. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Actually, Chizik doesn't even really deserve the blame for the secondary. There is a co-defensive coordinator that no one talks about and it's his job to work on the secondary and he's failed miserably. Sadly, I don't know his name and no one else does. He pretty much gets a free pass.
Akina is the co-defensive coordinator and I heard the same thing. Hopefully we will find someone else good to fill Chiziks shoes
Chizik is the one calling the plays. He's the one who keeps the base 4-3 out there against Texas Tech despite them lining up with 5 WRs. He's also responsible for a total lack of defensive adjustments. KSU dropped 45 on us, Baylor and Tech put up 31, and A&M ran for almost 300 yards. Chizik is the goat this year, and Akina just plain sucks. I bid good riddance to Chizik, who has proven to be a mediocre coach at best.
This sucks. Though it makes you wonder if Chizik was distracted this season, which may explain our rapidly deteriorating defense. I would have thought that Chizik could have done better than Iowa State, and it sucks that he'll be staying in the Big 12.
Thanks to Chizik for hanging around this long and helping us win the NC! And I think it's a good thing to have another competitive Big 12 team; I have a lot of confidence in Chizik. Will be hard to replace him, but I had thought that about Robinson also.
I thought no defense did less with more than Texas this year. Let's go get a guy off Carroll's staff.
Yeah, Texas better steal someone good. They robbed Auburn of their guy so I'm sure they can rob some other national contender of their defensive coordinator.
With the money UT has, the prestige, the quality of recruits, the facilities, but mostly the money, we'll have no problem getting a high-quality replacement.
I think it is good to have new blood mixed in, a fresh perspective from someone else working with a premier program. I'd really like to see someone with experience in the 3-4 to use Texas LB speed (and hybrid OLBs/DEs) and with unpredictable, attacking, schemes.
Chizik helped us win a NC...I'll be forever thankful for that. Him leaving should be no suprise to anyone, however, staying in the Big 12 should be. I was very disappointed with the lack of adjustment Chizik was with his defense this season. There was just too much of a disparity between our run and pass defense. It'll be interesting to see who we pick up. With Greg Robinson and Gene Chizik getting head coaching jobs only after 1 or 2 seasons with UT, this will be the most heralded assistant coaching job in college.
