Gene Chizik won 5 of 24 games as the head football coach at Iowa State. That kind of record usually gets a coach fired. Dan Hawkins, the recently fired head coach at Colorado, went 7-17 in his last 24 games, notching 2 more wins than Chizik. So it was shocking when Auburn hired Chizik as head coach after his two years at Iowa State. A 5-19 record seems ominous for a coach entering the Southeastern Conference, the league that has won 4 of the last 5 national championships. One fan took things to the extreme, screaming at athletic director Jay Jacobs about not wanting a loser as a coach.
Auburn hired Chizik based on his success as a defensive coordinator in college football. He led both the 2003 undefeated Auburn team that was screwed out of the national championship game as well as the 2005 Texas team that beat USC in an epic national championship game. Last year, Chizik led Auburn to an 8-5 record with a bowl win over Northwestern in his first year. This year, he’s at the helm of a 11-0 team streaking towards the SEC conference title game and possibly the BS Cartel Series (BCS) national championship game. Yet it’s quite easy to forget about the head coach when quarterback Cam Newton gets all the headlines. On the field, Newton has dazzled with his speed of his legs and the precision of his arm. Off the field, there are allegations his father asked for money in exchange for his son’s attending Mississippi State. His father has even admitted to doing it, but he says his son never knew.
Two weeks ago, Auburn was 11th in The Power Rank, much lower than any of the human polls. Our algorithm doesn’t see the superhuman athletic ability of the quarterback but does note the string of close wins. Since then, Auburn handily beat a good lower division Chattanooga team (104 in The Power Rank) and pulled away from a strong 35th ranked Georgia team. But while Auburn is 5th in the Power Rank, their next opponent Alabama is right behind in 6th, a mere 0.61 points behind. Playing on the road in Tuskaloosa, Auburn should be the underdog in the Iron Bowl against Alabama in two weeks.
1. Oregon, 10-0, 41.05
2. Boise State, 9-0, 32.86
3. TCU, 11-0, 32.38
4. Stanford, 9-1, 29.44
5. Auburn, 11-0, 27.63
6. Alabama, 8-2, 27.02
7. Ohio State, 9-1, 26.55
8. Virginia Tech, 8-2, 25.69
9. Nebraska, 9-1, 24.87
10. USC, 7-3, 24.76
11. Arkansas, 8-2, 24.26
12. Nevada, 9-1, 24.25
13. California, 5-5, 23.92
14. Wisconsin, 9-1, 23.82
15. South Carolina, 7-3, 23.23
16. Arizona State, 4-6, 23.08
17. LSU, 9-1, 22.92
18. Oklahoma State, 9-1, 22.66
19. Iowa, 7-3, 22.62
20. Missouri, 8-2, 22.53
21. Miami (FL), 7-3, 22.03
22. Oregon State, 4-5, 21.49
23. Oklahoma, 8-2, 21.46
24. San Diego State, 7-3, 20.75
25. Arizona, 7-3, 20.49
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