Gene Chizik and Iowa State

This is part 2 of a 3 part series on Iowa State hiring Gene Chizik.

Amazingly, Iowa State’s hire of Gene Chizik managed to generate some negative talk. The Sporting News’ Tom Dienhart rated the Chizik hire 11th out of the 12 BCS conference head coaching hires this off season. Dienhart said the following:

He was itching for the chance to run a program. And, you know what Grandma always says: Careful what you wish for. More reason for Iowa State A.D. Jamie Pollard to worry: Chizik never has been a head coach. Heck, he's never really been anywhere long enough to get a real read on the guy. In 2001, Chizik still was an assistant at Central Florida. And even if Pollard scored a coup, does anyone really think Chizik will be around long if he has success?

Now to rebut a few of these comments: Iowa State isn’t a program to be hiring someone with good head coaching experience. Schools in the lower ranks of the BCS hire head coaches from mid major schools or coordinators at BCS conference schools or the NFL. Iowa State certainly didn’t slide down to take Chizik. If you throw in the fact that in the last five years he was the defensive coordinator at two of the highest profile programs in the country and took them to national prominence, it becomes more apt to say that Iowa State hired above their program prestige. Has Chizik jumped around a lot? He’s been at three schools in the last 10 years with nothing but success. You can’t ask for much better than that.

Dienhart’s last point is his most interesting. Two responses are needed. First, if Chizik isn’t around very long, so what. If Chizik jumps ship in three years to a higher profile program he would do that only after earning his next gig and in the process elevating the Iowa State program. If Dienhart is suggesting that a lower profile program should pass or downgrade a top flight candidate because they may not stay very long, I’m not buying it. Iowa State knows they could lose Chizik in a few years and they are perfectly fine with it.

The second response is that Chizik may stay at Iowa State longer than what most expect. The thing suggesting that could be the case is that there is no logical suitor for Chizik. He grew up in Florida and was a Gator, but hasn’t coached there and I suspect that job will be occupied for awhile. His different stops don’t point towards any strong location bias except they are generally in the south. His northernmost stop is Middle Tennessee State. The schools he’s coached at have very different profiles.

The first time to gage how committed a coach like Chizik is to his new job is to look at how he acts at his introductory press conference. For the most part Chizik said all the right things. When introducing his son he mentioned that Iowa State will be recruiting him in about 12 years. His talk about Ames being a great place to raise a family seemed as sincere as possible and also seemed to please the blue haired ladies in attendance. Chizik did slip at one point, however. When asked what his long and short term goals are at Iowa State, he gave a very questionable answer about him living in the present and that tomorrow’s guaranteed to no one.

Chizik did spend a lot of time talking about the importance of commitment out of the institution he would work for. If he really desired commitment out of an administration and fan base, perhaps he would want to skip town for another opportunity. But perhaps other things are happening at Iowa State. Perhaps, Iowa State is willing to commit to being a big time football program