Scarbinsky: Gene Chizik makes tough call on Auburn's starting QB look easyPosted by Kevin Scarbinsky -- Birmingham News August 18, 2009 5:30 AMCategories: Auburn FootballAUBURN -- It should come as no surprise. When you sit down in Gene Chizik's office and look around to get some insight into the new Auburn head coach at the end of two-a-days, there are few clues.There's not a picture on the walls.There's not a knick-knack on the shelves. Which is a clue in itself.The man who occupies this office doesn't have much use for decoration.Oh, he'll get around to personalizing the place -- "that'll happen about next March," he said -- but he has more pressing business.Like proving he belongs here.Funny thing about that. There are plenty of clues that, in doing the things a coach does without 87,000 people looking over his shoulder, Chizik continues to get the job done.The most recent example: He hasn't let his first quarterback competition become his first quarterback controversy.Chris Todd won the job.Kodi Burns won the hearts and minds of his teammates.And it all happened three weeks before the opening game, which gives Todd more reps and the rest of the offense more reps alongside him."There was some means to the madness," Chizik said. "We wanted it done as fast as we could get it done, but we weren't going to jump to a conclusion because we had a deadline. It's worked out the way I would envision it."But even the vision of veteran head coaches can blur when it comes to quarterbacks.How often does a team wide-open at that position close the case so early in fall camp? How often does a former starter who doesn't win the job address the team after the decision and get a standing ovation?If Burns continues to help this team with his attitude, not to mention his Wildcat legs and wideout hands, his speech could become Auburn's version of Tim Tebow's Promise.Chizik called Burns' speech "one of those defining moments. I'll remember that the rest of my career, and so will every guy that was in that room."Remember this promise: Chizik doesn't plan to yank Todd at the first sign of trouble.And there will be trouble for the quarterback.This is the SEC."You know what?" Chizik said. "In a new offense, in a new program, in this league, there's gonna be bumps in the road."There's gonna be good days and bad days. But we've picked our guy and we've gotta make him the best quarterback we can make him."I'll never say never, but my intent is to play with one quarterback. He's our guy. But I will never say never. I won't back myself in that corner."A coach's work is never done when it comes to quarterbacks.Choose a starter, and then you have to choose his backup.Chizik said that competition is "a work in progress," but true freshman Tyrik Rollison is very much in the mix."We're giving him a lot of reps because we have more information gathered on the other ones," Chizik said. "We know Neil (Caudle) is a very competitive guy that we trust. We absolutely, 100 percent trust him, but this is a quest for the next best guy to give us a chance to win."So the head coach would have no problem installing a true freshman as the No. 2 quarterback?"If he's the guy," Chizik said, "he's the guy."Auburn coaches with longer resumes have failed miserably in choosing quarterbacks before. See Pat Dye in 1985 and Tommy Tuberville in 2008.They dropped the ball, in large part, because they procrastinated.Chizik seems nothing if not decisive.If his decisions on game day are as sharp as the ones he's made so far, Saturdays will be a lot happier around here.
1 Replies
980 Views