By Stan Veitch The Cullman Times The Cullman Times Fri Jul 22, 2011, 08:00 AM CDT
HOOVER — Gene Chizik's "incredible journey" was not only improbable — it ended the day it ended.
A year ago, as he entered his second season as Auburn head coach, Chizik was hoping for a great season.
Obviously, that wish was granted as the Tigers went 13-0 and won the BCS national title.
"A year ago here as I stood up here, I'm not really sure that there were many people in this room or across the country that felt like Auburn would have a chance to win the national championship," Chizik said. "But it was an incredible journey for myself, our assistant coaches, our players, our fans, our Auburn family, just an incredible past year.
"But I want to make this really, really clear because the minute our plane hit the ground in Montgomery on Jan. 11, we had moved on. We have been focused and locked in solely on the 2011 football season."
Moving on was a natural function for a football team, according to Chizik who noted that football is cyclical and the team goes through the same drill every offseason.
"We come back from a bowl game, they get a couple days rest, you start onto the next thing," he said. "We haven't done anything earth-shattering that is going to impart on them that now we've moved on.
"All they have to do is look around our team meeting room and they can see the dynamic of our team has drastically changed."
The main difference this year is that the Tigers know what a championship caliber team should look like, according to Chizik.
As for the upcoming season, Auburn will have a totally different on-field look after graduating 20-plus seniors, including Heisman winner Cam Newton and Lombardi winner Nick Fairley.
"I don't know that you can replace a Cam Newton or Nick Fairley in terms of production right away," Chizik said. "I would say anybody would be hard-pressed to do that. You know what, we feel good in the valuation of our players.
"Obviously we recruited both (Newton and Fairley). We feel really good about our recruiting process."
Finding the next superstar is obviously something Chizik would love to do — but he's not sure of how to work that magic.
"I don't know who will be the next (Newton or Fairley)," Chizik said. "What I want is a bunch of guys in there that love football, they love academics, they love Auburn, and guys that lay it on the line like those guys do to give them an opportunity to be productive like them."
At quarterback, whether it's Newton or someone else, it's going to be (offensive coordinator) Gus Malzahn calling the shots.
"The thing about a Malzahn offense is that he'll play to our own strengths," tight end Philip Lutzenkirchen said. "Last year, with Cam at quarterback, we used him as a rusher. The year before, we were a playaction team first. We could go back to that. We'll just have to see this fall."
A lot of this season's offense should be determined by who wins the starting quarterback job — Barrett Trotter or Clint Moseley.
Both have been at Auburn for two years.
"They've got similar qualities, two guys that can run the offense very well," Lutzenkirchen said. "They've both been under coach Malzahn for two years. It'll come down to the guy that can keep the ball safe."
Kiehl Frazier is a true freshman who will also compete for the starting position.
With either Trotter or Moseley under center, the offense is expected to click.
"It's personnel, and personnel changes, but Malzahn's offense doesn't change," receiver Emory Blake said. "We have a different quarterback, different line, but the same results."
Malzahn had the opportunity to become Vanderbilt's head coach for this season but opted to stay at Auburn. This continued a trend of which Chizik is very proud — only one coach has left the Tigers during Chizik's tenure.
"As all of my coaches, it was extremely important for me to keep Gus," Chizik said. "We're very similar in the way we think in concepts football-wise. Obviously, he's one of the best in the country at his trade. So it was big and I'm excited that we've got Gus back with us."
In the backfield will be Michael Dyer who rushed for over 1,000 yards last season as a freshman. But Chizik noted that there is still work to do for Dyer.
"Michael has a lot of work to do," Chizik said. "I'm really proud of him because I think he's really understanding the work ethic and the things that it's going to take for him to be a better back than he was last year.
"He needs to be better in pass protection. He needs to be a more physical runner. He's got, as we all know, a lot of great talent. But he has got to up the level of his game. It's that simple."
But with a senior-laden team or a young team, Chizik's goals don't change.
"Make no mistake about it, the standard for Auburn and the goals for Auburn, no matter if we were going to play 22 freshmen, have not changed," Chizik said. "That is to graduate our players and win championships."
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