Gene Chizik is boring. There, I said it.
Sure, interesting things occasionally happen to boring people, which explains last year's presentation to SEC Media Days, when Chizik was forced to answer (or not answer) more allegations about Cam Newton. By the way, where is Danny Sheridan nowadays?
But I finally figured out who Gene Chizik reminds me of during his presentation to SEC Media Days this season, and it's Tim DeKay, who currently placed the by-the-book FBI agent on White Collar. But DeKay's character is far more complex and interesting than Chizik. Auburn's coach is a boring version of Tim DeKay, which is about as boring as you can get.
Sure, Chizik technically hit every note you would want him to during his SEC Media Days session. He thanked people for their support following the shootings this summer. He talked about his team's bowl victory. He talked about the players that traveled to Hoover with him. He noted Auburn's two new coordinators, defensive guru Brian Van Gorder and offense coordinator Scot Loeffler, in a segment that is relatively new to Chizik but was an annual tradition for Tommy Tuberville.
Some reporters asked Chizik about Kiehl Frazier; he talked about Kiehl Frazier. ("We're looking for the guy that can take Auburn and lead them to win football. Kiehl is strong considered in the mix.") Ask about Corey Lemonier and Chizik would talk about him as well. ("I think he's got the art of pass-rushing down. ... There's no question that Corey in the run game, he has some room for improvement, he knows that, we know that.")
About the most interesting part of Chizik's presentation before the media was when he strongly defended the football bona fides of Missouri and Texas A&M -- which, again, was more interesting because Chizik was a combined 0-3 against them during his woebegone tenure at Iowa State than because of what he was saying. Or this bit -- the most interesting and perhaps honest thing anyone has said about the four-team playoff.
With a four-team playoff, I'm going to be honest with you, that depends on what glasses you're wearing. Let me give you an example.
In 2010, if we had the four-team playoff in place, I was at Auburn, just went through this league undefeated, won the SEC championship game, am I in favor of playing another one to prove that I deserve getting into the national championship game? No, I don't.
But if you go back to 2004 when we were undefeated and we didn't get in the national championship game because we weren't 1 or 2, then I'm totally in favor of it.
Sure, it was a long non-answer; after reading his answer, I think Chizik is in favor of the four-game playoff, but I'm really not sure. But it also has a ring of honesty that isn't there when Jim Delany, for example, gets up and talks about a system that basically says he wants to make sure a B1G champion gets into the playoff if a second SEC team gets in -- but finds some way to hide what he's really saying.
College football doesn't need to be filled with people whose press conferences are as boring as Gene Chizik's. But it would be nice if, at least in the context of a playoff, all of the press conferences would be as honest.