There is a new book written by a college football coach titled, "All-In: What it Takes to be the Best" being released in early July. The coach who wrote it? Not Paterno. Not Saban. Not Meyer. Not Fry (inner Hawkeye in me). No, none of those. It's one of Iowans' most hated coaches. Gene Chizik. 

Well if you have seen me on here before, you know I'm a diehard Hawkeye fan. But when the Cyclones aren't playing the Hawks, I usually follow pretty close. And for the 2007-2008 season, I hated one coach with a passion, and that was Gene Chizik. I hated him before they had played a game. I had heard from a punter that was recruited under McCarney was ready to be 2nd string punter with a chance at the starting job if he could improve his release time by a few tenths of a second. Instead, Chizik basically kicked him off the depth chart and told him he was going to have to do a lot more to ever punt at Iowa State. He quit the team before the season even started and my dislike for Chizik was already high. (This punter was a family friend and was considered the best punter in the state of Iowa coming out of high school)

So now that Chizik had already reached douchebag status for me, I wanted to see if he could help himself by the performance on the field. It's hard to say I was impressed after going 3-9 his first year: worse than McCarney's 4-8 that convinced him to leave the program. The only slightly impressive win was a 15-13 win over an Iowa team that went 6-6. Iowa State made 5 field goals to win the game. When your only win that you are proud of was won with the absence of touchdowns, you know it's not that impressive. 

Then Chizik went for year 2. He won only 2 games and was officially one of the worst coaches Iowa State has ever had. He started off the season 2-0 with one win coming against Division-1AA South Dakota State, and another off of a 4-8 MAC Conference Kent State. The Cyclones then went on a 10 game losing streak which is tied for the longest in school history. It was the worst 2 season start as a coach at Iowa State since 1931. 

Douchebag.

Then he fled for Auburn. His first year he went 8-5. He did it on what could have been the easiest SEC schedule of the year. He had no impressive wins whatsoever, save for maybe the controversial Outback Bowl win over Northwestern. It was looked at as a good year for Auburn, who had struggled with Tommy Tuberville as coach. 

Then came Cam Newton. 

I seriously could have coached the 2010 Auburn team and gone 14-0. In fact, I think at times Gene Chizik HURT the Auburn team and made the games closer than they should have been. Cam Newton single-handedly won the Heisman and he single-handedly won the National Championship. No coaching needed. Gene Chizik won some random never-heard-of coach of the year award, and I heard some ESPN analysts say he was the, "worst coach to ever win a coach-of-the-year award." 

Luckily, Brain Kelly won the important coach of the year awards, but that just adds a level of douchebaggery to Chizik. 

Better yet, Paul Rhoads showed that Iowa State can win games if you have a coach that knows how to coach. You can read my article here to see how Rhoads has fared so far.

But next year will show Auburn fans how douchebaggy he can be. After this "How to be the Best" book comes out, we will see how douchey he really is. As a head coach, he's only 27-24. And that's with a 14-0 season that didn't need to be coached. 

This upcoming season will show people how 'great' he really is. With a deadly SEC schedule and no Heisman quarterback or top-10 defensive lineman to hide behind, Chizik could see a possible career ending season. I mean, this could be Iowa State-level bad. 

What a douchebag.