Chizik, who coached Auburn to the BCS National Championship in January 2011, will make his debut at halftime of the Utah State-Tennessee game on Aug. 31. Chizik was fired after a 3-9 season in 2012. John Reed-USA TODAY Sports
Former Auburn head coach Gene Chizik has joined the SEC Network as an analyst.
Chizik, who coached Auburn to the BCS National Championship in January 2011, will make his debut at halftime of the Utah State-Tennessee game on Aug. 31. Chizik was fired after a 3-9 season in 2012.
“Obviously it was a great opportunity, and when the whole possibility of the SEC Network was announced I was really excited about it and the opportunity to stay involved in football, to stay around the game and to get on the media side intrigued me,” Chizik told USA Today Sports on Thursday. “We’re looking forward to moving forward with this.”
Chizik, who co-hosts a show on SiriusXM’s College Sports Nation and previously served as an analyst for ESPNU during signing day in 2013, said his primary role will be as a studio analyst on Mondays and Tuesdays but will contribute to other SEC Network programming.
“I’ve really enjoyed the media side of it,” Chizik said. “It’s fun when you can do what you love to do, which is analyze college football, watch games, break them down both before and after and it’s just fun for me and it’s really been great for me. I’ve had to really stay in touch and stay up with things going on nationally, keeping me involved in the game, and I just think my personality and me being able to use my 27 years of experience in giving some insight has been fun.”
Chizik would not speculate on whether he wants to get back into coaching.
“Being with ESPN and Sirius/XM, I’m really excited about that and I want to be the best at what I do with TV and radio and being apart of the media,” he told the newspaper. “What’s down the road, I’m not even going to speculate because for me I’ve always been the kind of guy who’s tried to be the best at what I’m doing at that moment and that’s no exception here with being college football analyst.”
