Former Auburn head football coach Gene Chizik spoke publicly for the first time since being fired in November on Birmingham's 94.5 Jox Roundtable show this afternoon in response to the recent allegations against him and Auburn University last month in Selena Robert's Roopstigo article and ESPN the Magazine story.
After Jay Jacobs revealed the results of an internal investigation into the allegations in both articles today, Chizik wanted to also be able to tell his side of what happened.
"The reason I'm out is simply because we want to make as big a splash with the truth as what was accused and the different allegations that are out there. I think it's only fair," Chizik said
Chizik was asked how difficult it was to hear former players have accusations against him and Auburn and he said that it was tough, but nobody knows the context of how the allegations were said in the interviews.
"The bottom line is the majority of the players that come through Auburn University are very appreciative of the opportunity they've received to play football and get a degree from Auburn," Chizik said. "Any allegations that come back from a few former players that shed any negative light you have to understand that number one what are their circumstances and what is their motive. Number two that's not representative of the majority of the phenomenal kids that have gone through that program and will continue, and are as we speak going through that program."
One of the worst allegations that Roberts article made was grade changing of players before the 2010 national championship game including former star running back Michael Dyer.
"That accusation is ludicrous," Chizik said "Where did that come from what were the facts and data that supported that, because if you read Auburn's response it's fact."
In Auburn's response today it showed that Dyer had a 2.85 GPA and had passed 15 hours worth of credits before the end of the semester.
"How many grades do you have to change to get that to a 2.85 GPA? It just doesn't make sense."
Chizik was also asked if coaches on his staff had ever put pressure on professors to change grades for players.
"Absolutely not, we don't deal with the professors," Chizik said. "We have an outstanding academic staff and supporting staff. Everything they do is of the upmost class and integrity. They're the ones that deal on a daily basis with anything academically related. Simply, coaches dealing with professors are simply not true."
Also Chizik was accused of not doing anything after the four players were arrested for armed robbery in 2011.
"I can assure you this as the head coach of Auburn there were multiple educational sessions on making the right choices and doing the right things to the point where even when that unfortunate event happened I had a team meeting that morning I explicitly told them and reminded of the decisions they needed to make and the importance of not embarrassing their family, this university and everybody you represent," Chizik said. "The truth of it is when one player makes a bad decision it exponentially effects everyone around them."
Chizik went on to say that it is unfortunate four player's decisions brought down the rest of the team, because the whole team was educated on making good decisions, but at the end of the day it comes down to personal responsibility for each player.
He also went on to say that Mike McNeil never had any behavioral problems and he had as good a relationship with him as he did any other player on the team.
Darvin Adams was quoted in the Selena Roberts story as saying he was offered money by the coaches to stay at Auburn for his senior season instead of entering the NFL draft in 2011. Today Adams spoke out for the first time denying that he was ever offered any money while at Auburn.
"I'm very proud of him," Chizik said. "Darvin is a quiet guy he doesn't want to be the media darling, but it was important to Darvin to get the truth out."
Finally it wouldn't be an interview with Chizik unless he was asked about Cam Newton and if he paid him to play football at Auburn.
Chizik denied this and said he never paid a player to play at Auburn, and said that he does not understand why questions are still being asked about this, because they have spent the past two years at Auburn investigating players being paid and have found nothing.
He also mentioned all the investigations that have went on around the country since then and they have not got nearly as much attention as Auburn. Places like Miami, Ohio State, North Carolina and most recently Oregon.
He also pointed out that Auburn has not had a NCAA violation in 20 years and he feels confident that it will soon be 21 years, and that Auburn was one of the first teams to start testing for synthetic marijuana and the number of players that tested positive were much lower than the ESPN story indicated.
Accusations were also made that Chizik had a no tolerance policy for players with tattoos and dread locks. He responded by saying that it hurts him deeply they would say this and if it were true he would not have recruited players with tattoos and dread locks.
He ended his interview by saying that he is mulling over his options for his future and believes he still has a lot to offer young men as a football coach
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