One of the freshest faces in the SEC, head coach of the Auburn Tigers Gene Chizik, was first to speak on the third and final day of the 2009 SEC Media Days. He opened up with a brief statement about how fast his 7 months at Auburn have flown by and how they had to start out by recruiting the players who were already on his team rather than just high school players thinking of playing for his team. He had to get their attention, their focus, their trust, and most of all, their respect before he could head into spring practice.

There was also a question about Chizik being a walk-on at Florida, and if he learned things from Charlie Pell.

The two players invited from Auburn's team were TE Tommy Trott and DE Antonio Coleman. Here are the highlights from their sessions with the media.

Head Coach Gene Chizik

Q. Given the expectations that are going to be placed on your program to win, do you feel pressure to kind of have to succeed immediately?

COACH CHIZIK: That's a great question. When you get into this profession, there's pressure everywhere. There's pressure from the fans. There's pressure from the media.

I don't think there's any more pressure put on Auburn football than what I put on our kids and myself. We don't really pay a whole lot of attention to all of the external issues out there. We put enough pressure on ourselves to be great.

Every one of our coaches want to be the best at their trade. I want to be the best at my trade. With that comes being self imposed pressure. So we set a foundation for what we want to do. That's our goal right now. We're setting a foundation for long term here at Auburn.

The pressure's gonna be there, no matter what school you're at. If you're in college football, that just comes with the territory. But certainly I don't feel like there's going to be any more pressure than what I put on myself to be great. And so, you know, that's kind of how we look at it.

Hey, this league is as good as it gets. It's the best in the country. Theres only 12. So in this league comes pressure, and it's just kind of part of the deal. I don't pay a whole lot of attention to it. It's probably more self imposed than anything.

Q. Can you talk about hiring Gus Malzahn, how that went, how you brought him on? Talk about your quarterback situation going into this season.

COACH CHIZIK: When Gus and I talked about coming to Auburn, I wanted to make sure philosophically we were on the same page. Being a defensive coordinator in this league and having a great grasp in this league what wins and what doesn't, I feel very strongly in the efforts of running the football. I get asked all the time about the spread offense.

My question back to the people who ask me about the spread offense is, Please tell me what kind of spread offense you're talking about because there's so many different variations about what people want to call the spread.

Gus and I had a lot of long conversations about philosophically about what we both believe in. If you go back and do your homework on Gus Malzahn, the numbers his offenses have put up over the years, if you just go back to the last two, I believe last year they averaged 270 yards rushing a game on the ground. Unless you're an option football team, that's really hard to do.

So we talked about philosophically what we want to do. We want to run the football, but we also want to be able to have a very balanced passing attack, too. Everybody wants to have a balanced attack. There are very few teams out there that throw it all the time or run it all the time. If you go back and look at the record, Gus has had a great, great record of being able to be balanced and productive both running and throwing.

So but we're on the same page. We know what we want to do. We want to create a physical brand of football, which over the years, that's what Auburn was built on. We were both on the very same page with what we wanted to do in that direction.

Our quarterback situation is gonna be very unique. There's a unique dynamic there. There's some older guys with experience. Some of them went through the spring. One of them didn't. Then all of a sudden, you have some young guys coming in on campus. When you haven't locked down on a position and said, This is my starter, that means it's up for grabs for everybody that walks through the doors.

We would like to get that situation resolved. How long that will take, we don't know. Obviously the guys that have more experience have probably a little bit of a leg up. But that doesn't always, you know, tell the final tale.

It will be interesting, but it's an interesting dynamic. It's going to take us a little bit of time to figure it out.

Q. Some of the Alabama people here have told me there's billboards up trying to whip up some interest in Auburn football, something they've never seen before, the people of Alabama. Do you sense or agree with this sense out there that Auburn football has stumbled a little bit and there's maybe a bit of a diminishment in its fervor and fan base?

COACH CHIZIK: To be honest with you, I don't really know what public opinion is. I don't know. Auburn is a great place. I can say that because I've been there and done that. Again, I don't know exactly how the outside world views Auburn. More specifically, Auburn football.

I know how our fans view it. I know how our coaches view it. I know how our administration views it. And we love Auburn. Everything we do will be in the direction of promoting Auburn University. So we're always gonna do what's in the best interest of Auburn. Whatever you see out there, it will be because we think it was in the best interest of promoting our university, both our university and football.

So the bottom line is, is we're very proud of Auburn, and so are the Auburn people. I'm not really sure exactly what the outside view is, other than those people, 'cause I don't come into a lot of contact with anybody other than that.

Q. You mentioned earlier you thought the SEC was the best conference in the country. Wonder why you say that. Your time in the Big 12, if you could compare the two conferences.

COACH CHIZIK: Two great conferences. I mean, arguably the two best in the country. I think time has proven that. I think the Big 12 has made leaps and bounds, since I spent the last four years, since I left the SEC, in the Big 12, I think I can speak a little bit intelligently about it because I've freshly been in both.

The Big 12 is leaps and bounds better than it was, let's say, five years ago, in my opinion, top to bottom. So I think it's made some significant strides in being able to claim it as one of the best conferences in the country. And it certainly is.

You know, who knows. This is one man's opinion. But the SEC, when you travel stadium to stadium, the passion, the pride, all of the things that go with, you know, what make college football great, there's no greater league, in my opinion, than the SEC. Talent wise, I mean, it's hard to argue the talent level in the SEC. That's standed [sic] the test of time. I don't think it's changed.

You got great players. You've got great coaches. And the interest, it's an all time high. If you sit here and you look and walk into this media day, it's my first one in the SEC, I think this is great validation. I think it validates the thought of why people think this is the best conference in the country. Look at the interest. I mean, when you walk through the doors, I think it speaks for itself.

Do I think this is the best conference in the country? I do. Do I think the Big 12 is a great conference? I do. But I can assure you I'm extremely happy to be back in this conference.

Q. You've mentioned 2004, the success you had there. Do you feel any need to keep any of that staff that was still there, or was it more important for you to change everything, bring in a new attitude?

COACH CHIZIK: You know, when you take over a job, you know, you have to do what you think is the best for the program. And there were some people from the previous staff that are still on my staff, and theres some people that are not. And I used my best discernment on which ones I needed to keep and which ones I reluctantly had to let go.

Those are tough, tough decisions. But, again, in the name of putting together the best staff in the country, which was my goal, I had to make some tough decisions.

So there are some that are still there that remember the 2004 season, that went through it, but not many. But the players, they know it. They remember that season. It was a very special year. We don't talk about it over and over and over and force feed them. But they know that that was one of the greatest years in Auburn history.

Again, trying to kind of go back, you know, we're always striving to get back to that point. Being undefeated is hard enough; being undefeated in this league, that's a once in a long time situation to be in. It's just hard to do. It was a very special year for us.

Q. There's been a lot of publicity about some of the recruiting events you have hosted, "Big Cat" weekend, Tiger Prowl, whatever else. Have you received enough big time commitments to kind of keep that kind of momentum going? Has it been worth it if you had not?

COACH CHIZIK: When we go to recruit, we go to recruit the right player for Auburn. That's what we do. If he is the right guy, then that's the guy that we offer, and that's the guy we try to recruit to come to Auburn.

So if you look at the commitments that we've got, it's because they're the right guy for Auburn. So we don't really again, I'll go back to we don't really get validated by the outside world, what their opinion is on players. 'Cause if I put together all the film time in this whole room of how many people have really evaluated each player, it probably wouldn't be 10 minutes. But that's what we do for a living.

So I trust our opinion. I trust what we see. We're gonna continue to recruit in a way that we think is best for Auburn. That's it. We're not trying to impress anybody. We're trying to recruit in what we think is the best way for Auburn. If a kid is recruited by Auburn and signed by Auburn, then we feel like he was the right guy for Auburn. What the outside world and outside opinion is about that player is really inconsequential to me.

Q. You were a walk on at Florida in the '80s. Talk about what you may have picked up from Charley Pell in terms of being a head coach, stuff like that? Did that actually get you in the mood or get you started toward becoming a head coach?

COACH CHIZIK: Well, it certainly did. I've had a lot of great people I've been around a lot of great people in my life that have really kind of influenced the coaching world for me and really kind of grabbed my attention and my interest, starting all the way back from my high school coach.

So Coach Pell was our head coach. Tough guy. Ran a great program. You know, I've had a lot of others since then, too, as well, that have influenced my life in the coaching profession. I've been blessed to be around a lot of guys that have been very successful. That's been big.

I would say certainly that had an influence on me, yes.

Q. Last season Auburn was 2 6. Do you feel you're that far away from being able to contend in the West? How do you feel where you're situated going into your first year?

COACH CHIZIK: You know, the SEC West, it's tough, boy. Every week, as you know, it's a dogfight.

You know, our plan is to contend for a championship in everything that we do. We don't think that's out of the realm of possibility. We talk to it about our players, winning championships. That's what matters.

Again, we're going to start the season out. That's going to be the goal, to win the SEC West. I think that in this league, again, anything can happen. So it's not like the SEC West championships are a stranger to Auburn. So we'll work hard in that direction. I think our players feel very confident that we can be a very good football team. We'll just have to let it all play out on the field.

DE Antonio Coleman

On the coaching change:
"Any time you have a coach for 10 years and then a new coaching staff comes in, there will be changes. With all the changes, it's been great for the university. Fortunately, one Auburn man dropped off he radar and the good Lord brought another Auburn man."

On the media preseason poll:
"It's not a big deal to us. I've talked to the guys and they expect me to be a leader. We don't buy inot the polls. First through sixth, at the end of the day, you still have to get o the field and prove it. It's all about us getting on the field and proving it day in and day out.

On the changes with Coach Chizik:
"I've been at Auburn for five years, and this has been the hardest summer of my life, getting up at 5:30 every morning for workouts. It's all going to be a blessing when we start Sept. 5."

On offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn:
"You have one of the best in the business running the offense. It's a different type of spread with running he ball first and getting the ball down the field. At the end of the spring, they started getting a hold of things. I think it'll be real fun and interesting to see how things turn out."

On the differences between last year and this year:
"The most important thing we lost is swagger (during last year) and I think we have it back. We got people hurt, people injured, and we didn't finish the way we wanted, but we can't harp on that, it was last year."

TE Tommy Trott

On offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn:
"The first impression's been great. We've been with him all through the spring and as much as possible since then because he can't be out there in the summer. He's a football nut, football 24/7. He's brought a successful offense here, and hopefully things will work well."

On the battle for starting quarterback:
"I'm sure the coaches will make a decision when they see them in the fall. I can tell you they're all looking good this summer. There's a whole lot of competition out there, and hopefully, it will help us in the fall."

On Antonio Coleman's comments about getting swagger back at Auburn:
"The easier answer (about how to get swagger back) is by being physical. That's something that maybe has been lost over the last five years. That's something Coach Chizik has been preaching. There was a lot more contact in drills in the spring than since I've been here. Antonio's right, we're going to try to get that swag back."

On being more physical:
"This offense gives us the ability to be physical because to be successful, we're going to have to run the football. Last year, you saw more horizontal running, more sideline to sideline. With this offense, the quarterback can turn around and give it to the back so there's hopefully more downhill running and an opportunity to move the line forward."

On Coach Chizik:
"He's brought an aura, an enthusiasm, because he's excited to be back at Auburn. He's been preaching physicality, and hopefully brought more discipline to the team, things like taking your hats off in the building and pulling your pants up."