{"id":1122,"date":"2011-07-29T21:00:21","date_gmt":"2011-07-30T01:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/inspiringathletes\/?p=1122"},"modified":"2011-07-29T22:27:19","modified_gmt":"2011-07-30T02:27:19","slug":"a-conversation-with-auburn-national-championship-football-coach-gene-chizik-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/2011\/07\/a-conversation-with-auburn-national-championship-football-coach-gene-chizik-part-2.html","title":{"rendered":"A conversation with Auburn national championship football coach Gene Chizik (Part 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Click “Like” to share this with your friends!<\/strong><\/p>\n

In part two of the Inspiring Athletes interview with Gene Chizik, the Auburn head football coach talks about the importance of family, what he expects out of the 2011 season and what he hopes people take away from his book All In<\/em>:<\/p>\n

Bonham: There\u2019s a lot of cynicism amongst the fans and the media these days due to the college football scandals. Do you understand why that cynicism exists but at the same time maybe bristle at the fact that there\u2019s an assumption that all of the big, successful programs must be cheating to get ahead?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Auburn football coach Gene Chizik (Photo by Todd Van Emst\/Courtesy of Auburn Media Relations)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chizik: I don\u2019t try to spend a lot of time trying to figure out what everybody\u2019s opinion is about everything. I know that we try to educate our players to the best of our ability and make sure they\u2019re doing the best job making choices. At the end of the day, as you educate them and do your best to make sure they\u2019re compliant with all the rules, they have to make the right decisions themselves. I\u2019m not focused on what the outside world\u2019s opinion is about that. We\u2019re just trying to spend every day trying to educate our guys.<\/p>\n

Bonham: Does your faith and what you stand for make it even more important for you to do things with integrity?<\/p>\n

Chizik: I don\u2019t live it or do it for that reason. I do it because it\u2019s what I choose to do and it\u2019s what I think is the right way. Obviously when you\u2019re a head coach at a major university, eyes are on you all the time just like they\u2019re on your players. It\u2019s important that you are trying to do things the right way. That will always be the case.<\/p>\n

Bonham: I enjoyed the fact that your wife wrote the afterword of your book. You really can\u2019t understate the importance of having a strong companion supporting you in the high-pressure position that you\u2019re in.<\/p>\n

Chizik: Oh absolutely. It\u2019s imperative that you have a strong family, that you have a wife that understands, that can be with you every step of the way, and children who sacrifice so much from their dads when we do what we do. The family element, which again is so important in my life, is an extremely big part of what we do, and if your family isn\u2019t all in, so to speak, it\u2019s hard to do what we do. That\u2019s really important.<\/p>\n

Bonham: How important are organizations like Fellowship of Christian Athletes and local church ministries to your personal growth as a believer?<\/p>\n

Chizik: It\u2019s extremely important to have that as a resource for us as coaches if that\u2019s what we choose, and for our players if that\u2019s what they choose. Again, for us at Auburn, we\u2019ve got a great team chaplain in Chette Williams. It\u2019s a huge part of what we do, again, it being a resource for our young guys if they want it.<\/p>\n

Bonham: How much pressure is there to meet the expectations placed on your program after winning a national championship?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Auburn head football coach Gene Chizik during spring football (Photo by Todd Van Emst\/Courtesy of Auburn Media Relations)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chizik: Well, there\u2019s always pressure in the SEC to win. There\u2019s pressure in any job to win. There\u2019s a high expectation out there and, although we lost a lot of players and we\u2019re going to be playing with a lot of young ones, our standard hasn\u2019t changed and our goals haven\u2019t changed. That is to win a championship. That will always be our goal and our standard. That hasn\u2019t changed. It won\u2019t change. The pressure of winning in college football is there for everybody. But again, we try to stay focused on things we can control and that\u2019s preparation and what it takes to win.<\/p>\n

Bonham: Was the successful season personally vindicating in light of those who originally didn\u2019t think you were the right coaching hire or was it more of a confirmation that God had you in the right place at the right time?<\/p>\n

Chizik: I don\u2019t live my life trying to feel vindicated by success or proving people wrong or any of that. I feel blessed to be in the position that I\u2019m in and that\u2019s how I live my life.<\/p>\n

Bonham: What are some of the key themes you want people to take away from reading your book?<\/p>\n

Chizik: If you read the book, I talk about how everybody has their own 5-19 season of life. That could be the loss of a job, the loss of a spouse, the diagnosis of an illness\u2014something where the outside world looking in may say, \u201cWow. It\u2019s going to be real difficult to overcome that. I don\u2019t know how you\u2019re going to do it.\u201d This is a book of encouragement and a book of hope for people that are going through their own 5-19 season. Keep believing. Keep the faith. Set a plan and don\u2019t let anybody tell you that you can\u2019t accomplish it.<\/p>\n

Bonham: Obviously you understand how the business works and that coaching jobs are never guaranteed for life. So how important is it for you to have that healthy perspective or perhaps even an eternal perspective of what you\u2019re doing as a head coach?<\/p>\n

Chizik: Oh absolutely. Day in and day out, we all know that we have to win ballgames, but at the end of the day, I want to make sure I\u2019m making an impact on young guys\u2019 lives. You know in this business that, like I said in the book, you could be at a place one more year or you could be at a place 20 more years. You don\u2019t know how that\u2019s going to unfold, but God\u2019s always got a plan for you. So whatever that plan is, it will unfold the way He wants it to and in His time.<\/p>\n

Click HERE<\/a> for part one of the Inspiring Athletes interview with Gene Chizik.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Click “Like” to share this with your friends! In part two of the Inspiring Athletes interview with Gene Chizik, the Auburn head football coach talks about the importance of family, what he expects out of the 2011 season and what he hopes people take away from his book All In: Bonham: There\u2019s a lot of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":418,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,384,382,5],"tags":[549,548,441,551,21,350,552],"class_list":["post-1122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian-athletes","category-football","category-qa","category-sports-features","tag-2011-bcs-championship","tag-auburn","tag-auburn-football","tag-chette-williams","tag-fellowship-of-christian-athletes","tag-gene-chizik","tag-sec-football"],"yoast_head":"\nA conversation with Auburn national championship football coach Gene Chizik (Part 2) - Inspiring Athletes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/2011\/07\/a-conversation-with-auburn-national-championship-football-coach-gene-chizik-part-2.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A conversation with Auburn national championship football coach Gene Chizik (Part 2) - Inspiring Athletes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Click “Like” to share this with your friends! In part two of the Inspiring Athletes interview with Gene Chizik, the Auburn head football coach talks about the importance of family, what he expects out of the 2011 season and what he hopes people take away from his book All In: Bonham: There\u2019s a lot of…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/2011\/07\/a-conversation-with-auburn-national-championship-football-coach-gene-chizik-part-2.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Inspiring Athletes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-07-30T01:00:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-07-30T02:27:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/inspiringathletes\/files\/2011\/07\/09Chizik1N-182x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Chad Bonham\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A conversation with Auburn national championship football coach Gene Chizik (Part 2) - Inspiring Athletes","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/2011\/07\/a-conversation-with-auburn-national-championship-football-coach-gene-chizik-part-2.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A conversation with Auburn national championship football coach Gene Chizik (Part 2) - Inspiring Athletes","og_description":"Click “Like” to share this with your friends! In part two of the Inspiring Athletes interview with Gene Chizik, the Auburn head football coach talks about the importance of family, what he expects out of the 2011 season and what he hopes people take away from his book All In: Bonham: There\u2019s a lot of…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/2011\/07\/a-conversation-with-auburn-national-championship-football-coach-gene-chizik-part-2.html","og_site_name":"Inspiring Athletes","article_published_time":"2011-07-30T01:00:21+00:00","article_modified_time":"2011-07-30T02:27:19+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/inspiringathletes\/files\/2011\/07\/09Chizik1N-182x300.jpg"}],"author":"Chad Bonham","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/2011\/07\/a-conversation-with-auburn-national-championship-football-coach-gene-chizik-part-2.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/2011\/07\/a-conversation-with-auburn-national-championship-football-coach-gene-chizik-part-2.html","name":"A conversation with Auburn national championship football coach Gene Chizik (Part 2) - Inspiring Athletes","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/2011\/07\/a-conversation-with-auburn-national-championship-football-coach-gene-chizik-part-2.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/2011\/07\/a-conversation-with-auburn-national-championship-football-coach-gene-chizik-part-2.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/inspiringathletes\/files\/2011\/07\/09Chizik1N-182x300.jpg","datePublished":"2011-07-30T01:00:21+00:00","dateModified":"2011-07-30T02:27:19+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/#\/schema\/person\/95c3e9443bb9bfa81645d8daef1193c1"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/2011\/07\/a-conversation-with-auburn-national-championship-football-coach-gene-chizik-part-2.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/2011\/07\/a-conversation-with-auburn-national-championship-football-coach-gene-chizik-part-2.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/2011\/07\/a-conversation-with-auburn-national-championship-football-coach-gene-chizik-part-2.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/inspiringathletes\/files\/2011\/07\/09Chizik1N-182x300.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/inspiringathletes\/files\/2011\/07\/09Chizik1N-182x300.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/2011\/07\/a-conversation-with-auburn-national-championship-football-coach-gene-chizik-part-2.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"A conversation with Auburn national championship football coach Gene Chizik (Part 2)"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/","name":"Inspiring Athletes","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Chad Bonham","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/#\/schema\/person\/95c3e9443bb9bfa81645d8daef1193c1","name":"Chad Bonham","description":"Chad has been working in mass media for over 20 years. 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Chad is currently working on five new books including Sooner Legacy, Husker Legacy and Lessons From Sooner Football (Cross Training) as well as The Faith of Stock Car Racing (Judson Press). When he's not writing, Chad lends his efforts to various independent television and film projects. He was the coordinating producer for Choosing Life (2010) and Life Happens (2011). Chad is currently serving as producer on a forthcoming documentary about Super Bowl champion Brian Kinchen. Chad and his wife Amy live in Broken Arrow, Okla., with sons Lance (September 2003), Cole (February 2008) and Quinn (February 2011).","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/author\/cbonham"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/418"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1122"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1122\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1136,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1122\/revisions\/1136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}