Early Thursday evening multiple reports indicated former Auburn head coach Gene Chizik had accepted an offer to become UNC's defensive coordinator. This hire, once made official, gives UNC a much needed boost after historically awful season on that side of the ball. Here is what the numbers say Chizik brings to the table.
Prior to taking his first college head coaching job at Iowa State in 2007, Chizik was a defensive coordinator at Central Florida(1998-2001), Auburn(2002-2004) and co-DC at Texas(2005-06). The NCAA web site only has stats starting in 2000.
Team defense stats with Chizik as defensive coordinator.
| Season | Team | Rush YPG | Rank | Pass YPG | Rank | Total YPG | Rank | PPG | Rank |
| 2000 | UCF | 130.9 | 37th | 192.1 | 23rd | 323.8 | 28th | 20.1 | 32nd |
| 2001 | UCF | 129.4 | 37th | 178.0 | 15th | 307.3 | 16th | 18.5 | 13th |
| 2002 | Auburn | 141.7 | 46th | 186.4 | 26th | 328.1 | 26th | 17.8 | 13th |
| 2003 | Auburn | 92.6 | 7th | 189.0 | 23rd | 281.6 | 5th | 16.3 | 9th |
| 2004 | Auburn | 104.2 | 12th | 173.4 | 10th | 277.6 | 5th | 11.3 | 1st |
| 2005* | Texas | 130.9 | 33rd | 172.0 | 8th | 302.9 | 10th | 16.4 | 8th |
| 2006 | Texas | 61.2 | 3rd | 236.2 | 99th | 297.3 | 22nd | 18.3 | 26th |
*Won BCS title
Based on the available data, defenses for which Chizik was the coordinator all performed extremely well. The only troublesome number is the pass defense in 2006 at Texas when the Longhorns were 99th giving up 236.2 yards per game. All but one of the seven defenses listed here gave up 20 or fewer points per game and that was Chizik's 2000 UCF team which gave up 20.1 Across the board Chizik's defenses have always been very good when he was the man in charge of them. When Chizik was the head coach is a different story.
Team defense stats with Chizik as head coach
| Season | Team | Rush YPG | Rank | Pass YPG | Rank | Total YPG | Rank | PPG | Rank |
| 2007 | Iowa State | 136.1 | 44th | 254.2 | 91st | 390.3 | 65th | 31.8 | 93rd |
| 2008 | Iowa State | 174.6 | 94th | 276.7 | 117th | 451.3 | 111th | 35.8 | 111th |
| 2009 | Auburn | 156.4 | 78th | 218.0 | 58th | 374.4 | 68th | 27.5 | 76th |
| 2010* | Auburn | 109.7 | 9th | 259.3 | 108th | 368.4 | 60th | 24.1 | 53rd |
| 2011 | Auburn | 189.2 | 94th | 218.8 | 51st | 408.0 | 80th | 28.9 | 78th |
| 2012 | Auburn | 197.5 | 100th | 222.9 | 48th | 420.5 | 81st | 28.3 | 65th |
*Won BCS title
With Chizik as the head coach the numbers are not nearly as impressive which really shouldn't matter. Chizik's two stints as a head coach were mostly a mixed bag save for one magical season, the 2010 run to a BCS title. Since Chizik is being hired as the defensive coordinator and not the head coach, these numbers should not be much cause for concern.
With Chizik's previous experience as a head coach, two BCS title rings and his credibility as a defensive coordinator it stands to reason he is not taking this job unless he has full control of the defense. Larry Fedora is likely well aware this is something he simply needs to turn over to a coach with Chizik's bona fides and let him mold both the staff and the defense as he see fits. That could mean additional staff changes are forthcoming.
