Comparing Tennessee's Lane Kiffin and Auburn's Gene Chizik

Some may wonder what compelled me to write an article comparing Auburn's Gene Chizik and Tennessee's Lane Kiffin, when on the surface it would appear they have nothing in common.

Two completely different men with two completely different personalities approaching their job in two completely different ways.

Gene Chizik was introduced at Auburn without much ado other than the booing incident at the Auburn Airport.

http://www.faniq.com/blog/Video-Gene-Chizik-Booed-By-Auburn-Fans-Upon-Arrival-At-Airport-Blog-16099

At about the same time up in Knoxville, Kiffin was being greeted with all the fanfare of a conquering hero returning from winning the National Championship.

http://volunteers.fandome.com/video/107081/Lane-Kiffin-Introduced-as-Tennessees-Head-Coach/

I submit that is where the contrast between these two men ends, and they have more in common than people may realize.

Kiffin was born on May 9, 1975, in Bloomington, Minn., and Chizik was born Dec. 28, 1961, in Clearwater, Fla. Both are the garden spots in those states. I am joking, of course.

My real point was to highlight the coaches' age difference. Chizik is 14 years older than Kiffin, and that age difference is the most important factor in my comparison.

Kiffin's young age has been blamed for much of the stupidity and many of the mistakes made on his part to this point at Tennessee. He has acted his age.

Chizik has acted more the part of a head coach of a prominent SEC school's football program. He has acted more maturely, and he has acted more like an adult.

Both Kiffin and Chizik have been Head Coaches since 2007—Kiffin at the Oakland Raiders and Chizik at Iowa State.

Both coaches have won a total of five games each out of their combined 34 attempts over a two-year period.

Kiffin was fired from his job, while Chizik resigned. Although, some would say that he was destined to be fired at Iowa State.

Chizik has coached at seven schools; Kiffin at six. 

Chizik has always coached defense, and Kiffin has always coached offense.

Chizik played linebacker at Florida, and Kiffin played quarterback at Fresno State.

Chizik actually studied Lane's father Monte Kiffin's defense while Monte was at Tampa Bay.

Kiffin studied under Norm Chow at USC. Coincidentally, Chow left for Tennessee to coach for the Tennessee Titans, which then gave Kiffin his opportunity to become Offensive Coordinator at USC, which led to his opportunity to be Head Coach at Oakland, which led to his opportunity to go to Tennessee as Head Coach at the University of Tennessee...Whew!

I believe the Norm Chow connection plus the Tennessee connection is relevant, because Chow was successful in Tennessee and Kiffin tutored under Chow and that didn't go unnoticed.

Chow then left Tennessee to go back to Los Angeles to become Offensive Coordinator at USC's biggest rival UCLA. Chow also went on record to criticize Kiffin as Offensive Coordinator after USC lost to UCLA, which cost USC their chance at the BCS title game in 2006.

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/sports/homepage/article_1393958.php

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