Auburn Football 2011: Who's the Real Brain Behind Auburn's Success?

Larry Burton (Syndicated Writer) Last year was a good year to be an Auburn Tiger.

They captured lightning in a bottle with Cameron Newton, and parlayed that and a strong senior class into a rare national championship.

The question: Who is really due the lion's share of the credit? Who was the real brain behind the operation?

Now that Gene Chizik has been at Auburn for awhile, the football press has really gotten to know him. Gus Malzahn is likewise known, and highly respected.

Certainly, Chizik can be counted as one of the luckiest coaches in college football, as he brought a 5-19 record with him from Iowa State. To make matters worse, he was on the hot seat there.

Chizik was supposed to be a great defensive coach, but his last Iowa State team ranked 111th in total defense, 115th in passing defense and 95th in rushing defense out of 119 schools.

Certainly, getting that Auburn job with those credentials raised some eyebrows. Years ago, I wrote about what really happened; you can read the story by clicking HERE.

A lot of people thought it was too fantastic to be true. But of course, now everything has come out and those who disputed it have gone quiet.

No matter how Chizik got the job, he's certainly made the most of the opportunity.

At Iowa State he made very poor coaching hires and ended up demoting both his offensive and defensive coordinators—a mistake he obviously learned from when he hired Malzahn to come in and run the offense.

Many think Malzahn is the real genius at Auburn, and that once he leaves to take a head coaching position, Auburn will have a very rough go of it.

I have heard Chizik referred to as an empty suit and a lucky lapdog by people in the press who I usually respect for their dead-on opinions.

For a coach to win a national championship with barely a .500 record on his head coaching resume is astounding.

You do have to give him some credit for all the things he's done right. Auburn won that national championship because of Chizik's ability to convince Cameron Newton to come to Auburn, but that was a "one and done" deal.

Personally, I think Chizik is a good coach with a good work ethic who's been lucky to be at the right place at the right time with the right offensive coordinator.

Time is always the best judge of such things, and we shall see this year how life goes without Cam—and then how Auburn fares once Malzahn's gone.