Auburn vs. South Carolina: Did Gene Chizik Ride Cam Newton or Can He Coach?

With Cam Newton taking the snaps for Auburn last year, the Tigers put together a perfect season and won a BCS Title. Newton also won the Heisman Trophy in the process.

Now, Newton is off to the NFL and Chizik is going to have to piece together a winning season without his Heisman-winning quarterback. Can he do it?

Of course, as we're only a third of the way through the season, it's somewhat too early to really tell. In fact, as we're only into Chizik's third year at Auburn, it's too early to really tell how he well he can develop players, as he's still working with some of Tommy Tuberville's recruits.

We don't really know how great a coach Chizik is with an incomplete body of evidence. The best we can do is look into his past and look at what's gone on so far this year to pull clues as to what kind of coach Chizik is.

Chizik has only had two head coaching jobs in his career. Before Auburn was Iowa State for the 2007 and 2008 seasons. In 2007, the Cyclones went 3-9 with Dan McCarney's recruits. In 2008, they finished 2-10—still largely with someone else's players.

Still, while it's not unexpected for a team to have a poor first season under a new coach, it's never a great sign when they take a step back in their second season under that coach.

In both seasons, Iowa State finished 10th in the Big 12 in scoring defense. There was no particular improvement from one year to the next.

The Cyclones were dead last in scoring offense in '07 and only improved to 10th in the conference in '08. At least there was some improvement there, but nothing to write home about.

Now, this is Iowa State we're talking about. They have never—and likely will never—have the kind of resources Auburn has at its disposal. It's kind of like comparing apples to oranges.

So, what about Auburn before Newton?

In Chizik's first season with the Tigers, they finished 8-5. Their scoring defense was dead last in the SEC but their scoring offense was third in the conference. When Newton came up from the JC ranks in 2010, the Tiger offense led the SEC in scoring.

Newton had nothing to do with defense however, and the Tiger's defense moved up to eighth in the conference last year. That's a respectable improvement from one year to the next. Not jaw dropping, but respectable.

So, what about this year, now that Newton's gone?

So far this season, Auburn is ranking dead last in the conference in scoring defense again. Their scoring offense has dropped all the way to eighth.

Of course, Cam Newton was one of those special kinds of players that only come around every so many years. He alone is the dramatic difference in scoring statistics between the various seasons.

However, what does it say about Chizik that his defense is once again taking a step back? What does it say that his overall records as a head coach is 30-25 and that number includes a perfect 14-0 season? That means, in the non-Newton years, Chizik has been 16-25.

Of course, time will tell just how good Gene Chizik is as a recruiter and leader. Time will show us more definitively how good a job he can do at developing the talent at his disposal.

He'll forever be a coach with a BCS Title under his belt though. Did he really earn it, or did Cam Newton deliver it to him?

The numbers really don't look good for Chizik. He's had mediocre results with the exception of one great year—the year Newton was at Auburn.

So far, it's looking like Chizik rode Cam Newton to his ultimate success. We still don't really know if the man can coach.