BLOGGIN FOR YOUR NOGGIN: Gene Chizik speaks

Hey everyone. Auburn head coach Gene Chizik is discussing the Tigers at his weekly press conference.

• ``It's going to be a fun week for us, an exciting week for us."
  
  
• ``This is a vert good Tennessee football team and we all know how tough it is to play at Tennessee."
  
  
• On this being new: ``I don't think there's anyone on the football team who has played at Tennessee. We're not going to change anything. We're not going to change how we prepare. There's really not much that you do to change what you've done the previous four games. We feel like communication will be the issue -- whether its hand signals. Our guys are used to that. It'll be fun for them."
  
  
• On Eric Berry: ``You're always cognizant of where he is. He can take a guy out of the game. You've got to make provisions for that. We'll always know where he is. He's that good of a player. He can dominate a game."
  
  
• On Trooper Taylor (former UT assistant): ``He coaches them really, really well. I've known Trooper for a long time. I knew what kind of a person he was. He's been great for our football team. He's been great for our receivers. He's done a great job and he's a great person."
  
  
• On him getting up for Tennessee: "You get to the level where you can't crank it up anymore. I don't know if he can get more excited."
  
  
• He has a lot of respect for UT defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin. "He brings a lot to the table."
  
  
• On the possibility of changing things with the punt-return unit: ``We're open-minded with some thoughts of different guys. But we have to keep working the guys we've invested so much time in. We can't kick those guys to the curb and make wholesale changes."
  
  
• On getting national relevance: ``We've got to win. The other stuff, it'll take care of itself."
  
  
• On if he's getting more terse in special teams meetings: "We're coaching like we always coach. We're very demanding and precise. We've got to play better and coach better."
  
  
• On similarities of how Auburn and Tennessee are built from a staff standpoint: ``Guys make a lot of money to be good coaches, to be good recruiters and treat these kids right. That's our deal. The guys I've got here, I want them to coach my 9-year-old son. They've got to contribute with the xs and os. When you make the whole cake and you leave out one ingredient, it doesn't taste very good."
  
  
• On Monte Kiffin: (Chizik spoke with Kiffin during his days at UCF ... prior to being Auburn DC in 2002) ``Monte was very good to me. He was very kind, very good with me."
  
  
• ``We've had kind of a whole different bunch of scenarios we've been through and we're 4-0. That's against some good teams. We're still feeling each other out, still learning them. There's still a lot of things we'll have to get through together. I'm proud of the way they've continued to play -- even when it wasn't good."
  
  
• On Chris Todd: ``We felt like, with what we saw and knowing he didn't go through spring practce, Chris could be a very good player in this offense. He's done some things that we expected him to do. When you look at the touchdown passes and all that -- there was a lot of work done by a lot of guys. Some of them were two-yard passes. You still have to make the throw. The thing I like about Chris is that he hasn't made a lot of bad decisions."
  
  
• On Burns and McCalebb: ``We don't know where they're at right now. It's day by day."
  
  
• On what a win at UT would mean: ``Going to Tennessee, to play there, will be a huge indicator of what we are. That's not just for this week -- that's for the whole year. It's going to be an adventure. If you do well and win the game, it gets you over a hurdle. If you can go to a place like Tennessee and you can get a win there, it reveals more about your team. It would catapult us into October in a good way."
  
  
• He said Byron Isom is practicing.
  
  
• THAT'S A WRAP.
  
  

Photo credit: Todd Van Emst/Auburn University