Chizik LIVE BLOG

Hey everyone. Welcome to the Athletic Complex, where coach Gene Chizik will be holding his weekly press conference.

• He has arrived. Let's BLOG.
  
  
• Opening statement: "We learned a lot out our football team last week. We have room for improvement in so many ways. We did some really good things everywhere. So much room for improvement. We've gone back to work, as of yesterday, preparing for a Mississippi State team with a lot of energy ... new energy. It's a team that plays with extremely high energy."
  
  
• More advanced that expected: "I don't think so. There's just so many question marks we didn't know. We were hoping we be in this kind of area. We feel like we got a great starting point."
  
  
• Similarities between Malzahn and Mullen: ``There are some similarities. They use two quarterbacks -- two different kinds of body types. There are a lot of similarities with what they did at Florida. Defensively, that's a little bit of an advantage for us because we see that every day."
  
  
• ``We have to do what we do and do it better than we did the week before."
  
  
• On if Auburn needs more than two tailbacks: "We're always in the market for more. The more, the merrier. You need two or three tailbacks, guys who can carry the ball, to get you through the year."
  
  
• On the McCalebb/Tate combo: ``When you have two bakcs who are that different on one team ... the physicality of one back versus the guy with great speed ... the defense runs all over the place and they get tired. It puts pressure on them."
  
  
• On Eric Smith: ``You're going to see him in a uniform this week. We're going to move on."
  
  
• On McCalebb: ``Anytime you bring a guy in January, it's night and day. He needs to stay humble because he certainly hasn't arrived. He played like we expected him to play. He absolutely loves the game of football. He practices like that."
  
  
• "We're not anywhere near satisfied with the rhythm and the tempo of our offense. It's got to be faster."
  
  
• On the coaches: ``In your first game, you worry about substitutions. You worry about adjustments. That didn't happen Saturday night. Communication was almost seamless. It's as good as we could have expected for Game One."
  
  
• On Eltoro Freeman: "We're hoping there will be a couple more guys back. We're playing that by ear. We can't play a guy who's 40 or 50 percent."
  
  (I spoke briefly with Freeman last night and he said he's feeling a lot better. He hopes to play this weekend.)
  
  
• Is McCalebb durable?: ``The bigger guys can run outside and inside. The litter guys can run inside and outside, too. They can both doth both. They both will. I don't know if they'll be durable enough. We're going to try to be a very physical offense and run the football."
  
  
• On Antoine Carter: "We're playing that by ear, too."
  
  
• THAT'S A WRAP.
  
  

Photo credit: Todd Van Emst/Auburn University