Gene Chizik speaks, 9/6

Hey everyone. Gene Chizik just spent 30 minutes or so chatting with reporters about the Issues of The Day.

Here's an overview:

• General thoughts: ``I thought they played through some times ... of adversity. We overcame some adverse situations. We've got a lot of work to do. We've got a lot of corrections. We've got a long way to go to compete in this league."
  
  
• On Auburn not using freshman WRs in major roles Saturday: ``Offensively, we're just going what defenses give us. I wouldn't read too much into that.
  
  
• On the 93-yard pass from Chris Todd to Terrell Zachery: ``As games progress, we do a good job of studying people. We scout the (defensive) people during the game."
  
  
• Chizik elaborating on that idea: ``Everybody's got a job on gameday. What we don't do is watch the game. We're not gamewatchers. Everybody's got a job to watch this, everybody's got a job to watch that, everybody's got a job to watch this without going into details. You got to do your job. They can watch the game on TV the next day. We're working and we're specifically looking at things that we need to be paying attention to."
  
  
• Chizik wouldn't identify which staffer made the assessments that led to the deep plays to Zachery and Darvin Adams.
  
  
• On Nosa Eguae's situation: ``It's a foot injury. It's nothing that's really serious. It's a day-to-day, week-to-week thing."
  
  
• On Eltoro Freeman's situation: ``We felt like he was really close. You just have to use good judgment."
  
  
• On if Mario Fannin now should be considered a receiver: ``Not necessarily. Mario's still going to run the football. Mario's still going to catch the football."
  
  
• On if it's "fair" to say Fannin is the No. 3 tailback: ``You could say that. The reason I hesitate on that is because you can move him around to so many places. If you look at number of carries, yes. That doesn't necessarily mean anything. Mario plays so many different positions because he can."
  
  
• On the possibility of making changes at punt returner: ``We'll have to look at that real closely. It's hard for you to run people down in two-a-days -- hit 'em live -- and expect them to be healthy. Remember, it's not always the kick returner's (fault)."
  
  
• Chizik said coaches officially award special teams efforts and exploits, not offense and defense. ``It's a dirty job, but you have to be good at it."
  
  
• On some injured players (ie Hot Carter and Freeman) not being on the sideline last night: ``A lot of guys who are injured don't want to be down there. It's hard on them. Sometimes when they're injured, they don't want to come to the game. Don't read anything into that. We probably had 30 or 40 kids in the stands last night.
  
  
  
  

Photo credit: Todd Van Emst/Auburn University