Gene Chizik speaks ... briefly

Hey everyone. Here's what Gene Chizik had to say today:

• On getting some time off last week: ``You hope that just mentally as well as physically, you hope it was enough to escape the craziness around here."
  
  
• On Auburn not being in school this week: ``It's somewhat of an advantage. They can spend some of their own free time voluntarily coming in. If they want to come in and do a lot extra -- and a lot of them already have done that -- we'll do that."
  
  
• On if he'll encourage extra work: ``I'm not a guy who likes to vary off the things we've done. We're to a point in the year where there's nothing new we can do. We'll do what we do and won't deviate from that."
  
  
• On Alabama's defense: ``They're very talented. That's where you have to start in this league. They're very disciplined. They're two deep. They've got the defense running exactly the way you'd want it run."
  
  
• On Alabama DT Terrence Cody: ``He's a very physical player. He's really good at what he does. He can control the middle of their defense. It'll take two people to block him. He brings a lot to the table when you're talking about defending tackle to tackle."
  
  
• On Eltoro Freeman: ``He's made some good gains this weekend. Hopefully he had made some headway. Will it be enough? I don't know."
  
  
• He was asked about Ingram: ``There's a lot of depth. The execution of the running game sets up a lot of things on the perimeter or down the field. That's where they're tacking on some big plays. They're going to come in here and run the ball. Nothing is going to change."
  
  
• On the tenor of this rivalry: ``There's a huge amount of respect on both sides of the field for everybody involved. This is, in my opinion, if not the … it's one of the top couple rivalries in college football and it's because the fans make it that way. When you get on the field, that's where it gets physical. It's one of those games where the toughest, roughest and most physical team usually wins the game. "
  
  
• On how Auburn can get to that level: ``Your chances of winning a huge rivalry game is in proportion to how you prepare for it. That's what our goal is -- to do everything we can to prepare for it."
  
  
• On his memories form the 2004 game: ``I just remember that it was one of those physical games. It was a hard-hitting, field-position game. It was close. It didn't matter at the time how many they had won or lost -- they were going to fight."
  

Photo credit: Todd Van Emst/Auburn University

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