Gene Chizik reveals what he missed about coaching before returning to UNC

Gene Chizik is finally back in the coaching ranks. The former head of the Auburn program accepted the defensive coordinator position on Mack Brown’s staff at North Carolina. A decision his wife certainly endorsed.

In a recent press conference, he revealed that he’s thrilled to be back in coaching after several years off and in the booth analyzing games for ESPN. He spoke at-length about how he missed coaching and why he eventually took a new gig. You can read below:

“It’s human nature. When you do something for so long and then you remove from it, there’s things that you miss. So for me, there’s things I didn’t miss, not gonna lie. But when you get removed from something, at least me personally, I tend to remember all the things that I love. And it wasn’t about the success and all of that. It’s more about the players and competition.

“I told the guys when I left ESPN, I thanked all of them because I told them they were my team for five years when I didn’t have a team. Because when you’re part of a team for 30 years, that’s one of the cool things. For five years, I didn’t have a team of almost 200 people. ESPN people became my team. And I thanked them for that because I didn’t have a team. When you go through your whole work life and you’re used to having a team around you was one of the things that I definitely missed.”

He also added that his wife was “relentless” in trying to to coax him back into the coaching game. Gene Chizik said his wife constantly said, “You’re leaving it on the table, Gene. I’m not going to say anything but you’re leaving it on the table.”

Eventually, he decided he did, in fact, miss coaching and returned to the sidelines.

“My entire family knew this was a possibility one day — of me doing it again. They knew the parts that I missed and they knew the parts that I love. But they didn’t necessarily remind me as much as my wife did. I got that reminder several times a year. And with every job that I turned down, it was like…here goes another one. They’re gonna stop coming. But it’s all good.”