Report: North Carolina to hire former SEC head coach as defensive coordinator

Could Gene Chizik be betting back into college football? A new report suggests it’s a possibility — but as North Carolina’s defensive coordinator.

Chizik is reportedly close to a reunion with Mack Brown at North Carolina, according to FootballScoop. The two worked together at Texas from 2005-06 and won the 2005 national championship with the Longhorns.

Chizik would bring plenty of experience to the Tar Heels staff. He was a head coach at Iowa State from 2006-07 and at Auburn from 2009-12, where he took the Cam Newton-led Tigers to a national title in 2010.

The news comes one day after North Carolina parted ways with Jay Batemen, who had been the Tar Heels’ defensive coordinator and safeties coach since 2019. North Carolina went 6-7 this season — Brown’s first sub-.500 season since 2010 with Texas.

It would also mark a return to North Carolina for Chizik. He was the Tar Heels’ defensive coordinator in 2015-16 before resigning in February 2017.

Chizik was recently reported as a target for the USFL, as well. So it sounds like he’s garnering interest on multiple fronts this offseason.

Report: Former Auburn head coach Gene Chizik a candidate for USFL

Former Auburn head coach Gene Chizik is a candidate for the Birmingham Stallions head coaching job in the USFL, according to Bruce Feldman of FOX Sports. There’s definite interest on both sides according to Feldman, but nothing has been finalized as of Thursday afternoon.

Chizik is currently a commentator for the ESPN and the SEC Network. He hasn’t coached football since he was the defensive coordinator for the North Carolina Tar Heels in 2015 and 2016. The former Auburn head coach hasn’t been a head coach since the Tigers fired him in 2012.

Chizik was the head coach for the Tigers when they won their first national championship in 50 years, in 2010. One of the biggest reasons the Tigers had such incredible success in 2010 was, of course, former Heisman Trophy winner Cam Newton.

His overall record as a head coach in college football was mediocre at best. In his six years as a head man on the FBS level, Chizik’s head coaching record is 38-38.

After Auburn posted a 14-0 record in 2010, the Tigers dropped to 8-5 in 2011, and 3-9 in 2012, after which he was fired. Such is life for a college football head coach in the SEC. Ed Orgeron of LSU was fired in 2021, less than two years removed from a national championship in 2020.