New SEC coaches are not splashy

Gene Chizik, Lane Kiffin and Dan Mullen have little or no head coaching experience.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — One new Southeastern Conference football coach has won barely one-fifth of his games as a head man. Another managed a 25 percent clip.

Still, a third has never been a head coach, and two others are closer to age 30 than 40.

The powerhouse football league didn’t go for splashy names like other recent hires Bobby Petrino, Nick Saban and Urban Meyer in its latest sideline shopping spree.

This time it’s Gene Chizik, Lane Kiffin and Dan Mullen — all with terrific track records and reputations as assistant coaches. But when it comes to head coaching, the experience they have is either nonexistent or negative.

It’s hard to imagine any of them drawing 92,000 fans to a spring game like Alabama’s Saban did in his first year.

They are surely intriguing nonetheless for a variety of reasons. Take Chizik at Auburn. He had a 5-19 record in two seasons at Iowa State, but was also defensive coordinator for back-to-back unbeaten teams at Auburn and Texas.

His hiring drew the most criticism of the three new guys, but he did get the endorsement of popular former Auburn coach Pat Dye, who got to know the Tigers’ new head man during Chizik’s stay as defensive coordinator from 2002-04.

“We knew more about him than anybody did,” Dye said. “I was a little bit shocked that our athletic director had guts enough to hire him. When I got the call that Gene was the No. 1 choice, I was shocked right along with everyone else. The more I thought about it, the more sense it made and the more I liked it.”

Chizik replaced Tommy Tuberville, who resigned after 10 seasons. Kiffin replaced a coach with even longer tenure, Phillip Fulmer at Tennessee, who lasted 17 years. All part of the SEC’s youth movement.

At 33, Kiffin is the youngest Football Bowl Subdivision head coach.

Tennessee athletic director Mike Hamilton saw someone who demonstrated he could recruit nationally as an assistant at Southern California and had a plan to do the same for the Volunteers. His age also helps him relate to prospects, Hamilton said.

“Even though he hasn’t been a college head coach, he had a focused plan of how to go about that,” he said, calling his new coach “incredibly football-focused.”

The 36-year-old Mullen has helped take Florida to the BCS national championship game as the Gators’ offensive coordinator. He is a first-time head coach with plans to switch rough-and-tumble Mississippi State to a spread offense.