By BJ Bennett
SouthernPigskin.com

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Former Auburn head coach Gene Chizik has been hired as the Tar Heels’ new defensive coordinator.

Former National Coach of the Year Gene Chizik has been named the defensive coordinator at North Carolina. The head coach at Auburn from 2009-2012, where he won a BCS National Championship in 2010, Chizik is one of college football’s leading defensive minds. He will take over a Tar Heel unit that ranked 120th in the country a season ago.

Starting with his playing career as a linebacker at Florida, Chizik’s pigskin perspective has been developed on defense. After coaching in high school and as a graduate assistant at Clemson, he moved from Middle Tennessee to Stephen F. Austin to Central Florida to Auburn to Texas. Chizik’s Tiger units were among the best in the nation and he was honored with the Broyles Award given to the nation’s top assistant in 2004. While Chizik was co-defensive coordinator with the Longhorns, Texas won the BCS National Championship in 2005.

Chizik was hired as the head coach at Iowa State from 2007-2008, then, in 2009, the head coach at Auburn. In a combined six years with the Cyclones and Tigers, he compiled an overall record of 38-38. With Heisman Trophy winner Cam Newton, Chizik’s 2010 Auburn team went a perfect 14-0.

Joining head coach Larry Fedora at North Carolina, Chizik will begin his 12th season as a college football defensive coordinator.

x9cIm thrilled to join Coach Fedoras staff and I appreciate the trust he and athletic director Bubba Cunningham have in me,” he explained. “It is a tremendous opportunity to coach at one of the most prestigious Universities in the country and live in Chapel Hill. Im committed to the student-athlete experience they expect at Carolina, and look forward to developing our players into the best they can be in all areas of their lives.x9d

The Tar Heels finished 6-7 in 2014.