[4] Chizik's 2010 Auburn Tigers football team completed a 14–0 season with a victory over Oregon in the BCS National Championship Game, and quarterback Cam Newton won the Heisman Trophy.

Chizik played college football at the University of Florida in 1981 for head coach Charley Pell.

While at UCF in Orlando, Chizik frequently visited practice sessions of the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers studying the team's defensive scheme developed by then-Buccaneers head coach Tony Dungy, defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin and linebackers coach Lovie Smith.

[8] Chizik later employed a very similar scheme at Auburn, where he served again as the defensive coordinator and secondary coach from 2002 to 2004.

The 2004 Auburn Tigers football team finished 13–0 that year, won the SEC title, and defeated Virginia Tech in the Sugar Bowl.

[11] During his time at Texas, the team won the 2005 NCAA Division I-A national football championship by defeating USC in the 2006 Rose Bowl.

McCarney resigned after going 4–8 in his final season, despite five bowl appearances during his tenure, the most of any Iowa State coach at that time.

[15] Following the 2008 season, Chizik fired two assistant coaches and demoted both his offensive and defensive coordinators.

Chizik's name came up frequently as a coach who would be on the hot seat for the following season, though all acknowledged the difficulty of the job given the lack of resources and difficult schedule.

[16][17] On December 13, 2008, Auburn University hired Chizik to succeed former head coach Tommy Tuberville, who resigned from the position after finishing 5–7 in the 2008 season.

Ted Roof eventually replaced Willis and served as Auburn's linebacker coach and defensive coordinator.

Chizik also brought Jay Boulware from his ISU staff to be the special teams coordinator and hired former Auburn player Tracy Rocker away from Arkansas to coach the defensive line.

The 2012 season was disappointing as the team finished 3–9 and was outscored 150–21 in its final three SEC games—including a 49–0 loss to Alabama in the Iron Bowl.

Chizik was named defensive coordinator at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on January 19, 2015.

[32] Most notably, in an early-season game against Appalachian State, Chizik's defense allowed forty points and 338 total yards of offense in the fourth quarter alone, though the Tar Heels would hang on to win 63–61.

They have identical twin daughters named Landry and Kennedy and a son Eugene Calloway, or "Cally".