Earlier this year, Gene Chizik was reportedly involved in a testy exchange with a senior member of the NCAA’s enforcement staff over the pace of The Association’s investigation into the Cam Newton affair, with the verbal jousting culminating in the Auburn head coach being put in his place by the female staffer.
“You’ll know when we’re finished, and we’re not finished,” Julie Roe Lach said back in June.
Four months later, the NCAA’s finished. And Chizik knows it.
As you’ve heard, seen or read by now, the NCAA announced Wednesday that their 13-month investigation into the Newton “pay-for-play scenario”, as well as allegations of impermissible benefits made by former players on HBO earlier this year, has come to an end and that it was found Auburn committed no major violations. Chizik addressed the end of the probe yesterday and, like his former quarterback, said in essence it’s about time everybody caught up to what he knew a long time ago: AU did nothing untoward in its recruitment of Newton back in late 2009.
“I’m glad that the NCAA made a statement that concluded the investigation,” Chizik said. “I’ve said many times that we haven’t done anything wrong, so quite frankly, I’ve moved on a long time ago.
”Anybody that had any questions, now you can put that to bed.”
Speaking of bed, and following up on his mantra from the SEC media days this past summer, Chizik reiterated that the allegations surrounding Newton and, by extension, his football program did not affect his sleep patterns in the least bit.
“I feel really, really good at night when I go to sleep about the way we run this program and we’ll continue to run it the right way,” Chizik said. “I can’t say it enough. My one focus is winning football games right now.”
