Once the band stop playing, it was time to go toe-to-toe with new Iowa State football coach Gene Chizik. Here's the first installment of a complete question-and-answer session with Chizik following his formal announcement as the Cyclones' head coach Monday night at Hilton Coliseum.


You took the job sight unseen, you had not been to Ames before today?

Basically, yes basically. I got a chance to see a lot of the town earlier (today) but obviously I'll get a chance to see it more as we go. But we did a lot of research and heard a lot of great things about the whole community. Ames itself, the education system. We've done our research and crossed all our T's and dotted all our I's. We're just really impressed with everything.


When were you first contacted?

We met in Dallas last week, actually this past Saturday after the A&M game. That's when we met and came to an agreement. They were very respectful of my season. They did it with class and integrity and did it the right way. But that's where they offered me the job and the next morning (Sunday) is when I took it. I had to sleep on it, pray on it, see what my family thought about it.


What was the ultimate thing that made you think this was the place for you?

It was the level of commitment that has been demonstrated by the president and the athletic director, everything that I said earlier. To me, it's important for people to want you to be there, they target you as their guy. I really feel like I was recruited. They made my family feel special, made me feel special. I thought the relationship was clicking already. But there's a high level of commitment there, that's the thing.

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