Auburn welcomes VanGorder back to the SEC

HOOVER, Ala. — Brian VanGorder, former defensive coordinator at Georgia and, more recently, with the Falcons, is a welcomed addition to the Auburn staff, head coach Gene Chizik said. Chizik hired VanGorder from the Falcons this year to be the Tigers’ defensive coordinator.

“It’s been a great transition with Brian,” Chizik said at SEC Media Days today. “We go back a long ways. Philosophically, we’re on the exact same page with what we believe in defensively and what we think is the right mixture of a lot of different things, coverage and front-wise.”

VanGorder is one of two former UGA defensive coordinators on the Auburn staff. Willie Martinez was hired as the Tigers’ secondary coach after working at Oklahoma the past two seasons.

On a different topic from Chizik:

Having coached for four years in the Big 12 –- two as an assistant at Texas and two as head coach at Iowa State — before taking the Auburn job in 2009, Chizik said SEC opponents should not underestimate league newcomers Missouri and Texas A&M.

“I’ll tell you what, I don’t think a lot of people are giving Texas A&M and Missouri the credit they deserve,” Chizik said. “… Missouri and Texas A&M aren’t coming into the SEC with their hat in their hand saying, ‘Thank you for letting me be here.’ They’re coming in here to compete and play their tail off on the football field. You can bank on that one. . . . To think that Missouri and Texas A&M are going to come in here and all of a sudden they’re going to have their eyes open to football, that’s insane.”

COVERAGE FROM DAY 2 OF SEC MEDIA DAYS (AND THERE’S MORE YET TO COME):

• Schultz: Muschamp deserves some time at Florida
• Coaches’ sideline behavior a point of emphasis for SEC officials
• Miss. State needs to pick it up in SEC West
• Muschamp: Dooley didn’t complain about playing Florida in Jacksonville
• Kentucky coach Joker Phillips says he’s feeling no heat
• Schultz: Arkansas living with humiliation after Petrino firing
  

FULL AJC COVERAGE FROM DAY 1 OF SEC MEDIA DAYS:

• SEC commissioner Mike Slive talks playoffs and a lot more
  
• South Carolina’s Spurrier prefers UGA’s schedule
  
• Missouri, Texas A&M state their case
  
• Jeff Schultz’s digi-blog: Welcome to Media Daze.
• Aggies excited, not intimidated, by SEC debut.
• Schultz: SEC needs to be vigilant to avoid Penn State-like scandals
• Vanderbilt coach passes on question about Todd Grantham
• The media’s record at predicting SEC champ: 4-16 since 1992
• Spurrier has no qualms about this quarterback