ATLANTA — It was driving Wayne Peace crazy.
Every time he heard the name or saw the face on the TV he asked himself the same question.
"Gene Chizik. Why do I know that guy?"
It wasn't until he ran into a former University of Florida trainer at a high school game that it clicked.
"He said, 'Peace, you don't remember that little linebacker getting his brains beat in every day?' " said Peace, the former Florida quarterback. "Then it hit me. That's the same guy."
Chizik's career as a Florida Gator was hardly as illustrious as the guy who was a four-year starter and certainly not as long. Chizik lasted one year as a scout team linebacker in 1981 before a back injury ended his college playing career after only one season. Chizik, a Clearwater native, did go on to earn his degree from Florida in 1985.
And while the Florida football team came up a game short of its goal of making it to Atlanta, you could call this the Gator Bowl.
After all, both coaches are UF graduates. The starting quarterback for Auburn is a former Florida quarterback. Gamecock quarterback coach G.A. Mangus was a quarterback for the Gators and Steve Spurrier's son Steve Jr. was an assistant under his dad at Florida. SC director of operations Jamie Speronis is also a Florida graduate.
Florida has dominated the SEC Championship Game with the most appearances (10) and wins (seven) but this is the first time both coaches are former UF players.
"It is ironic," Spurrier told me Thursday night. "I guess you have to give credit to our P.E. department down there."
(While plugging the Florida physical education department, Spurrier told me he still uses a technique taught to him by his UF instructor Jim McCachren — throwing a basketball against a wall. "I have our quarterbacks do it 100 times before every practice," Spurrier said. "Strong hands, you throw the ball with your hand, not your arm. By the time I left Florida I could palm a basketball thanks to Coach Mac.")
Dr. Bret Wiechmann, a diagnostic radiologist in Gainesville, was a receiver on the 1981 team that included Chizik. They were in each other's weddings and stay in touch as much as anyone can stay in touch with an SEC head football coach.
"He's hard to get to in football season," Dr. Wiechmann said. "Gene always had this love for football. We went to a couple of Gator bowl games together when he was a graduate assistant at Clemson. Even then, you could tell he was one of those guys who was going to rise up."
What impressed Dr. Wiechmann most about Chizik,48, was that he wasn't in a hurry.
"He wanted to make sure he was an expert in his field when he got the chance," he said. "He was willing to be patient for good things to happen."
Chizik's playing career at Florida never transferred from the practice field to Florida Field. A walk-on, Chizik never suited up for a game and some of his teammates I talked to didn't remember him at all.
Lee McGriff was an assistant coach on the 1981 Florida staff and remembers Chizik, the player.
"Vaguely. But I know him from his time at Central Florida when my son Britt was playing there (from 1999-2002)," McGriff said. "He was good to Britt and I got to know him very well. I'm a big fan of his. Some people thought it was a questionable hire at Auburn but I knew he'd succeed."
The two coaches traveled different paths to get here and it's not the first rodeo for either one. Spurrier, of course, coached Florida to seven appearances in the SEC game. Chizik was the defensive coordinator at Auburn when the Tigers won the title with a 38-28 win over Tennessee on their way to a 13-0 season in 2004.
Now, the former Gator stands on the verge of the biggest game of his career, one that could lead to an even bigger game. It's a long way from the days of being a blocking dummy.
"He was a tough son of a gun," Peace said. "Once I thought about it, I remembered that he was a 5-foot-9, 180-pound linebacker who was always getting killed out there. But he was tough and he was a hard-working kid."
During the pre-game news conference Friday afternoon at the Georgia Dome, Chizik was asked about his playing career at UF.
"Football has been a huge part of my life," he said. "I obviously was a graduate at the University of Florida and was fortunate to play football there a short time. And obviously all the football that I've played in my career has led me to want to be sitting in this seat and the coaches in my life have had a huge part and football's had a huge part of my life growing up.
"When I graduated, I wanted to go into coaching. That's what I did. I started in high school. I did that for two and a half years in the state of Florida and then got into the college world, and have been very blessed to be again 20 some odd years later sitting here."
Today, the two coaches with UF diplomas will try to outwit each other with a championship on the line. When I told Spurrier, 65, I would be covering the game, he said, "Going to see some history, huh?"
Something like that.
