Auburn players buying into coach Gene Chizik’s simple, blue-collar slogan: ‘Do What We Do’

Auburn buys into Chizik’s slogan: ‘Do What We Do’

AUBURN, Ala. — Auburn’s team motto is basic, even boring.

But hey, it’s working.

The undefeated Tigers seem to be buying into coach Gene Chizik’s slogan “Do what we do” — or “DWWD” — even if it means something a little different for each of them.

“I feel like when you repeatedly do something, you become basically a product of your habits,” Chizik said. “You become a product of that. This is what we do on offense. This is what we do on defense. We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel every week. We’ve just got to get better at what we do and that carries over into games.”

His philosophy is if things aren’t going well in a game, say Saturday at Tennessee, the Tigers (4-0, 1-0 Southeastern Conference) should try to execute better instead of making drastic changes to what they’re doing.

In other words, “DWWD.”

It seems to be working so far, especially for the offense. The Tigers rank in the top five nationally in total, scoring and rushing offense under offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn.

They are also fifth in the nation in turnover margin.

“A lot of teams get away from their scheme and we want to keep it as simplified as possible,” Auburn receiver Tim Hawthorne said. “You never know what coach Malzahn has up his sleeve, but for the most part we stick to the basics and perfect what we do — and (try to) be the best in the country.”

The slogan sported on T-shirts and other gear seems to mean different things to different players.

—Tailback Ben Tate: “Doing whatever the team needs me to do to help get a win. If that’s picking up in the pass protections or running for 200 yards or pass blocking so Chris (Todd) can throw for 200 yards, it’s whatever I need to do to help the team win.”

—Cornerback Walt McFadden: “That’s basically just a motto for us to let us know we practice this every day. It’s something we go over … just being prepared for everything. We do that every day in practice. Do what we do is basically saying, ‘Don’t be shocked if something happened in the game. We already went over this.’”

—Tailback Onterio McCalebb: “Go out there and represent Auburn in a good way — play hard and leave it on the line for my teammates.”

“Do what we do” also seems to have carried over off the field.

Sure, there are 14 one-loss teams ranked in the Top 25, including SEC rivals No. 18 Georgia and No. 21 Mississippi.

Auburn has crept closer to the rankings with each win, the most respectable coming over West Virginia and Mississippi State. Saturday’s game at Tennessee (2-2, 0-1) will be the Tigers’ first road trip.

The Tigers have won their games by an average of 21 points, and even overcome some rough patches after falling behind in all four outings. Chizik and the players haven’t been lobbying for a Top 25 spot or publicly grumbling about their absence.

Chizik could even have more of a gripe about the lack of national recognition. He was the defensive coordinator on Auburn’s 13-0 team in 2004 that didn’t get to play for the national championship, bumped out by Southern California and Oklahoma.

“I don’t control that,” Chizik said. “I don’t even have a thought on it. Just week to week, we’ve got to win. All that other stuff takes care of itself. Really and truly, I just don’t spend a lot of energy on things I have absolutely no control over.”

His players apparently don’t either.

“We don’t really care,” McFadden said. “As long as we keep winning and stay undefeated, they’ve got to talk about us sooner or later.”

The Tigers are hoping their first visit to Neyland Stadium can be the kind of launching pad it was five years ago.

Auburn won that game 34-10 over the 10th-ranked Volunteers. That launched them to No. 6 in the nation two weeks after giving a hint of that potential with a 10-9 win over then-No. 5 LSU. Safety Junior Rosegreen, one of Chizik’s charges as defensive coordinator and secondary coach, tied an SEC record with four interceptions.

“I think that was a huge momentum carrier for us at that time,” Chizik said. “I think we had beaten LSU a couple of weeks earlier, but that was a home game. That was a big away game, momentum boost, league game. That was a big boost for us at that time.

“That was a great game. That was just a great game all the way around. Just special teams, offense, defense. It was just one of those nights where we were firing on all cylinders.”