HOOVER — Gene Chizik, in a phrase he’s fond of turning, sleeps “really good every night that (his) head hits the pillow.”

But in his waking hours, Chizik has had to deal with a near-constant stream of scrutiny surrounding the NCAA’s investigation into Auburn and its recruitment of Heisman winning quarterback Cam Newton for the past nine months.

“I’ll make this real clear: The NCAA on more than one occasion has said that Auburn has done nothing wrong in the recruitment of Cam Newton,” Chizik told the assembled press corps at SEC Media Days on Thursday. “Nothing’s changed.”

That hasn’t stopped the questions, the speculation, the myriad reports seeming to portend Auburn’s demise.

The latest story to thrust the Newton case back into the national conversation came from the New York Times on July 13.

The Times reported Chizik got into a “testy exchange” with NCAA Vice President of Enforcement Julie Roe Lach at the SEC Spring Meetings in Destin, Fla., at the beginning of June, one in which Chizik peppered Roe Lach with questions about the slow progress of the NCAA’s investigation into Newton and Auburn in a closed-door seminar for the conference’s athletic directors and football and basketball coaches.

The story said when Chizik asked Roe Lach why the NCAA had not publicized it when their investigation concluded, Roe Lach reportedly responded, “You’ll know when we’re finished. And we’re not finished.”

Four SEC basketball coaches corroborated the Times’ account. Chizik remembers it a little differently.

“I was simply asking Julie, who is the top enforcement official, to clarify some process,“ Chizik said. “To be honest with you, I was very appreciative she was willing to give me some clear answers. It was just a clarification of questions that I had on process. It was appreciated very much that I got some clarity.

“It was not confrontational at all, in my opinion.”

“Typically, obviously, I wouldn’t be talking about this,” Chizik said. “I was always under the impression those were private conversations.”

Eight of the 21 questions Chizik fielded in his 37-minute session in the main media room at the Wynfrey had to do with the NCAA and its investigation into Auburn, ranging anywhere from whether he thinks the NCAA should be more communicative with schools during investigations to what he thinks of a recent report that says the NCAA’s just a missing “bagman” away from burying the Tigers.
Chizik, with his usual demeanor and consistency, repeatedly parried.

“We can’t control outside opinion, but I keep saying I feel great where we’re at,” Chizik said. “That’s what I concentrate on. I concentrate on the things that matter.”

That was a recurring theme for Chizik and the Tigers’ three player representatives – wide receiver Emory Blake, defensive end Nosa Eguae and tight end Philip Lutzenkirchen – throughout the day.

In short: they’re too busy focusing on the 2011 season to spend any time thinking about what happened in 2010.

“I guess you see (the stories), but you don’t get involved with it,” Eguae said. “You go out there and go about business and go about getting better every single day and put your team in the best situation to win football games.”

Lutzenkirchen, a junior, said the only time he heard Chizik address the Newton situation with the team was last November, the day before “stuff hit the fan.”

“(Chizik said) something along the lines of, ‘There’s some negative stuff that’s going to be coming out on this team and about a certain player individually,’” Lutzenkirchen recalled. “‘I just want to let you know we’ve known about it a couple months. We would have told you before if there was something wrong. And we wouldn’t have played him if we thought something was wrong.’

“‘So we’ve been playing him because we know we did things the right way.’”

Those outside of the “Auburn family” have not been quite so willing to drop the issue.

With the investigation ongoing and no immediate closure in sight, it could be a cloud that follows Auburn for much of its first season without Newton.

Like Chizik said, you “can’t control everybody’s microphone.”

“Can’t control everybody’s opinion. Don’t try to,” Chizik said. “But, again, I’ll say as I’ve said it maybe (for) the fifth time today: I’ll feel really good when my head hits the pillow tonight.”