MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- How can those two video clips be forgotten?

Both made their way into homes in December and are still posted on YouTube.

The first is of Auburn athletic director Jay Jacobs, deplaning a small jet after it was widely speculated he was about to hire then-Iowa State coach Gene Chizik to fill the Tigers' football coaching vacancy.

"Booo. We want a leader, not a loser!" a lone voice shouts at Jacobs.

The screaming man -- like many more Auburn supporters -- was obviously not a proponent of Chizik.

Or Chizik's 5-19 career record at Iowa State.

Or the fact that, last year, Chizik didn't win a game at home after Sept. 6.

The second clip is of former NBA great Charles Barkley, an Auburn alumnus, on the ESPN show Pardon the Interruption.

Barkley, never one to mince words, claims Chizik -- who is white -- was hired partly because of race, and University at Buffalo coach Turner Gill -- who is black -- was passed on by Auburn, at least in part, because of race.

On top of that, just after Chizik was hired by Auburn, ESPN.com's Mark Schlabach wrote: "Auburn needed to think outside the box in making this hire. Jacobs certainly did that, hiring a coach with a losing record from Iowa State."

Some holiday season.

"With me, that's so long ago," Chizik said Sunday. "To be honest, it's not something I pay a whole lot of credence to. We've moved well past that."

Wins have a way of healing wounds -- and in this case, it is just two. As Auburn (2-0) is set to host West Virginia (2-0) Saturday night, the pulse of the Tigers' program has changed, and the general feeling is that it will change even more with a win against the Mountaineers, the strongest opponent Chizik will face in his first three games.

Chizik, a former defensive coordinator at Auburn, beat Louisiana Tech in his debut, 37-13, then stepped into Southeastern Conference play to defeat Mississippi State, 49-24, last week.

Both wins came at home, in front of many of the same people who decried his hiring.

No matter.

He had this to say earlier this week: "Here's how I feel about our fans here at Auburn: Number one, we've got the greatest fans in the world, and they do their job as good as it gets. And I want them to be excited about the future. It's going to be very bright.

"As I said earlier in the week, we're not ready to buy stock in Auburn football yet," he said. "It's just not where we're at. We're just so far from that, but I do want our fans to be excited."

In some sense, West Virginia coach Bill Stewart can relate to Chizik. When Stewart was hired in the afterglow of the Mountaineers' Fiesta Bowl victory against Oklahoma in January 2008, there was a moderate groundswell that didn't think he was the right man for the job.

"I've got skin thicker than tree bark," Stewart said when asked this week to think back to that time when naysayers said he was the wrong guy to succeed Rich Rodriguez. "Don't worry about me. Criticism doesn't enter my equation."

And Stewart eschewed the idea that Chizik should enter the crosshairs of the critics.

"Gene is a heck of a football coach, and he deserves that Auburn job; from what I've seen, he's doing a good job," Stewart said. "From what I've seen, Gene is going to win a lot of football games at Auburn.

"I just hope he doesn't win his third game."