Ames, IA (Sports Network) - Paul Rhoads was named the new head football coach at Iowa State on Saturday morning, an ironic twist in the Iowa State-Auburn coaching connection in the past week.

The former Auburn defensive coordinator, Rhoads, agreed to a five-year contract worth $5.75 million in guaranteed money with incentives available to increase the total compensation.

Former Cyclones head coach Gene Chizik was officially named the new Auburn head coach on Monday afternoon. Chizik had ties to the Tigers program dating back to his stint as defensive coordinator from 2002-2004, and he completed his two-year stint in Ames with a 5-19 mark.

Rhoads was offered Auburn's top defensive post in 2002, but declined, opening the door for Chizik. He instead stayed put as defensive coordinator with the Pittsburgh Panthers, where he ran the unit for eight seasons (2000-2007) before taking the Auburn defensive coordinator position the second time it was offered prior to 2008 campaign.

The connection came full circle on Saturday when Rhoads, a former inside linebackers (1995) and secondary coach (1996-199) with the Cyclones, was selected to replace Chizik.

"Paul Rhoads is an outstanding and intelligent football coach, a highly successful national recruiter and has nearly 10 years of experience as a BCS coordinator," said Iowa State director of athletics Jamie Pollard. "During our exhaustive interview process, he was the one candidate that clearly demonstrated both extensive experience and extreme passion for and familiarity with our institution."

Rhoads' last two defenses (Auburn in '07 and Pitt in '06) ranked 15th nationally in scoring defense and an even higher fifth in total defense. He started his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Utah State (1989-90) under Chuck Shelton and at Ohio State (1991) under John Cooper. His first full-time coaching job came at Pacific (1992-94), where he moved from position coach to pass game coordinator in only three years.

"I have been blessed to learn from and work alongside some great football minds," said Rhoads. "I've taken pieces from all of them and formed my own coaching philosophies, leadership style and approach to strong player relations."