With six days remaining before the BCS title game, both Oregon and Auburn have settled into the Arizona desert as their final week of preparations continue.
Auburn touched down at Sky Harbor International Airport around 5:30 p.m. local time on Monday evening, and was greeted with the same arrival press conference that Oregon head coach Chip Kelly had on Sunday.
Tigers head coach Gene Chizik said he was pleased with the focus of his group over the long delay and reiterated the same point Kelly made about being in the desert strictly on business.
“I don’t think there is any question that it has been a great two and a half, three weeks of practice with our guys being focused and locked in on what this is,” Chizik said. “You know this is a business trip. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity, possibility, for so many people, and you never know if you will be here again, hopefully often, but you never know.”
Auburn (13-0) held its first practice Tuesday morning in what was considered by players to be a time for fine-tuning the little things. Chizik and his coaching staff spent plenty of time over the break preparing to play with the fastest moving offensive unit in college football.
The Tigers, led by Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Cam Newton, have a distinct advantage over most Oregon opponents in that they run an unconventional, fast-paced offense as well.
“If you try to simulate it, it quite frankly is hard to do,” Chizik said. “One of the things we have been able to do is use our own offense, which has been something that over the past two years that we have really been able to control.”
On the Oregon side, players and coaches have had an extra day to get settled in. The Ducks practiced Monday and Tuesday at Pinnacle High School north of Phoenix, wearing shells on the opening day and just helmets on Tuesday.
Keeping up with the regular Oregon practice schedule, the Ducks will likely wear shells again on Wednesday and full pads Thursday and Friday. This will be followed by a walk-through on Saturday, with another similar workout on Sunday.
Kelly did not say he was particularly pleased with just one individual, but rather with the collective effort from top to bottom.
“It’s not one guy standing out; it’s the entire team standing out,” Kelly said. “Offense, defense and special teams practiced really, really well (Monday).”
Senior defensive tackle Brandon Bair, who will be one of the many Oregon Ducks to play their final collegiate games in Glendale, said he couldn’t be happier with the way the team has responded to the 35-day layover.
“It’s been unbelievable. We haven’t missed a beat,” Bair said. “Our practices — we just continue to get better. Like we say, the whole ‘Win the day’ motto, it’s true because we make the most of every time we’ve been together.”
No one has questioned the levelheaded approach taken by Kelly and each of his players over the last month, but even sophomore quarterback Darron Thomas had to admit the competitive juices are starting to flow again.
“We’re starting to get that adrenaline back, and we’re ready to play,” Thomas said. “We’re just real excited. We’re happy about these days we’ve got to practice, but we’re going to be ready to go on Monday.”
Injury watch
Injured senior quarterback Nate Costa suited up for each of Oregon’s first two practices and spent some time throwing routes to help the receivers warm up. He is, of course, unable to do much lateral movement and did not participate in any dropbacks or rollouts in quarterback drills.
Also back in uniform and looking strong was junior wide receiver Lavasier Tuinei, who was sidelined with a shoulder injury after a crushing blow in Oregon’s Nov. 13 win at Cal. Tuinei was forced to miss the Ducks’ final two regular season games.
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Auburn, Oregon fine tune strategies for BCS matchup
Daily Emerald
January 3, 2011
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