Thirty-five days of preparation has finally come down to this.
In just three days, No. 1 Auburn and No. 2 Oregon will meet in the crisp Arizona desert in pursuit of college football’s most sought-after prize: a BCS National Championship.
The Tigers (13-0, 8-0 Southeastern Conference) have one national title to their credit, in 1957. Oregon (12-0, 9-0 Pacific-10 Conference) is still in search of its first ever championship win.
Kickoff is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Pacific Standard Time at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Ariz., which was also the site for the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl on New Year’s Day. Both teams are spending this week on site gearing up for their final contest of the season.
Over the course of the regular season, Auburn certainly played its fair share of close games. Early on, the Tigers escaped Mississippi State with a three-point victory, followed by another three-point win in overtime at home against Clemson. They also snuck out of Kentucky with a three-point margin of victory and capped the regular season with a narrow come-from-behind win at Alabama by a score of 28-27.
The Tigers did, of course, display plenty of offensive firepower throughout the year, scoring 49 points or more in seven of their 13 games. Oregon and the nation’s top-ranked offense eclipsed the 40-point mark in 10 of its 12 games, including three with 60 points or more.
According to Oregon’s Chip Kelly — the Associated Press Coach of the Year — the Ducks’ speedy offense is an important part of their game plan, but that’s not the only thing they do well.
“Obviously, I think playing fast is a fundamental and, if you don’t practice it every day and you don’t continue to pay attention to it every day, you can kind of lose that edge,” Kelly said. “And, we really spend a lot of time in practice of trying to emphasize that.
“That’s not all we do; that’s just one facet of what we do.”
Auburn head coach Gene Chizik said in practice this week that his team is ready to compete with the speed of Oregon’s offense. Auburn’s offensive unit, Chizik says, has been equally as dominant this season.
“We can speed the game up when we want to, we can slow it down when we want to,” Chizik noted, “and we’ve been able to do a good job all year to control it based on the circumstances.”
The Tigers feature the most revered player in college football in junior quarterback Cam Newton. On the year, Newton led Auburn with 242 carries (just 39 fewer than Oregon’s LaMichael James) for 1,409 yards and 20 touchdowns. He also threw for 2,589 yards and another 28 scores against just six interceptions.
Newton’s passing numbers are actually quite comparable to Ducks quarterback Darron Thomas, who ended the regular season with 2,518 yards and 28 touchdowns versus seven interceptions.
Both quarterbacks said their teams got off to good starts on the practice field when they arrived in the Phoenix area, and have kept the same focus throughout the break.
Newton, who has grown into a national icon over the course of the season, received a lot of fan support from the moment he stepped off the plane. However, he has tried to keep a constructive mind-set on the added attention that has become standard this year.
“I really am blessed to have the influence that I have,” Newton said. “Coach Malzahn always says use your influence in a positive way. I realize people are looking at me right now. I can use that as a negative or a positive thing, and I continuously try to use that as a positive thing.”
Thomas has been no slouch either.
“For him to be a first-year starter and accomplish what he’s accomplished so far is really a credit to him,” Kelly said of his signal-caller. “He works extremely hard in the film room studying the game of football, putting himself in position to make plays and actually putting this team in position to make plays.”
There will certainly be plenty of plays to be made from the two men under center Monday night in what is sure to be a game that won’t soon be forgotten.
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