On November 30, 1957, the Auburn Tigers capped a perfect season by lashing rival Alabama in the Iron Bowl, 40-0. The victory earned Auburn its first national title in school history.
Four years later, Gene Chizik, Auburn’s current head coach, was born in Clearwater, Fla. Twenty-eight years after that, Auburn quarterback Cam Newton was born.
Suffice it to say, Auburn fans have not felt the excitement over a championship season for a long time. The team’s 2004 season was marked with cries of outrage, as an undefeated Tigers squad was shunned from the National Championship Game. This season, the fan base’s passion, muted for game preparation, remains with Chizik and his team.
“I’m having a lot of fun, just being around my teammates, the coaches and soon-to-be my family members,” said Newton, the Heisman Trophy winner for the 2010 season. “The fans are just unbelievable. We’re just trying to take it one step at a time.”
Among the first steps: Practicing in Jordan-Hare Stadium, back home, on January 2. Landing in Phoenix on January 3, complete with a red carpet rollout and loud fan reception. Practicing the following day at Scottsdale Community College. Interviews with the ever-growing press corps have occurred throughout.
Chizik, Auburn’s second-year head coach, was happy with his team’s first practice in Arizona.
“That was a good first-day-of-a-game-week-type situation, and I thought it was sharp,” he said. “I think it’s great to be in some warm weather and really get a sweat going today. I think that was big for our kids. It’s a little bit warmer. It was a little bit cold before we left Auburn, but the climate, I don’t think it’s going to have any effect on anything.”
Newton remains the center of attention for Auburn. Not for allegations claiming that his father, Cecil, demanded $180,000 from a Mississippi State booster to secure his commitment to the Bulldogs. Not for his multiple individual awards, including the Heisman, the Associate Press Player of the Year Award and the All-Southeastern Conference first team selection.
More so for being a difficult football player to stop from imposing his will on the field at University of Phoenix Stadium.
“We’ve seen just about every type of plan you can have to come after him, to stay back. It’s just a matter of being able to execute and being able to recognize what they’re giving us and take it,” Auburn offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn said. “Cam’s got that unique ability, when things do break down, he can make a play.”
Malzahn characterized Oregon’s defense as “aggressive” and “impressive” in his Wednesday press conference in Scottsdale. Asked for a comparison against a previous opponent, Malzahn offered up Mississippi State’s defense.
“We feel good about what we do. We’ve felt that way all along,” he said. “It’s just a matter of executing and having the players to be able to do that. We’re fortunate enough right now to have a lot of good players to execute.”
Chizik, asked about the possibility of a low-scoring game marked by defensive play, said, “I’ve said it from the beginning: I think this game is going to come down to, obviously, there’s a lot of things. But the defenses on both sides of the ball is huge, there’s no question in my mind. I don’t try to guess what the scores are going to be. We want to win, and we don’t care what the score is. But I think it’s going to be critical for us that we play really good defense.”
To play really good defense — and offense — is to do the little things right. For 13 games, Auburn has accomplished just that.
Today, most importantly, they need to.
“It’s kind of hard (to keep focused), especially when you’ve got 100 guys on the team, trying to keep them all on one level, keeping their composure and not getting carried away with all the things, the festivities going on here,” Auburn linebacker Josh Bynes said. “Everybody’s doing that and keeping their focus and having fun at the same time. But our ultimate goal is to win the national championship.”
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