Just minutes after the regular season came to a close, with his ticket punched to the National Championship Game on Jan. 10, Oregon head coach Chip Kelly was asked about the big matchup with Auburn.
“We’re not going to play a national championship right now,” Kelly said. “We’re going to prepare for one.”
Indeed, the Ducks will have more than a month to prepare for No. 1 Auburn and superstar quarterback Cam Newton.
Judging by the Tigers’ dominant 56-17 win over South Carolina in the Southeastern Conference Championship Game, Oregon will need every day of it.
“Auburn’s going to be a competitive team,” quarterback Darron Thomas said. “Been looking at them all year, so it’s going to be a good game.”
Thomas and Newton figure to be at the forefront of the national discourse.
Both put up gaudy numbers in their inaugural seasons as starters, and Newton is the favorite to win the Heisman Trophy on Saturday night.
“That’s going to be the big talk,” Thomas said. “But I’m not too worried about that. I’m just worried about coming out, preparing for the game, watching them on film … seeing what they can do on defense.”
Though the Ducks have faced their fair share of talented quarterbacks, none compare to the prolific Newton. Standing 6-foot-6 and weighing in at 250 pounds, Newton accounted for a total of 49 touchdowns this year. His 28 passing touchdowns equaled Thomas’ output, and he threw just six interceptions.
In short, Oregon has its work cut out for it. Asked how to contain Newton, Kelly’s answer was simple.
“We’re going to tackle him,” Kelly told ESPN’s Joe Schad. “If we can.”
Surely, Kelly remembers the quarterback Oregon faced in the Rose Bowl last year. Ohio State’s Terrelle Pryor cuts a similar figure to that of Newton, and the Ducks struggled to bring him down in a 26-17 loss.
Newton might be even better. According to the Register-Guard, Kelly referred to him as “the complete package” and “the best player in college football right now.”
“I think Cam Newton could play for anybody, including the NFL,” Kelly told the Corvallis Gazette-Times. “I think he fits anywhere.”
Of course, Kelly will not be in charge of finding a way to stop Newton. That job falls in the hands of defensive coordinator Nick Aliotti.
“Can we stop him? Will we stop him?” Aliotti said to the Salem Statesman Journal. “I know we’re going to try.”
Senior wide receiver Jeff Maehl has kept an eye on Auburn all season.
“You always do that throughout the season,” Maehl said. “To see who’s unbeaten, if you’re unbeaten, and you always try and plan out in your head who you could possibly play. They’ve been having a fantastic year.”
Indeed, Auburn is far from a one-man show. Defensive tackle Nick Fairley totaled 10.5 sacks for the season, and the secondary is also skilled.
“Obviously they’re a very talented team,” Maehl said. “(The SEC) is one of the best conferences in the country, so we understand that we got a lot of work to do.”
Touted by many as the most dominant conference in the nation, the SEC has taken home the national championship in four straight seasons. Though some might frame the Auburn-Oregon matchup as Pac-10 vs. SEC, running back Kenjon Barner will have none of it.
“It ain’t nothing to talk about,” Barner said. “They’re the SEC; we’re the Pac-10.”
As Barner spoke, fellow running back LaMichael James chimed in.
“It doesn’t matter,” James said. “That stuff doesn’t matter. Who can say a conference is better than another conference, or anything like that?”
That type of talk will be left to the pundits. It will be up to the players to prepare for Auburn.
With Newton’s imposing shadow hanging over them, there is plenty of work to be done.
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