"O, Star of wonder. Star of might."
Hey, who can say it DIDN'T look like that?!?!?

Practice Makes Perfect: Part 2

From Auburn Athletics official website:

Cam Newton put down
his stiff arm trophy and
stopped smiling for the
cameras long enough to
get in a little practice.

AUBURN - The Auburn football team returned to the practice fields for the first time since winning the SEC Championship Game Dec. 4, as the Tigers practiced for an hour and a half in shoulder pads and shorts late Saturday afternoon. Due to construction of the new indoor practice facility behind the Athletics Complex, the Tigers held their workout at the Auburn Soccer Complex and Hutsell-Rosen Track.

   The practice was the first chance for the Tigers to being preparing for Oregon, Auburn's opponent in the 2011 BCS National Championship Game on Jan. 10. It was the first of four workouts that the team will hold before breaking for Christmas, with five more scheduled in Auburn after the break before the team departs for Arizona.
  The Tigers opened the practice with special teams drills before moving to individual and position drills. After more special teams work, the Tigers practiced against the scout teams for much of the rest of the workout.
  Following practice, head coach Gene Chizik said that the two-week layoff showed, but that he was pleased with the enthusiasm shown by the squad during practice.
  "It was a good opening practice today," said Chizik. "We were a little rusty. You could tell that we've been off for a little while, but it's nothing we didn't expect. The energy was good. The effort was great. We just have to get back into the flow of football things, and get focused on our game plan, and we'll do that. But today we were looking for effort and energy and that was definitely there."

The above is from December 18th. As Auburn was getting into their first bowl practice in shirts and shorts to shake off the rust, Oregon was embarking on their fifth day of practice -- their second in full pads.
   In fact Oregon came out the day prior in full pads -- half the team dressed in blue and orange to resemble Auburn -- and they engaged in full 11-on-11 drills.

Oregon started workouts on the 11th, continued on the 12th; and on the 13th, while Cam Newton was appearing on David Letterman and smiling at every camera pointed his way, LaMichael James was already back in Eugene doing what he preferred, practicing with his team.  Then they took three days off and started a five day stretch on the 17th.

On Sunday the 19th after Auburn's first day of practice, they took the day off while Oregon practiced.

On Monday the 20th, both teams were at it in full pads -- Auburn for the first time and Oregon for their third.  At the end of the day, the respective coaches had the following to say.

From Rob Mosely of the R-G, Coach Chip Kelly, Oregon:
Chip Kelly called today's full-pads practice in the Moshofsky Center "as good as we've had."
"They were outstanding," Kelly said.
   With a break for the holidays looming after practice Tuesday morning, Kelly said he was concerned about players possibly losing focus. But that wasn't the case, apparently, and he hopes it continues.
   "I told them that -- they set the standard for how they were supposed to practice today," Kelly said. "Can they come back and do it again tomorrow?"

From Auburn Official Football site, excerpts from Auburn Coach Gene Chizik's press conference:
"We're really getting a good look at Oregon more and more as the days go by. They're an extremely well-coached, very talented football team in every aspect. . . . . We have our work cut out for us. Today we're going to go out and have a good practice and be much sharper than we were on Saturday. We had great meetings and walk-throughs and focus-ups and we expect to kind of get back closer to where we were in the (SEC) Championship game. We have a lot of practice to do. We're excited about it. We'll be in full pads today, and we'll get after it today and get back to the physical nature of the game and continue our preparation." . . . . Again, they're just a great football team.

[Talking about Oregon's option schemes combined with their tempo. . . ]I don't know that I can compare them exactly to anybody that does that day-in and day-out that we've played against."

[Referring to Cal, the team that came closest to upsetting Oregon. . . ]
There are some things that you can take from that, and within what you try to do, you can implement some of that stuff. At the end of the day, you have to stick to what you feel comfortable with and what you do.

With that said, I hope Coach Chizik is comfortable with the fact that to this point, Oregon has out-practiced his Tigers eight days to four.
   What's more, Friday the 17th, a day before Auburn got together for their first practice, and three days before Coach Chizik commented how they're still "getting a look at Oregon more and more", "have our work cut out for us", and "have a lot of practice to do" . . .
Oregon linebacker Casey Matthews tweeted the following:
Back at this morning . . . Finally the Auburn game plan is in place.

Oregon had it's plan of attack on Auburn ready the day before the Tigers even started their first practice.

What is the drive behind these two teams? My theory is this. Almost exactly one year ago, Auburn won the Outback Bowl while Oregon lost the Rose Bowl. Since then, both teams have won every game.
  Auburn is approaching this game as a team that has won 14 consecutive games including their last bowl game over Northwestern.
   Oregon is approaching this as the team that lost the Rose Bowl, as noted in this excerpt from a recent article from the Oregonian.
Avoiding distractions. 
   It's something Oregon coach Chip Kelly has preached all season, and it's at the heart of his "Win The Day'' motto..
   And it's something the Ducks admittedly didn't do a great job of a year ago in the days leading up to the Rose Bowl.
   "We were a little distracted last year,'' center Jordan Holmes said. "There was a lot of stuff going on, and we didn't handle it very well. We're going to treat it like a business trip, just like we've done every game this year.''

   Oregon isn't talking about what they've accomplished. They're focusing on correcting what they failed to accomplish last January. They would have been preparing this way if it were the Rose Bowl or even the Humanitarian Bowl.  It just so happens to be the National Championship.

   Keep smiling for the cameras, Auburn. Stick with "what you feel comfortable with". Practice like you've already won the game. That's what the oddsmakers are telling you after all.
   But for Oregon, that day is still weeks away. They're just focusing on winning the present day. Like Saturday the 11th, Sunday the 12th, Monday the 13th, Friday the 17th -- days you weren't even on the field. 
  January 10th?  We'll see who's comfortable then.

Wishing you all the happiest of holidays. Merry Christmas.
--KB