With the long layoff and all the hype, it's always a question what kind of a game will emerge in Glendale on January 10th.
Will it be the offensive fireworks show everyone anticipates, an old WAC-style shootout, last team with the ball wins? 48-45, with LaMichael James or Cam Newton diving in for the winning score on the last play of the game, lieing on the turf exhausted in victory?
Will it be dominated by trick plays and fourth down conversions and brilliant coaching moves?
Will both teams be sharp and ready, producing a memorable game with lots of highlights? Or will it be a fizzle and a flop, a game where one team is dominant and precise, while the other gets lost in the glare of the national spotlight?
Or maybe both misfire after the long month with no live snaps. Defenses, turnovers and botched drives dominate, with one team slogging to an unconvincing victory.
Recent history provides the following clues: Auburn didn't go to a bowl in 2008. They edged Northwestern in the Outback Bowl last January 10th to complete an 8-5 season. Most "experts" had them pick to finish fourth in the SEC West this year. They rely heavily on two stars, Heisman Trophy winner Newton and Lombardi Award honoree and consensus All-America Nick Fairley. The Tigers are carrying the weight of a whole region on their shoulders, and the pressure of being number one and favored. In the last couple of weeks, their offensive coordinator has been courted for three million dollar head coaching jobs at Vanderbilt and Maryland.
Meanwhile the Ducks lost the Rose Bowl last year and had to rebuild their team after losing a star quarterback to an off season incident. The adversity brought this team closer, gave it a stronger character and a clearer focus. Outstanding leadership emerged. The passing game markedly improved. They took on the character of their coach, confident, unflappable, purposeful.
I'll be blunt. Watch Chizik in interviews. He's wooden and tense, with the personality of a chunk of lava.
Who would you rather play for, on the biggest stage of your life?
The Tigers will be depending on Cam to ride in and save the day again. The Ducks will be poised, loose and ready for the game of their lives.
Oregon is a family. Between Malzahn's resume and Newton's eligibility crisis and Fairley's academic one, the Tigers are a soap opera. One team is quietly getting ready, and the other one is putting out fires, boarding the windows in the face of minor media funnel clouds.
Roll Duck, and War practice and preparation. The Tigers will stumble in the desert. It's the first time they've crossed multiple time zones for a road game in their pampered SEC football lives.
All season long, Oregon's imposed its will in the second half, and Auburn has survived by star-crossed miracles and furious rallies.
The Tigers are poised for a collapse in Glendale. They'll be nervous, over-coached and over-confident. Their fans think winning the SEC title guarantees them a national championship. After all, that the way it's always worked before for the ESS EEE SEE.
They're in for a shock. The Ducks are all that and a bag of Tostitos. Newton scurries away to the NFL, Malzahn to the big office with a leather chair in some other state. Chizik faces a long hour at the podium answering the same five questions posed in 50 different ways. Let the recrimination and fulmination begin.
The Ducks will come home with a crystal football. They'll be the banana on the granola in a state that takes everything in stride.
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