SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — If you’ve been listening to those annoying, shameless SEC cheerleaders, including moi, you’d think the conference is one giant, two-legged locomotive. The SEC is bigger, faster and stronger, year in and year out, than any other conference in the country.
There’s a reason it has won six of the 12 BCS championships. If Auburn beats Oregon on Monday, it will be the fifth consecutive by four different SEC schools. Add Tennessee winning the inaugural BCS title in the 1998 season, and nearly half the league will have won a national title in 13 years.
In the SEC, football is a religion, and the faith is in speed.
Monday night, however, SEC’s flagship gets the biggest test it has had in years. The Ducks are so fast, the offense is simply pegged “The Blur.” Their famous, snap-every-13-seconds offense saps defenses to the point that opponents fake injuries to slow down play.
Against Arizona State and Cal, Oregon would run to snap the ball, and a defensive tackle would fall as if hit by a sniper.
Count on Auburn not screaming uncle. This is a defense that appears fast enough to keep up with Oregon and physical enough to beat up the Ducks — if it doesn’t collapse.
Ever since Auburn won the SEC title, the coaching staff has drilled Oregon’s fire-drill pace into the players’ skulls like a deadly mantra. They gave each player a special conditioning workout to take home and do, like, every day during their break. They said you can open your Christmas presents later.
In practice, they have no one to imitate rushing star LaMichael James. But they have everyone imitating Oregon’s pace.
“We’re not as worried about it as much as everyone thinks we should be,” Auburn linebacker Josh Bynes said Thursday. “We’ve been practicing their pace each and every practice ever since the SEC championship. We run even a pace that’s faster than theirs, so when game time comes, we can at least be ‘Dang, this isn’t as fast,’ so we’ll go with the flow.”
Asked which team Oregon’s offense reminds him of, defensive coordinator Ted Roof said, “Auburn.”
That’s a big advantage. Think about it. Auburn’s defense often goes against quarterback Cameron Newton, who’s merely the Heisman Trophy winner and the best college football player I’ve ever seen. Sorry, Tebowites. When did Tim Tebow rush for 1,409 yards and throw for 2,509 in a season?
If Tim Tebow isn’t Cam Newton, then neither is Oregon quarterback Darron Thomas. A huge key is how Auburn’s physical, fast front seven can beat down Oregon’s offensive line and stuff Thomas and James.
If not, well, let’s just see how fast Auburn really is.
“There’s speed all over the SEC,” Auburn safety Zac Etheridge said. “In this league, we’re all big and fast. We feel we have enough speed to run with them.”
The Pac-10 is a finesse league, and the additions of Colorado and Utah aren’t going to strike any fear in any opponents’ mothers. But Oregon brushed aside the lone physical team in the league in Stanford, the Bully by the Bay.
Just like all before it, Stanford wilted in the second half, going scoreless in a 52-31 rout. Oregon has crushed teams in the second half 277-77.
Auburn’s defense can’t be seen, at any time in the second half, resting with their hands on their knees.
“The best way to do that,” Roof said, “is get them stopped and get off the field.”
Auburn’s defense is vulnerable. Its secondary starts two sophomores and two freshmen, and it finished 106th in the country in passing yards per game. Oregon’s dilemma is it has become the highest-scoring team in the land at nearly 50 points a game with the nation’s best running back, a terrific backup and a dual-threat quarterback.
But Auburn’s strength is a front seven anchored by tackle Nick Fairley, the Lombardi Award winner who’s developing a reputation as a dirty player, a rap the Tigers don’t seem in any hurry to deny.
Thomas, meanwhile, had his lowest three ratings of the Pac-10 season in his last three games, meaning there’s no guarantee Oregon will take advantage of Auburn’s weakness.
But if speed kills, get out the body bags Monday.
