I don't really have a place to put all these, so I figured I'd just put them up on the blog. As usual, solid work by Auburn photographer Todd Van Emst:

Auburn had its third practice in Arizona on Thursday, leaving only two practices at Scottsdale Community College and a walkthrough at University of Phoenix Stadium remaining for the Tigers' seniors.

"It's going to be bittersweet," running back Mario Fannin said. "That's the thing that you look at it as a senior like everytime you're on the practice field, you try to take advantage of it."

Wide receiver Kodi Burns agreed.

"In a way it feels great, because there's a lot of hard work that a lot of people don't realize that you go through," he said. "But at the same time I'm going to miss it. But I'm just embracing it and like you said, you've got two or three more practices to play this game on the 10th."

At the same time, they're ready for the game to get here.

"I'm ready to play. I'm ready to get it on," Fannin said. "Since we've been here a pretty long time, you practice every day and you can't wait to get going. Now that it's almost that time, the anxiety is building up."

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Not too much post-practice stuff, so here we go:

Token practice quote: "It was a good day again today," head coach Gene Chizik said. "It was very productive, I thought. Just like every other day we’re continuing to touch up and brush up on some things."

• Bo Jackson was in attendance, wearing a hat that said, "The 3 Amigos: 2, 7 and 34." That would be Cam Newton, Pat Sullivan and Bo, Auburn's three Heisman Trophy winners. "Bo is a great Auburn man," Chizik said. "He loves Auburn University and he’s one of the reasons Auburn is what it is. As I tell my team all the time, so many great players before you have made Auburn great and they’ll be a bunch afterwards too. Bo is certainly one we have open arms too. We love having him around and he loves being around."

• ESPN's Kirk Herbstreit was also on hand checking out the Tigers.

• Chizik was asked how many plays he'd prefer the defense to play. "Sixty-five or less and we feel like we're in good shape," he said. Oregon averages 79 plays per game.

• According to his tweets, TE Philip Lutzenkirchen had a stomach flu yesterday. He was suited up for practice Thursday, though.

• Lots of questions about Oregon's pace (have your heard the Ducks are fast?). Defensive end Nosa Eguae said Auburn is more than aware of how well it needs to be conditioned. "We do a lot of extra work," he said. "Coach Rock said the first day of practice: we're going to be ready to play the game. And that's his thing. He knows that as far as coming off an playing hard, if we're in shape and we can play for four quarters, then we know that we're going to be ready for the game."

• A lot of speculation about Newton being courtside for the Lakers-Suns game last night, while the rest of the players were in the upper deck. Not so, according to an Auburn spokesman. Newton did an interview for TV first, then moved courtside for Lakers radio so he wasn't in the tunnel. After he finished the interviews -- which took about five or six minutes -- he left the arena like a lot of other players.

Here's some more footage from Auburn's practice Thursday at Scottsdale Community College. At the end are interviews with head coach Gene Chizik, running back Mario Fannin, defensive end Nosa Eguae and wide receiver Kodi Burns. (No reporters were harmed in the making of this video.)

The cameras focused and questions being fired away from his left and right, Auburn defensive tackle Nick Fairley answered without hesitation Thursday, at ease with himself in front of a daunting media horde.

That hasn't always been the case.

"If y'all came here in the beginning of August, I'd probably been stuttering my butt off," Fairley said. "I have to get used to this. Coaches tell us we can say no to interviews, but I have been wanting to do it to build character."

Fairley, a consensus All-American who won the Lombardi Award, has come out of his shell of late. Always a character on the field, speaking with reporters is no longer a chore to him. He's branched out in social media too, closing in on 7,000 Twitter followers in nine days.

"It's just some entertainment for me, just something to do throughout the night," he said.

On the field, he's been dynamic from the start of this season, finishing with 21 tackles for a loss and 10.5 sacks, leading the SEC in both categories. Oregon knows what it is going up against.

"The only parts (of the game film) I saw were highlights," Oregon offensive coordinator Mark Helfrich. "And that's scary."

Fairley seemed comfortable talking about everything, even the perception from late in the season that he's a dirty player.

"I just go out there and give it 110 (percent)," he said. "I will try to go out there and make
plays for my team. If it is me playing dirty, if that's what they call it, that's what it is."

Defensive coordinator Ted Roof said Auburn talked to him about toning things down, but disagreed with the idea that Fairley plays outside the rules.

"He plays hard, he plays physical," Roof said. "And we don't apologize for that."

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Heading out to practice again today. But here are some notes and quote from the early interviews:

• Fairley said defensive line coach Tracy Rocker has been a great mentor to him. Rocker has a straight-shooting coaching style. "That's the kind of coach you want," Fairley said. "You want a straight-forward coach who will give it to you whether you want it or not. He doesn't sugarcoat anything. I think that's why I liked him from the get-go."

• Did they ever butt heads? "Of course, you're always going to get it with your coaches," Fairley said. "You don't feel like you did it wrong; you feel like you did it right. It's all back and forth. At the end of the day, we're going to come together and help the team win."

• Fairley's Twitter secret? The Q&A format he does relatively often. "I think that'll help me get some more followers, so I might do that," fellow Twitterer Zac Etheridge said. "That was a good idea by him."

• The two have a friendly competition on Twitter. As of 11:35 a.m. CT, Fairley had 6,809 followers. Etheridge had 6,577. "I'm going to catch him before the weekend," Etheridge said.

• Anybody in the SEC have a tempo as quick as Oregon's? "I think they're the fastest," Etheridge said. There are no misconceptions about how quick the Ducks move on offense. "They run a pace like no other team has run against us," linebacker Craig Stevens said. "We already have it set in our mind that we have to stay on our toes and try to keep gas in our tank for these guys."

• Lots of questions about Oregon's pace today. "It's tough," Stevens said. "It's pretty tough practicing that pace. With them going so fast, you have to try to emulate that in practice. It's hard for a scout team to do that."

• Is Auburn fast enough to keep up? "Fast enough to win 13 games," Roof said.

• Some Oregon opponents have slowed down the Ducks' pace by faking injuries. "That's one things we're not going to do," Fairley said. "We're not going to fake any injuries. We're going to do what we do." A reporter added that some teams have just gotten off the pile slower. "We're not going to do that either," Fairley added.

• Fairley is a fan of Oregon uniforms, which have hundred of combinations. "They're nice," he said. "I like the all black ones that they have." Auburn, which has a more traditional look, has only two. "We keep it original," Fairley said. Would Stevens like to change anything about the Tigers' duds? "Naw, we're glad with what we have."

• "I believe they're here to say," Stevens said. "Like I said, anytime you go undefeated and I believe they also won the conference last year. It's pretty set in stone that it's not a fluke."

• Roof on Oregon RB LaMichael James: "You don’t see a crease, and he squirts through and goes 80 yards. You say, 'How did he get through there?'"

• James, on if the SEC gets too much media attention for having won four straight national championships. "I don't think they make too much of it," he said. "They have won, so I can't really say too much negative. It's not like they're losing the championships."

• Roof coached against Chip Kelly back in the day, when he was at UMass and Kelly was at New Hampshire, which was 16 or 17 years ago. "I don't think I've got that UMass-New Hampshire game in my file," Roof said. (According to an AP tweet, New Hampshire won the game 40-7, so of course Roof doesn't remember much about it.)

Auburn had its second practice in Arizona on Wednesday, going in full pads for two hours at Scottsdale Community College.

“It was another really good day of preparation,” said head coach Gene Chizik. “It was a nice, physical practice, which is what we needed. We prepared well, but we still have some time. We have some things we have to get cleaned up, but I think we’re on track.”

The Tigers had some fun before practice, hamming it up for a large group of media that were allowed to watch the first 15 minutes.

Defensive tackle Nick Fairley diverted some attention away from Cam Newton, who, as usual, had most of the cameras trained on him during pre-practice warmups. As Newton did a drill with offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn, Fairley ran down the sidelines, only a few feet away from the cameras, arms outstretched as he yelled out 'Wooooooo!'

It worked. It got some of the media to turn their attention to a group of defensive players.

Despite the relaxed pre-practice atmosphere, the Tigers said they got to work once things got underway.

"Definitely a more serious vibe to it," cornerback T'Sharvan Bell said. "When we're off the field, everybody's more locked it. You don't got guys running around the hotel, things like that. You've got to get down to business."

The Tigers practice again Thursday at 11:15 a.m. MT.

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Here are few other notes and quotes from today's practice:

• Everyone expects a shootout. Bell has heard it all. "It has to motivate us," he said. "It's basically saying who's going to score last. That's not the way we're taking it. We're going to take it as it's going to come down to us and we know it's going to come down to us."

• Not only does Newton get a lot of attention from the media, he also gets a lot of carries near the goal line. The quarterback has 20 rushing touchdowns this year. Running back Mike Dyer doesn't mind. "If Cam gets it, Cam gets it," he said. "And he does exactly what we need him to do. It's always been, 'Cam Newton. Cam Newton.' And he's done a pretty good job, so I'm saying Cam Newton too. He does his job and we do our job. We're a family here and we love one another. So if he goes and gets about 26 carries and scores every time, then, hey, we get a ring and I'm happy and we're having fun."

• Wide receiver Emory Blake lived in Phoenix when he father, Jeff, played quarterback for the Arizona Cardinals in 2003. Although he's used to the scenery, his teammates aren't. "I hear a lot of guys talk about the mountains," Blake said. "I heard someone say, 'Are the mountains fake?' Some people haven't seen mountains before. It's different."

• Auburn is headed to the Suns-Lakers game tonight, although most of the players just referred to it as the "Lakers game." A lot of Kobe Bryant fans on the team, including Dyer, who played a little hoops all the way up through high school before giving it up for full-time football. "Basketball's fun but I didn't like it too much because you can't do too much contact," he said. "Every time you touch somebody, they call a foul on you."

• Fairley is fond of tweeting about how good he is at basketball. He had a decent career at Williamson High in Mobile, averaging 17 points and 10 rebounds as a junior. Dyer said he's a better talker than basketball player, though. "We played the older guys when I first got here, we did the freshman vs. the juniors and seniors and Nick has no skills in basketball," Dyer said with a laugh. "None. He's probably going to be mad I told you that, but his secret is he cannot play basketball. At all."

I've rolled a practice video and interviews into one today. Footage from Auburn's practice this morning at Scottsdale Community College (that's Nick Fairley racing by the camera in the Cam Newton shot, by the way). After that, there are a few interviews with head coach Gene Chizik, cornerback T'Sharvan Bell and running back Mike Dyer.

There was no mistaking which table Cam Newton was sitting at during a media session Wednesday morning. It was the one surrounded by TV cameras and reporters, six layers deep.

That kind of crowd is becoming common for the Heisman Trophy winner even when he's not in front of reporters.

"I tried to go shopping the other day and I felt as if there was a memo to everyone that Cam Newton is coming," he said. "It's kind of crazy."

Newton was on everyone's mind Wednesday, a day for reporters to talk to Auburn offensive players and Oregon's defensive players.

"He's not your ordinary quarterback," Oregon linebacker Casey Matthews said. "He's huge. He's 6-6, 250. He's got a pretty powerful stiff arm. He's not like most quarterbacks. He'll lower his shoulder and try to get those extra yards."

How is Oregon defensive coordinator Nick Aliotti handling the thought of defending Newton?

"I'm sleeping like a baby," he said. "Every two hours I wake up and cry."

Aliotti said Newton is a lot like Ohio State's Terrelle Pryor, who the Ducks faced in last year's Rose Bowl. Pryor threw for 266 yards and two touchdowns and ran for 72 more yards in that game, a 26-17 Buckeyes win.

But Aliotti said Auburn uses Newton more as a primary ballcarrier, which opens up another gap because someone else becomes a blocker. Making things tougher is the fact that Newton is bigger than eight of Oregon's defensive starters, so Aliotti knows stopping him -- or even slowing him down -- will be a challenge.

"The first thing we have to do is stop Cam Newton," Aliotti said. "Whatever that means. We have to stop Cam Newton first and then work our way out from that point."

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There were so many media members there this morning that it was hard to get comprehensive coverage, but here's a little bit of what I heard. I'll be back with more after practice, with some video hopefully, so check back.

• Newton said his father, Cecil, and his whole family will be at the game. "They're going to be loud and proud," he said.

• LT Lee Ziemba sat 20 feet away from the giant media group asking Newton questions. He said that crowds started following Newton around like that after the LSU game. "He handles it real well," Ziemba said. "He's mature. And he does a great job with it."

• Does it hurt Ziemba's feelings that he doesn't have as many reporters. "Oh no. I shouldn't even be here."

• Offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn on Auburn's size advantage up front: "I hope it plays a big impact. What they do to offset that is a lot of moving. We've got bigger guys, but what we've got to do is be able to stay on track, because they're going to be moving a lot."

• Malzahn has a tendency to try some gadget plays early. "It doesn't have to be early in the game," he said. "We're just trying to put as much pressure on the defensive coaches as possible. At the same time we're trying to steal points. A lot of people say they're trick plays, gimmicky plays, but they're really just part of our offense."

• Newton made the award circuit immediately after the season and has a much higher media profile, but Malzahn isn't changing the way he's coaching him. "We're not changing anything," Malzahn said. "I'm coaching him the same way. I'm straining the same way. That's my job and our coaches' job is to make sure these guys are focused and play at the same high level we ended the season on."

• Auburn has an offense based on timing, which could be an issue, considering how much time has passed since the end of the season. "I'm definitely concerned," Malzahn said. "Anytime you have 30, 35 days off, you worry about the timing, specifically the timing throws. We were playing very good football when we ended. And we are a timing passing game, and I am concerned about that. That's going to be a big question."

• Malzahn hasn't forgotten his roots: "I'm living a dream. I'm a high school coach that just happens to be coaching college, just happens to be coaching in the national championship game."

• A lot of folks like to call Malzahn's offense a "spread." He disagrees. This is how he describes it: "We call ourselves a two-back, run, play-action team that runs our offense at a two-minute pace with an emphasis on throwing the ball down the field. Most of our reads are top to bottom, very few short passes unless it's a hot situation." That's good, but it's not short enough. Somebody come up with a brief way of saying that.
  

• Malzahn said going fast isn't as much of an advantage now as it was in 1996, when he first embraced pace as his offensive philosophy at the high school level. "Back then, (with) defenses, it was stealing. They didn't know how to line up," he said. He said it was a big advantage at Tulsa, but less so now with more and more teams playing fast.

• Is Newton the best player Malzahn has coached? "I coached Darren McFadden, so it's hard to say. Both those guys are really at a different level than anybody I've seen."

• In a quote that would have been perfect for my story today about the defenses not getting their due, here's Aliotti on his defense getting overshadowed by the offense: "We feel like the red-headed stepchild around here."

• Aliotti said defensive expectations change when you're on a team that runs a fast-paced offense like Oregon's. Because the Ducks score so often and so quickly, the defense is on the field for a lot of plays. "What we've changed is we play a lot of players," Aliotti said. "We've become more aggressive with playing about 25 or 26 players on defense and I think that's helped us by being fresh."

• Aliotti was defensive coordinator for the Ducks in the 1995 Rose Bowl when they took on a Penn State team loaded with quarterback Kerry Collins, running back Ki-Jana Carter and tight end Kyle Brady. "We had a very auspicious start," Aliotti said. "The very first play of the game Ki-Jana Carter went 87 yards, so hopefully we'll do a little bit better than that on the first play of this game. So if we hold them to an 86-yard run, we succeed."

• Daryle Hawkins, a 6-foot-4 freshman quarterback, is scouting Newton for Oregon this week. "I think he's done a great job and will most definitely win scout team player of the week," Aliotti said. "He's already got the award hands down, regardless of what happens."

After spending Monday traveling from Auburn to Arizona, the Tigers got back on the practice field Tuesday, going for close to two hours at Scottsdale Community College.

It had a little different feel.

"It's a little better because the game is nearby and you're here, so you know it's getting closer and closer as every day goes by," linebacker Josh Bynes said. "In Auburn, you're like, 'Aw, the game is so far away.' But since we're here now, everybody's like, OK, it's six days away. Then five, four, three, two ... and finally it's going to be here."

Auburn's players and coaches said the workout was crisp, with good pace and good focus.

"For our first day out here, with everything being new, I was pleased," Auburn head coach Gene Chizik said. "Very sharp. It was the first day of a game-week situation. I thought it was sharp."

With the national title on the line, it has a different feel from a regular bowl practice. For starters, 20 to 30 TV cameras eagerly awaited a select group of players for interviews afterward.

"I think it’s great," left guard Mike Berry said. "It’s just one of those things that shows you how big the game is. That you’ve got this many reporters out shows you many people care about the game."

Players said staying focused was easier because they know what’s at stake.

"You're working for the one thing that matters the most to all 120 teams in the nation in Division I football -- to win the national championship," Bynes said. "There's only two teams that have a chance to do that -- us and Oregon."

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Here are a few more notes:

• There don't appear to be any eligibility concerns, showing just how rampant some of the speculation can be. Wide receiver Terrell Zachery's name incorrectly popped up a number of times. “I’ve been eligible the whole time,” Zachery told AuburnUndercover.com. “I have my degree. I’m happy to be out here with my team.”

• It's the first trip to Arizona for quite a few players on Auburn's team. "It was definitely eye-opening," right guard Byron Isom said. "I've never seen a cactus, a live cactus, before in my life. The scenery around here is beautiful. It's almost breathtaking."

• I concur with that. The scenery out here is amazing. Everything's brown, with mountains as a backdrop everywhere (with some neatly positioned houses on the sides of them). Not a lot of grass. Whole lot of cacti. And thankfully I haven't seen a rattlesnake yet.
  

• It's been a minute since Auburn last played. How's the conditioning? " I think we’re in tip-top shape," defensive tackle Nick Fairley said.

• I never thought Auburn's media availability would be the envy of other writers, but Oregon writers haven't had any availability the last two days, getting canned quotes from the sports information department. Press conferences start tomorrow, so the Ducks will have to talk then.

• Fairley didn't mind all the reporters. "Oh, of course not," he said. "Because it's something we have to do."

• Players get a little bit of time to themselves at night ... at least during the early part of the week. "We had a little time off last night," Isom said. "I think we'll get a little time today. But closer and closer it gets to the game, they're really going to cut that down. So we're just going to enjoy it while we can."

Except for a few meetings and walkthroughs Monday morning, the on-campus portion of Auburn's BCS title game preparation is over.

Now head coach Gene Chizik wants to make sure his Tigers' heads are in the right place before they fly out to Glendale, Ariz.

"It's a unique environment and I just don't want there to be any surprises," he said. "We've got one goal in mind. And I want them to step off that plane tomorrow and understand that this is a business trip."

The Tigers went in shells during practice at Jordan-Hare Stadium under the lights, after spending all of its time at the school's soccer complex because of construction on the new indoor practice facility.

"Just a change of pace that I thought we needed and just trying to mix it up and keep things a little different," Chizik said. "But they enjoyed practicing in there, so we had a good practice."

A few other notes from an interview lacking a whole bunch of information:

• Still no word on the academic front. "Like I said, if the roster changes with anybody, I will certainly let you know," Chizik said. He didn't say when that will be. Guess we'll be checking off names from the roster at the airport tomorrow.

• Chizik said the team's pretty healthy. "I think basically we're sitting probably as good as we could be sitting," he said.

• Auburn's practices in Arizona won't just be a dress rehearsal. "No. It's game week," Chizik said. "It's game week until we play. It's no different than any other time during the season for us."

• Naturally, Chizik expects the Tigers to play well in the title game. "I would be thoroughly disappointed if we don’t play really well," he said. "As would I imagine everyone on our coaching staff and everyone on our team. We expect to go into the game and play well. If that’s the case where it doesn’t happen, I’m sure there will be lots of disappointment. But like I said, I think our team expects to go in there and play well. They’ve practiced well, they’ve prepared well, and we’ve got to go out there and do it on the 10th. I think there’s a lot of people who will be disappointed if we don’t.”

Five months from now, Auburn wide receiver Travante Stallworth hopes to have his father, James, a 24-year Army veteran, back stateside for good.

In the interim, Stallworth, a redshirt freshman who went to high school in Leesville, La., had to settle for a brief visit from his father this Christmas, one that unfortunately won't carry through Auburn's BCS title game against Oregon.

"I’m kind of used to it now," Stallworth said. "It’s really no big deal. It’s kind of tough for my mom, because, like I said, she’s there all by herself.

"But he’s doing well over there. He really doesn’t talk about it all that much. Overall, it’s been good over there. It’s really kind of calmed down. So I’m happy about that.”

James, a sergeant major, has made three trips before, most recently doing infantry operations in Iraq. His latest tour, which might be his last, started in August. He and his son still find time to talk, doing video chats every few days.

"He asks about football and sometimes we get a little off football and talk about life and stuff too," Stallworth said.

James also watches Auburn's game online, even though his son hasn't played this year. Stallworth is taking a redshirt year after having ACL surgery last season.

"It's not really frustrating, because I know my body and the coaches could tell that everything wasn’t right," he said. "I understand that they want me to be full-speed out there playing. I don’t want to go out there limping around and not being able to help the team with the ability I know I have.”

He'll still traveling with the team to Glendale, Ariz., for the BCS national title game against Oregon. James, who heads back overseas Jan. 6, plans to tune in, even though it's 11 hours ahead.

"He’ll be up at 3 or 4 o’clock in the morning sometimes watching, even though he has work," Stallworth said. "He just loves to see us play.”

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Here are some more notes and quotes from today's interviews. Enjoy them. They're the last until Sunday, when we only get head coach Gene Chizik. Then the team flies to Arizona:

• LB Craig Stevens had a cast on his left wrist. He said he injured it against Alabama and re-aggravated it in the SEC title game against South Carolina. He might have to wear something against Oregon, but he'll definitely play. "They're trying to get it to heal," he said. "You know, wrists move all the time. So they don't want me to move it."

• Rocker said he glanced at a picture of Nick Fairley smiling in a celebration photo from the Outback Bowl last year and laughed to himself. "I'm like, wow," he said. "No one really knew. No one knew what would Nick be."

• Rocker said the transformation started in the spring, when Fairley was so good at getting his assignments down that he began telling other people where to line up. The MSU game, where he had a pick, was the moment he lights came on. "After that I got out of coaching," Rocker said. "I was just trying to make sure he showed up at the game. But I'm proud he's evolved from last year. The biggest thing is, like I keep telling him, it's not what we did in 2010, it's what we do in 2011."

• Did Rocker see it coming? "You think they all have the potential," he said. "You just try to make sure they all can perform at their best. That's probably between him and I where I see it, but I'm like, it's in you. Now we've got to find a way to get it out of you. Now you may not like the way we're going to get it out of you, but I think that's the most important part is you want someone to be their best, and him and I, we've bickered and went back and forth, but that's part of it. That's my job is to get the best out of you."

• Fairley recently signed up for Twitter (@Nick_Fairley251). After a little over a day of near non-stop tweeting, the Lombardi Award winner already had 4,000 followers, quickly closing in on team leader Zac Etheridge (@Z_Etheridge4), who has close to 6,000 followers. Asked about it, Rocker didn’t have much to contribute. “I don’t know nothing about no Twitter,” he said. “You got me on that one. I’m simple. A caveman.”

• The NFL draft isn't in Fairley's mind, Rocker said. "That's not an issue," he said. "He is all about this game. And that would take care of itself when the time is appropriate. But we're more concerned about this situation, but that hasn't been an issue. It's not going to be an issue. But he's been great about the whole deal and he's more concerned about Auburn being successful."

• Rocker has seen some strong progress from DE Corey Lemonier, a freshman All-SEC selection. "I think he's gained the confidence that now he can play SEC football," he said. "When the first month of practice and then the second month of practice, the conversation was, 'Coach, I'm not making the plays I made in high school.' And I'm like, you're not in high school anymore. You're in college. It's a big difference. So for him, every week he's gained confidence and playing. It's been an enjoyment to watch him grow."

• FB/DL Ladarious Phillips continues to get looks on both sides of the ball. "I think he's going to help our team on either side," Rocker said. "But I'll be the first one. I won't turn him down."

• I'll just let CB coach Philip Lolley give a run down of Oregon's offense and get out of the way: "They put a tremendous amount of pressure. The main thing that you see with those guys, and we’ve looked at every ball game, people are running free. They do that because of the offense that they’re running. They’re very, very well coached. They do a tremendous job of attacking you diagonally, vertically, the whole bit. The option keeps you honest. They run it every conceivable way that you could possibly run an option. They run it from all different sets, all different types of motion. And if you try to get the extra guy to put on the quarterback and their pitch, course they’ve got their quick-throws in and they’ve got play-action where they’re running right by people because you’ve got to get the secondary involved. The secondary has to be involved to stop the run in the situation. You don’t have enough. So you have to get the quarterback and the pitch covered along with the great tailback that everybody knows about up inside. Out there, you better have your ducks in a row, as they say, or you’re going to get in trouble."

• Lolley said WR Philip Pierre-Louis was mimicking Oregon RB LaMichael James on the scout team before getting hurt. Now its walk-on Patrick Lymon.

• Lolley has been in Alabama forever, making this game all the more special. "Personally it means a whole lot because being raised in this state, to win a championship and it’s been since '57, this is the first time I know that we’ve had the chance since I’ve been here to play for this," he said. "We’ve had some great football teams here and there’s been several teams that didn’t have the opportunity to and that we felt that we were the best, but they didn’t get a chance to prove that. So it’s not like we’re just playing for this team, you know? I mean it’s for all the Auburn Family."

• Even Lolley is a little surprised how quickly Auburn got to this game. "We had some great football teams when coach (Tommy) Tuberville was here, too," he said. "I said, `I’m going to come back on coach Chizik’s staff and we’re going to get this done.’ I was anticipating that three would be fine, but we need to get it four. In four, we need to have a shot to make this run. I never questioned that we’d be good every year, but to have a shot at this, you’d think it would take a little longer. You think it’s going to take two to three good years of recruiting to beat the people in this conference, and then to have a chance to do this. We’re way ahead."

• Offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn, who didn't really want to talk about the Maryland job, was much more eager to talk about Oregon's defense and the odd front it throws at you. "They're not ever going to be in the same place," he said. "They're never going to be still. They're going to be moving. They do try to confuse you with their schemes. They play a lot of odd-front. They come at you from different angles. They do some very unique things." He said it's somewhat similar to what Mississippi State and a couple other SEC defenses did to the Tigers this year.

• Malzahn was highly complimentary of his senior-dominated offensive line. "I really believe this one of the best offensive lines in the country," he said. "We live and die by running the football. People know we're going to run the football. Those guys up front have done an outstanding job and they're a big reason why we're where we are today."

• Former Auburn head coach Pat Dye was named to the 2010 Chick-fil-A Bowl Hall of Fame induction class Friday, along with former Purdue and NFL cornerback Rod Woodson. They will be honored in a pre-game ceremony tonight. Dye who went 99-39-4 and won four SEC titles at Auburn, led the Tigers to the 1990 Peach Bowl (now Chick-fil-A). Auburn beat Indiana 27-23 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium that year. Established in 2002, the Chick-fil-A Hall of Fame honors former players, coaches and contributors who had a significant impact on the bowl. It has 29 members.

• Auburn has walkthroughs Saturday morning and will practice one more time Sunday before departing for Glendale, Ariz., on Monday. The Tigers’ first on-site practice for the BCS title game is Tuesday at 12:30 p.m. ET at Scottsdale Community College.

Auburn offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn didn’t want to talk about rumors linking him to the vacant Maryland head coaching job Friday, saying he’s only thinking about preparation for Oregon.

“My only focus is helping us win a national championship,” Malzahn said in his first comments to reporters since being linked to the job. “I will have nothing else in my mind other than that.”

Malzahn, who agreed to a contract extension and raise to $1.3 million annually after turning down an offer from Vanderbilt several weeks, interviewed with Maryland 10 days ago, according to ESPN’s Bruce Feldman.

Auburn hasn’t publicly confirmed or denied that report. Tigers head coach Gene Chizik said vaguely that there are “possibilities of contact” between Malzahn and the school.

Asked specifically about the Terrapins, Malzahn didn’t give much insight, preferring to look forward to the Tigers’ matchup with Oregon in the BCS title game in Glendale, Ariz., on Jan. 10.

“Kind of like I’ve said all along regarding head coaching jobs, it’s got to be the right time, the right situation,” he said, not specifically mentioning the Maryland opening. “And right now my only focus is on helping us win the national championship and I’m not going to let anything distract or get in my way of helping us do that.”

Maryland, which announced it would buy out the final year of Ralph Friedgen’s contract Dec. 20, interviewed former Texas Tech coach Mike Leach for the job Thursday.

The meeting with the school’s president, athletics director and search committee went well, according to multiple reports, although the Baltimore Sun reported no offer has been made.

Maryland athletics director Kevin Anderson has said he’d like to make a hire by Jan. 4.

Auburn linebacker Josh Bynes and left tackle Lee Ziemba added one more game to their schedule: the 2011 Senior Bowl.

Both players accepted invites Thursday to play in the senior showcase, which takes place at Ladd-Peebles Stadium in Mobile, Ala., on Jan. 29.

“I’m really, really proud of those guys,” Auburn head coach Gene Chizik said. “Very deserving of that honor. I think again when you have a good team and you’re doing well, that comes with the territory. Those two guys are certainly very well deserving of that selection.”

Ziemba was a consensus All-American who was won the Jacobs Blocking Trophy as the SEC’s top offensive lineman.

“I think anytime you’re recognized as an All-SEC player, that says something about you,” offensive line coach Jeff Grimes said. “But when you go to that next level and people are willing to say you’re one of those best players at your position, I think that says a lot.”

Bynes was a second-team All-SEC selection by the Associated Press after leading the Tigers with 71 tackles.

“It’s a great opportunity for me to showcase what I can do alongside some of the other top players in the nation,” Bynes said. “Getting a chance to work out in front of NFL scouts will be a great chance for me to show my skills, and it’s also an opportunity to have a fun time.”

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Here are some other notes and quotes from Thursday night's interviews with assistants:

• Good practice Thursday, Chizik said. Auburn went full pads, practicing out in the rain. "I thought the tempo practice was really good and I think we got a lot accomplished," he said.

• Chizik had no news on the academic front Thursday. “I’m going to stay on the same course,” he said. “If there’s a change of any sort, regarding our personnel, I’ll let you know.”

• Auburn altered its schedule over the next few days. After this afternoon’s practice, the Tigers will do a walkthrough on New Year’s Day. But they added a practice on Jan. 2, which was previously an off day. Auburn flies out to Glendale, Ariz., on Jan. 3 and resumes practice the following day.

• Wide receiver Darvin Adams will handle Auburn’s punt return duties in the BCS title game against Oregon, wide receivers coach Trooper Taylor said. Adams handled the duties in the SEC title game after Quindarius Carr, who had the job all year, fumbled a punt against Alabama the previous week. Adams had one return for 10 yards against South Carolina. He has two this season for 21 yards. “The biggest deal is Darvin does a good job picking the ball up off the guy’s foot,” Taylor said. “It’s kind of like a baseball. You never want to catch that ball going backwards. You want to have your momentum going forward. His decision-making with the football — I think because of so much time on offense — he makes good decisions with the ball.”

• Carr will be the backup, followed by Anthony Morgan and Chris Davis. “If we have to get past Chris Davis, we’re just going to let it roll,” Taylor said.

• Running backs coach Curtis Luper and Taylor have an odd superstition before every game. Taylor parades around in Luper’s pants, something he’s done since the opener. “I was looking for my pants and he had them on,” Luper said. “I said, ‘Troop, look, give me my pants.’ The next week, Coach (Jay) Boulware said, ‘Troop, you’ve to put Loop’s pants on again.’ I reluctantly gave him my pants. That’s been for 13 consecutive (weeks). It’ll be 14 on Jan. 10. I’ve got to give my pants to Troop. He parades around in them and then I put them on. 14-0 is the goal.”

• I'm sure most of you saw the terrible celebration call against Kansas State at the end of its loss to Syracuse today. Chizik didn't, but he talked about celebration penalties in general. "We’ll actually pull out clips from different games," he said. "We constantly try to address those things. That’s all you can do. Make them very aware of it. They know how we feel about that. We try to address it every opportunity we get.” (Apparently Ben Tate and Walt McFadden didn't get that memo before last year's Outback Bowl.)

• Chizik didn't talk specifically about the Gus Malzahn-Maryland talk but said he didn't find it surprising other teams would be interested in Auburn's coaches. "As I’ve said many times, I’ve got a staff of great coaches and they’re all good I their own right at different things," he said. "They’re all going to be guys who are going to be desirable. Certainly when you’ve been successful and you’ve had a year like we’ve had now, a lot of our guys are going to get attention and rightly so. It’s flattering when you’re in those shoes, but the thing I’m most proud of about our staff is they’re very focused on one thing right now – that’s to win one more game. That’s kind of where we’re at.”

• And while we're kind of on that subject, the Washington Post reported today that Mike Leach's interview with the Maryland brass went well.

• Auburn is much bigger on the offensive line that Oregon is on the defensive line. The Tigers' coaches made it sound like not much of a big deal. Chizik called that advantage "overrated."

• Offensive line coach Jeff Grimes agreed. "If a lot has been made about that, they’re concentrating on the wrong things," he said. "Often (size is) one of the things that’s overestimated, because there are a lot of times where a defensive lineman that’s 270 pounds is a lot better player than a guy who’s 310 pounds. They play a lot bigger than they are. A guy who’s 270, quick, strong, explosive and plays hard, in a lot of ways, is better than a guy that’s 300 and can’t play as hard as long, or doesn’t have the quickness or lateral movement, that sort of thing. In no way whatsoever do I see that as a sort of deficiency in their defense."

• Grimes said he's seen leaps and bounds in progress from RT Brandon Mosley, who replaced an injured A.J. Greene early in the season. He remembers watching game tape of the first South Carolina game before the SEC championship game. "We were both going, golly, I can't believe this was the same season, because you look like a totally different player now than you did at that point," Grimes said. "But I'm really, really pleased with him and really glad I've got another year with him."

• Grimes didn't have anything definitive on Greene's return this spring, although he's been pleased with the progress. "He can’t do a lot of stuff with his lower body, but I’ve seen guys who have had a particular injury where it’s upper body or lower body really increase their strength levels in other areas," Grimes said. "You can really see that on him now. He lost some weight initially, with not being able to do a whole lot, and he gained that weight back and is starting to look now like he did at the beginning of the season, after having a really good summer. I’m really pleased with what I’ve seen from him and the time he’s spent in the weight room over the past three months.”

• The end is drawing near for Grimes' time with his four seniors. "It'll definitely hit me when that game is over," he said. "That's one of the things about coaching that is tough is you really do build a relationship with these kids and you hate to see them move on, but at the same time that relationship doesn't necessarily end."

• You can count the coaches as being excited to play in this game. "Do the math," Luper said. "This is my 15th year in coaching. I'd do it for 30 to do it again."

• Grimes hears about it from everyone he talks to. "I've had people ask me before: 'Have you ever coached in the national championship game before?'" he said. "Heck, I haven't even coached in a BCS game before. Now a whole lot of years before, I was coaching at a Division III school just glad to be playing every Saturday. I'm just thrilled to have the opportunity and I think we recognize how big a deal it is once we get out there probably."

• Has it sunk in? "It hasn't really sunk in yet that we're literally playing for the national championship," Luper said. "We're trying to win the 14th game, trying to beat Oregon. All that other stuff will sink in a little bit later."

• Trooper agreed. "It really hasn’t sunk in because Coach Chizik has been so detailed with the practices working with the younger kids," he said. "It almost feels like a spring practice because we’re scrimmaging those guys and trying to help those young guys to get ready – even some of the backups who may have to play role in this game. It’s been more like a spring practice…it’s not like we’re overlooking them but we’re trying to fix some fundamental things with the young guys."

• Three young'ns who have stood out to Trooper: Davis, WR Antonio Goodwin and HB Shaun Kitchens. Grimes said OL Chad Slade is a little bit further ahead than his freshman counterparts on the line because he's worked as an emergency backup with the regular offense instead of on the scout team.

• WR Travante Stallworth, who has been trying to work back from an ACL tear last year, got a boost recently when his dad just returned from his military service overseas. "You can tell the difference in Travante," Taylor said. "That was big for him. Watching him out there, he’s such a smart kid. Now, we’ve just got his confidence back, and that will come with more touches."

• Trooper's take on Oregon's secondary: "Speed. Those guys can run and they’re not afraid to play man coverage, and they’ve done it against some really good receivers." He was also impressed by the number of passes the Ducks tip into the air. " I bet if you watch five minutes of tape you’ll six or seven tipped balls," he said.

• Doesn't sound like Auburn coaches will be doing much recruiting while they're out in Arizona. It's strictly a title game focus.

• Trooper ragged on Chizik's leather jacket choice during his ESPN rounds the other day (he joked that it was a Members Only jacket, even though it wasn't), but he said the exposure for the program is invaluable. "When you get that type of coverage, it helps in recruiting because it’s reaches all across the United States," he said. "That's not just regional; it’s all over the place."

Not a whole lot from relatively few player interviews this morning, so we'll go straight to the bullet points (Follow the blog on Twitter and Facebook):

• It's starting to hit some of the seniors that the end is near. "Yeah, I’m coming down to my last couple of practices," left guard Mike Berry said. "When they come back for the team meeting, you’re not going to be there. It’s time to move on. But at the same time, I’m just savoring the time I’ve got left."

• That goes for the national title game too. "The more you start preparing, the more you start to realize you're about to play on the biggest stage in college football," left tackle Lee Ziemba said.

• Berry, on the impact of offensive line coach Jeff Grimes: "He’s definitely set the tone for our offensive line to be one of the toughest in the nation. I think that’s what we did this year."

• A lot has been made of the four senior offensive linemen, but right tackleBrandon Mosley has made giant strides from a year ago, when he was a defensive lineman/tight end in community college. "That is kind of crazy now that you said something about it," Berry said. "He talks about all the time how he was an athlete because he played tight end. I was like, ‘Brandon, they didn’t throw you the ball.’ He’s definitely excited about it. I talked to him the other day. He said it’s unbelievable."

• Mosley was the outsider to the group of seniors on the line but has fit in well. "He's part of us," Ziemba said. "Maybe in the spring, we were a little tough on him because he was new and everything. Now, he's just it's like he's been here the four years we have. It's been great having him."

• The linemen are close, despite their relatively different backgrounds. "We're all different people," Ziemba said. "Pugh is from Birmingham. I'm from Arkansas. Isom's from Atlanta. Mike's from Nashville. It's four different people, but I think we bring a lot to the table as far as complementing each other and learning from each other."

• What's the music situation like in the locker room, though. "It's frustrating," Ziemba said, joking. He said Berry and Byron Isom don't listen to country music too much. "Rarely," Ziemba said. "They usually win that battle. We'll usually put the hunting channel on the TV. We win that one."

• Ziemba and Pugh have tried to take Berry and Isom hunting. No dice. "I was going to try and go until they said we had to get in some trees," Berry said. Ziemba said former DT Sen'Derrick Marks used to go, though.

• RB Onterio McCalebb, he of the Mohawk haircut, said he has something in mind for the national title game. "It's going to be a special one," he said. We asked if he could give us a hint of what it would look like. No luck. "I can't tell you," he said.

• WR Emory Blake said he's envisioned making the play to win the title game. He said everybody does. "You just have little flashes of what if you make this play or what if you make that play," he said. "Things pop up in your head. You’ve got to work so hopefully you’ll get those chances in a game."

• Blake's from Texas. He heard a lot of questions when he signed with Auburn. When he went home for Christmas, there was a lot less of that. "I remember people asking me why was I signing with Auburn when I first left," he said. "Now, they’re like, `I can see why you signed with Auburn.’ It’s good going back home knowing I made the right decision and the right choice."

• Bowl trips are usually all about the off-field activities for the players, although that seems to be less so at the BCS title game, where, obviously, a lot is on the line. "If you go out there just looking to have a good time, you’re going to leave with a loss and you’ll look back and be disappointed," Berry said.

Auburn quarterback Cam Newton spent his Christmas Day at Turner Field in Atlanta, donating his time to the Hosea Feed the Hungry and Homeless program.

The quarterback, a native of nearby College Park, Ga., spent about two hours on the feeding line, dishing out green beans to the homeless.

“I think more people really don’t even sit down and appreciate what Christmas really is until you have to go through that type of situation and see people that really don’t have nothing,” he said. “And for me to view that, man, it was just another reason for me to count my blessings.”

Newton got recognized a few times. Several people asked for pictures with him, but he didn’t want his newfound celebrity to get in the way of the real reason he was there.

“I had to step outside Cam Newton the athlete and step into Cam Newton the human being, the person that is very caring,” he said.

Newton said it cleared up a lot of misconceptions for him.

"These people aren't just average homeless people," he said. "These people have jobs. They have families. They have so many things that we have. But it's just something that the cards that they were dealt, they were just not lucky. These aren't just people on the side of the street with their hand out. These people are continually trying to help themselves. But sometimes they get the short end of the stick."

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And then read some more notes and quotes from interview with Newton and defensive coordinator Ted Roof:

• Newton, like Nick Fairley, said he hasn't submitted his name to the NFL draft advisory committee, which assesses where a player might be selected in the draft should he declare early. “I don’t think we got around to that,” Newton said. “Honestly, I’m not even really focused on that right now. I still have one game to accomplish and I think everything else will fall into place.” He doesn't have too much time to think about it after the BCS title game. The deadline to declare is Jan. 15, although players can withdraw their names by Jan. 18.

• Newton has gotten a haul of awards this offseason. He just hasn't received them yet. "I don't got nuthin'," he said. "People have been mentioning awards and this and this and that, so if you're out there and you're listening to this, I want my award." (He said this while pointing at the cameras. Jokingly, of course.)

• Newton's take on Oregon's defense? "This is one of the teams that has blitzed more than any team we have seen on film," he said. "Not only do they blitz but they have so many packages that can be very confusing for the opposing offense. They play so many people."

• Informed that offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn has said Newton's footwork has gotten better, the quarterback said he never hears about it. "Coach Malzahn never tells me any of the good things, man. Never," he said. "This is always new to me to hear a positive from coach Malzahn, but without coach Malzahn I wouldn't be where I am right now and I think we all know that."

• Newton hasn't lost much in his career. The last one came a little over a year ago while at Blinn College. "Navarro Junior College. Halloween 2009. I'll never forget it. We lost by four points."

• Roof talked plenty about the pace of practice. How fast is it? "Fast," he said. (OK, glad we cleared that up.) But the important part comes in communication. "You've got to do that because you've got to get into a fatigue position and then you have to be able to function and communicate," he said. "That's what they do -- they limit your time to process formations and the pre-snap information that some teams give you. You have to process the information faster. You have to communicate. It's tougher communication. It's tough for communication and to get our guys to talk when they're uncomfortable."

• That puts some pressure on the coaches to be ready too. That means having calls in mind for the next play before it happens, something Roof, as a rule, likes to try to do anyway. "We're going to get quick calls to them," he said. "If you're waiting to get the perfect deal, they're going to snap the ball and somebody is going to be running free. A big deal is getting yourself alignment and everybody putting their eyes where they're supposed to be and everybody playing the same call. As elementary as that seems, that's a big deal."

• It helps to have senior Josh Bynes at middle linebacker. "His role and what he's done for us is really special," Roof said. "He's a guy who studies the game. He's a guy that keeps things, the poise comes from the middle. He keeps us poised on the field -- along with some other guys. To get everybody on the right situation. As a coach, I value that tremendously. He's an extension of us on the field."

• So Bynes thinks like Roof, right? "That would be kinda scary, huh?" Roof said. "I feel very fortunate to have coached him."

• Roof's heard the haters of his defense. He doesn't really care. "I could spin statistics to make things look one way," he said. "Somebody else could spin them to look another way. This is a bottom-line business. The bottom line is that we have to do what we have to do to win football games. Up to this point, we've done that. There were some games where people said: 'Wow, they played great.' The tape says: Eh. The truth usually lies somewhere in the middle."

• The coaching staff has watched a ton of game tape. They started by watching from the start of the season to the finish. Then they do cut-ups, which organizes plays into situations. "You get an overall flavor of how they want to attack things," he said.

• That's a lot of plays to devour. Over 900 in fact. "They can do anything in games – they can’t do it all – but they can do anything," Roof said. "When you have this much time, you have to prepare for it all. That’s the good and the bad news with bowl games. Usually you do a four-game breakdown. You’ve got your 350-or-whatever plays, and you base your game plan on that. Now, we’re up to the gazillions. There’s good and bad with it. There’s a different theme for each game, and we’re just going to have to wait and see what it is and adjust to it and keep going."

• Roof thinks the exposure from being in the national title game has helped recruiting considerably. "It unlocks a couple of doors that were shut," he said.

• Granted, there are some tradeoffs. The Tigers essentially lost two weeks of recruiting (one during the SEC championship week and one next week, when they are in Arizona practicing). "I would trade a week of it if you’re playing for a championship any time," Roof said. "When you win championships, it helps your recruiting for the 20 high schools you could have been in because of the exposure you get and being a champion."

One player came to mind when Auburn linebacker Josh Bynes and defensive tackle Zach Clayton were asked to think of someone similar to Oregon's LaMichael James — West Virginia's Noel Devine.

"They're like replicas of each other," Bynes said.

That's true of their size. James, the Doak Walker Award winner and Heisman finalist who led the nation with 1,682 rushing yards, is 5-foot-9, 185 pounds.

Devine, who torched Auburn for 335 yards and four touchdowns in two games in 2008 and '09, is 5-foot-8, 180.

But it's more than their size that's similar. It's their tenacity.

"Just the way they run, the way they handle their game for their size," Bynes said. "They take a lot of big hits and just keep on moving."

The Tigers will go into the BCS title game with a stout rushing defense that allows 111.7 rushing yards per game, which ranks 11th nationally.

But they realize James is a threat to go the distance on every play.

"If he breaks free and gets through there, that's a touchdown," Bynes said. "I think he's definitely going to be the one we're going to have to stop."

"He's the motor for the offense," defensive tackle Jeffrey Whitaker said. "I think everybody knows that."

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Here are some more notes and quotes from today's pre-practice player interviews:

• The NCAA has been in the business of statements lately and felt prompted to do so today, following the Ohio State ruling recently. The crux of the statement? The NCAA doesn't play favorites. It clarified (for some reason) that Cam Newton was not suspended because no actual extra benefits were received. Had Newton's father received money, even if Cam didn't know, he would have been suspended. I feel like everyone knew this already.

• Defensive tackle Nick Fairley said he hasn't submitted his name to the NFL draft advisory board, which assesses where an underclassmen might go in the draft should he declare a year early. Fairley, who won the Associated Press' SEC Defensive Player of the Year after leading the league in sacks and tackles for a loss, is a projected top-10 pick in some mock drafts. "I haven’t even thought about it, to be real, you know what I'm saying?" he said. Underclassmen must declare for the NFL draft by Jan. 15, although they have until Jan. 18 to withdraw their names.

• What would be a positive about coming back for his senior year? "Staying around these guys another year," Fairley said. "The Auburn family, the love they show. That would be a plus for me."
  

• Fairley said facing Oregon's fast offense will be tough, especially from a conditioning standpoint. "It’s very hard. You get tired," he said. "You try to catch wind while they running the plays. You probably take a couple plays off."

• DE Nosa Eguae, on how he approached the season: "What we said at the beginning of the season, we wanted to make sure that this season is memorable for the seniors, because it’s their last go around. As far as us young guys, we just want to make sure we can keep going out there and doing what we have to do, just make sure we keep getting wins and send those seniors off right."

• Oregon runs a lot of read options, meaning it will be an important game for the defensive ends. "You really have to listen to your coaches, play your technique and go out there and play pretty much a perfect game, because they’re reading you every play," Eguae said.

• The key? About every defensive player that came in today had the same answer. "You definitely have to get aligned," Eguae said. "It’s all about getting in your alignment and making sure everybody’s on the same page. When people are on different pages, that’s when mistakes happen. That’s when big plays happen with their offense."

• As reported earlier, Auburn has added pace periods to its practices to get used to Oregon's speed. T'Sharvan Bell said it helps, especially to get in the mindset of playing that fast. "You know, every nine seconds it’s kind of hard to play with great technique, hard to get lined up and get the call," he said. "So it’s just a big learning process for us right now and I think by the time the 10th comes we’ll have it down to where we need to have it."

• Bell on Oregon's receivers: "They’ve got good receivers across the board. They do a great job of catching the ball in open space and getting up the field. They’re not really guys that just try to make you miss, they get what they can get and that’s all to it. I think they’ve got a good wide receiver coach, they run good routes, they block probably the best I’ve seen of any opponent downfield this year. I think it’s going to be a big key for us getting off the blocks of the receivers when it’s time to."
  

• Bynes is kind of sick of hearing about how Auburn's defense is lacking. "We're not worrying what everyone is saying about our defense," he said. "We're going to go out there and play football regardless. Because at the end of the day, it's all going to be settled in between those white lines."

• Bynes said Auburn's opponents went away from their tendencies a lot this year, which is why the Tigers struggled so much early in games. "When we figure out what they're doing in the first half, the second half we go out there and just be dominant," he said. "That's why we've been efficient in the second half. ... I think guys just went out there and fought their behinds off for four quarters. It might not have looked good for one or two quarters, maybe three, but in the fourth quarter, some way, somehow we found a way to win and get the victory. We've got guys on this team who are willing to fight adversity, to do the things that we've been doing all year is insane."

• Whitaker didn't play a whole lot this year, but he got his feet wet, which will be important next year. If Fairley enters the draft, he could be in a prominent role, with Clayton and Mike Blanc graduating. "I'm learning how to be a great leader," he said. "I'm learning how to be a great player. I'm learning how to be a great champion."

• Has Auburn's success made an impact on potential recruits? DE Corey Lemonier thinks so. "It does because it shows that we’re winning and it shows that freshmen can come in and play so that helps us in recruiting," he said, "entice them even more to come here.”

• T-Bell summed up a point special teams coordinator Jay Boulware made in a meeting this week: "Everybody is saying we’re going to try to win the national championship, but the question he asked us is what are we going to do to win the national championship. So I think that’s the question now — what are we going to do? Going to go the extra mile and do whatever you can, have no regrets."

Auburn returned to the practice field Tuesday night to resume preparations for its Bowl Championship Series title game matchup with Oregon.

There was no rust this time.

A day after reporting to campus for weight-lifting and conditioning, the Tigers had a two-hour workout in shells at the school’s soccer complex, their first time on the practice field since Dec. 22.

“I thought it was a really, really good first day back,” head coach Gene Chizik said. “I really thought today was very energetic. I thought the focus was there. It was probably one of the better practices we’ve had so far.”

After winning the SEC championship game against South Carolina, Auburn had two weeks off before resuming practice, accumulating considerable rust during the downtime.

“You could tell we hadn’t practiced for two weeks,” safety Zac Etheridge said.

But the four days of practice the Tigers had before the holiday break got them back in the flow of the game. There was no adjustment period Tuesday.

“It really felt like we just got right back on track,” right guard Byron Isom said. “It was actually a different tempo at practice today. It wasn’t that sluggish, first-practice-back tempo.”

It was the first of five on-campus practices Auburn has before flying out to Glendale, Ariz., on Jan. 3. The week will be a balancing act for the Tigers.

“We’re going to continue to have some physical days as we continue through this week for sure,” Chizik said. “That’s just the way we need to practice.

“Obviously, as we get closer to true game week it will turn into more of that. But right now, we need the physicality in practice. We need the high tempo, the fast pace in practice, so we need to keep on that pace. ...

"They need to be ready to play on the 10th. Anything before or after is not helpful.”

By the time Auburn and Oregon meet, 37 days will have passed since the Tigers’ last game. To put that in perspective, that’s longer than the entirety of Auburn’s spring drills last April and March.

“It’s a lot of time off, and you can get distracted by a lot of things,” Etheridge said. “But I think a lot of guys’ mindset will be right and we’ll be ready to play.”

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Not a great night for notes (well, other than the Malzahn news). Here are a few items, though:

• Chizik had nothing new to report on the academic front, saying there are still “a couple issues that we’re working through.” He declined to get into any specifics or mention names. Auburn’s last day of classes was Dec. 3, with final exams wrapping up Dec. 13. “If the roster changes at (any) point in time we’ll let you know,” he said.

• Chizik celebrated his 49th birthday Tuesday, although he declined to give reporters the scoop about how he planned to celebrate. Jokingly asked where the party was and if reporters were invited, Chizik didn’t bite. “It depends on how many of you brought gifts and where the party’s at,” he said.

• Bowl games are usually filled with fun activities, although when the BCS title is on the line, it's probably harder to do things of that nature. "I’m always into saying the same thing in terms of balancing working, doing your job and having fun," Chizik said. "This is the game of a lifetime. There’s no question there’s a lot at stake. In the same sense you have to give them a chance to enjoy the week, enjoy the fruits of their labor. There’s a fine line in there.”

• Is there SEC pride in the title game? Yup. "We definitely feel like we;re taking the SEC on our back into the national championship game," Isom said.

• Players had some good things to say about WR coach Trooper Taylor. "You can walk by his office anytime," Isom said. "If you don't come in and say something to him or sit down with him, he'll let you know about it. He wants to talk to you and spend time with everybody. He treats everybody equally."

• Etheridge's take on Trooper: "He's always excited. You hear him every day in practice. You know he's there. Every day he walks in, you know he's in the building."

• Is Trooper ever relaxed? "Never," Isom said. "I've never seen him subdued at all."

• Isom on QB Cam Newton's huddle presence: "In practice he does (joke around). In the games, once we have it pretty much squared away, he'll give you a little more joking out there. He's usually pretty much all-around focused on the job at hand. South Carolina game, we had a play where I had pulled out front. He had some words to say afterward. I remember us laughing. It was a good time."

• Isom said Newton isn't afraid to say what needs to be said. "If he feels, just like the coaches, we all expect production from everybody," Isom said. "You don't get to a point in this season without expecting everybody's best. If someone's no producing like we feel he should, (Cam) is definitely one to jump on him. It's all constructive."

• Players said Chizik wants the players to be aware that they're playing for the national championship, so he puts it out there. "Like coach Chiz said, just make sure you've got your mind set that you're playing for it," Etheridge said. "Don't let it hit you when you get to Arizona."

• We asked Kodi Burns to do his impersonations of Malzahn, Chizik and Co. He politely declined. "I'm not in the mood," he said. "But, yeah, I do do a good one."

• He did say Malzahn and Chizik are his best and that he doesn't shy away from doing them. "I'll do it in front of them," he said. "I really don’t care. (Malzahn) calls me Funny Man, as a joke, being sarcastic. I'm just that kind of person, so it really doesn't matter, whoever's watching."

Auburn head coach Gene Chizik said Tuesday there are "possibilities" Maryland has spoken with offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn about its soon-to-be-vacant head coaching position.

Comcast SportsNet Washington reported Tuesday that Maryland athletics director Kevin Anderson and his search committee has met with several candidates to replace Ralph Friedgen, whose final contract year was bought out by the school last week.

The report said Malzahn, former Texas Tech coach Mike Leach and SMU head coach June Jones have met with the committee.

Chizik said no one from Maryland had contacted him about talking with Malzahn, the Tigers' second-year coordinator who reportedly turned down the Vanderbilt job earlier this month and received a substantial raise from Auburn.

But asked if anyone from Maryland had interviewed Malzahn, Chizik said there's a chance.

"To the best of my knowledge, there are possibilities of contact," Chizik said. "I have not talked to anybody personally but there is a possibility of contact. Again, without me giving any details, because I don't have any, I'll kind of say the same thing I did about academics: when I know more, I'll let you know."

Malzahn was scheduled to speak to reporters Tuesday night but did not show up.

On Dec. 20, Maryland bought out the final year of the contract of Ralph Friedgen for close to $2 million. The 10th-year coach will be on the sideline for his final game with the Terrapins tomorrow in the Military Bowl against East Carolina.

Malzahn, who strongly considered an offer from Vanderbilt two weeks ago, is set to receive a $1 million salary from Auburn next season, with a chance at $300,000 in incentives.

Vanderbilt ended up hiring James Franklin, who was Maryland's offensive coordinator and designated coach-in-waiting behind Friedgen.

UPDATE: Jones did meet with Maryland, his agent confirms, but he has withdrawn his name from consideration.

I had a great holiday break in Richmond, Va., complete with about six inches of snow. It was the perfect kind. Looks good on Christmas; off the roads two days later when I had to drive back. I hope everyone else's time off was just as enjoyable.

I put up some quick notes before. Here's some longer ones now that we've typed out some quotes:

• Head coach Gene Chizik on what Auburn did before the holiday break: "We wanted to get back to the fundamentals of football — blocking and tackling. It wasn't so much scheming although we looked at some general things. For the most part, we were trying to get back into the flow of fundamental football. We felt like we needed to get in the swing of things. That's what we've done for the past four games. We've still got some improving we can do, we can have."

• Can you blow your conditioning in one five-day break? "I hope not," Chizik said. "You probably could, but I hope not. It's like anything else: These guys have to be different than anybody else out there. They've got to always keep in mind what they have at stake that nobody else has at stake. We've got to hope they understand that. The next four or five days when they go home and they're around all their friends and nobody has the same thing riding on it, they need to remember it."

• Auburn has added some pace drills at the end of its practices, trying to run a play in under 10 seconds. It's both for conditioning and to prepare for Oregon's fast-paced attack. “It’s really important," defensive coordinator Ted Roof. "You can talk about it all you want but until you do it, you don’t get it. But to have the ability to get your people aligned, formation recognition, because that’s what that tempo does to you. So many times teams just turn to survival mode and just line up be somewhere close to the right spot. All that stuff has to happen quicker. That’s where it puts the stress on you and the only way to do it is to practice it, like most things.”

• The Tigers have also added some scrimmage time to the most recent set of practices to get the younger players some looks. "We've got a lot of our redshirt guys in there playing," Chizik said. "We probably went 15-20 plays today; probably a little more yesterday. They like it. It's fun for them."

• Auburn's defense gets a bad rap for where it ranks nationally, but Chizik thinks the group has made strides. "There's times when we didn't play as well as we would have liked," he said. "If you go back and look at the whole thing, from beginning to end, there were a lot of things we accomplished defensively. When it was time to step up and make plays, we had to have plays, they've done it. Whether it was a stop, whether it was an interception, we've been able to do that."

• A couple of juniors (Cam Newton, Nick Fairley in particular) will have to make a decision about entering the NFL Draft. Chizik said he'll talk with them about it at the appropriate time, but he hasn't done so yet. "We're focused on one goal," he said. "That's everybody on the team, and that is to go out to Arizona and win. All those other things, those discussions, will have a lot of merit at the right time."

• Gus Malzahn's take on Oregon's defense: "They’re very aggressive. They play a lot of people so they stay fresh. They play extremely hard, they gang tackle. And their scheme really helps them out too. They’re a big pressure team out of the odd front. And really I think their defense compliments their offense. They’re used to playing a lot of plays. They don’t slow down and they get better as the game goes on."

• Roof watched every Oregon game this year to get some insight to how teams defended the Ducks. But he's not going to overhaul Auburn's defense for the BCS title game. "You can’t reinvent the wheel and do things you haven’t done before," he said. "Because you’ve got to do what you do. But at the same time, things that you pick up, how they do things, how they block certain things, factor into it. You can’t just scrap what you’ve done and what you’ve got so many reps in because we’re all creatures of habit. We’ve got so many reps in what we do to be able to pick and choose from what we’ve done in the past what might be applicable to this offense.”

• Roof, on the similarities between Auburn and Oregon's offenses. "The big similarities are that they score a lot of points and go up and down the field really fast. But there are some things within the spread that are constant with most spread teams with obviously each team having their own variation of it.”

• Lots of praise for Oregon RB LaMichael James. "I tell you it’s like he goes through the eye of the needle sometimes with some of his cuts," Roof said. "You’re watching the end zone tape and there’s absolutely no hole there. All of sudden, here comes this guy squirting out of there who goes 80 yards. He’s a guy who stays alive, keeps his feet moving and as he moves laterally, looks for creases. When he sees a crease, he hits it, and people don’t catch him. But I can tell you how durable he is and how physical he is. You can see that he’s really, really competitive on tape. We have a lot of respect for him.”

• Malzahn was proud of longtime protege and graduate assistant Rhett Lashlee, who agreed to be Samford’s offensive coordinator earlier this week. Then he remembered that Auburn plays Samford next season. “The stress level has already kicked in for me,” Malzahn joked. “He knows all the signals.”

• The 27-year-old Lashlee has been at Malzahn’s side for years. He played at Shiloh Christian High in Arkansas, where, under Malzahn’s tutelage, he finished as the national record holder for touchdown passes in a prep career with 171. Lashlee walked on at Arkansas and served as a GA to Malzahn in his one year as the Razorbacks’ offensive coordinator in 2006. After a two-year stint as a marketing director for VYPE Magazine in Arkansas, Lashlee re-joined Malzahn as a GA at Auburn prior to last season. “He’s got a great mind, he’s going to be a great coach,” Malzahn said. “His best days are ahead of him. I ask a lot of him. He’s not a normal GA.”

• Lashlee plays a prominent role in the Tigers’ sideline operation, in charge of the communication. He aids in the game planning and helps serve as a conduit to the quarterbacks. “He can relate to the quarterbacks away from me about what I’m like, how I work,” Malzahn said. Lashlee will stay on staff through the BCS title game. “I don’t want him thinking about that other job either,” Malzahn said. “He will be locked in ready to go.”