IF the Duck coaching staff is as obsessed with Fairley as their fans are it will be a very good night in the desert for AU.
Blanc, Clayton, Goggans, Carter, Eguae, Lemonhead and the rest of the bunch will flat kill their offense if the Duck's offensive linemen "over focus" on Fairley.
Based on what I have seen of OU, I do not even expect them to try and block Fairley......simply let him go where he wants, screen him and use their speed to run away from and around him. Very similar to what AU did to Cornelius Bennett in the 1986 Iron Bowl........frustrated the hell out of him and never truly blocked him all game.
Just a hunch but this thing is going to be one whale of a ball game.
WAR EAGLE
This is not to say that Oregon doesn't use any gap/man schemes, but they do base out of a zone run scheme. They will have to deal with Fairley to run that. That said, they don't have to truly over power him though. And I have no doubt, that like Malzahn, Kelly can run some Veer type stuff if he chooses to read Fairley instead of block him. That would be a smart move...why try to block a guy like Fairly when you can read him? But, that would stray a bit from what they do, AND LaMicheal James isn't a between the tackles type back. I suspect that, like Auburn and Malzahn, they will come in to the game confiedent that what they do works, and they will try to beat us with what has been successful for them all season. I don't care what their Defense is ranked...they haven't played many decent teams, and I firmly believe our OL will dominate them in the trenches, and they will HAVE to score at a blinding pace to keep up with us. Like every other opponent we've faced...the one time our D has an answer for their offense, and they go 3 and out, or turn the ball over...well, you know.
FWIW, I think Oregon is a good team, but I think we match up well where it counts...in the trenches. I also think we can control the tempo of the game.
You hear a lot about Oregon's speed of running the offense...but they're not the fastest paced team, and we're not that far behind them...their defense will need to be in good shape too...
Oh, then there's the small matter of tackling a guy that is 6-6 250 that runs a 4.5 40, and has some moves.