TAMPA, Fla. — Participating in a bowl game as a college athlete is considered to be a privilege. Players arrive a week prior to the game, are given opportunities to spend a week with their teammates while visiting attractions in the host city, and experience the local culture. If they did not know already, the Auburn Tigers have learned that the Outback Bowl is no exception.
With excursion trips to places headlined by Busch Gardens, Clearwater Beach and a Tampa Bay Lightning game, it is not difficult to understand the scale of exciting opportunities that most anyone would be excited for; however, there is still a game to be played on New Year’s Day, and Gus Malzahn continues to remind his squad that this trip is no vacation.
Malzahn said that, since the 2018 Peach Bowl, he has reminded his team that bowl trips are not the time to allow for a mental lapse to occur.
“That (Peach Bowl) hurt a lot of guys, but it helped us last year,” Malzahn said. “Last year I felt like in our bowl game, we played our best all-around game, and so our approach that we had was different ... So we tried to keep the same approach for this game.”
Malzahn also noted that the importance of a win in the Outback Bowl goes beyond just the Tigers’ record in 2019.
“This is a business trip.”Malzahn said. “We're playing one of the best teams in all of college football. This is a very important game for us, not just this year, a chance to win 10 games with the schedule that we had for our seniors, but to give you momentum for the future.”
The head coach’s mentality appears to be instilled in his players. Senior offensive lineman Jack Driscoll acknowledged the fact that bowl week provides a multitude of distractions, but assured the Auburn faithful that he is staying focused.
“It’s hard because all of a sudden you’re in a big city, and there’s a beach and all that stuff” Dirscoll said. ”I’m just trying to focus on going out with a win. We can’t just show up there and walk through and expect to beat these guys.”
Driscoll also mentioned that he believes the coaching staff has done an effective job at limiting players from having desire to spend time on non-game related activities.
“The coaches are doing a good job of having us do activities during the day so we’re not really entitled to go out at night,” Driscoll added.
The Tigers will need to be focused if they want to secure a win over P.J. Fleck’s Golden Gophers on Wednesday at Raymond-James stadium, and it appears as though Malzahn and company are doing everything in their power to do so.
Auburn will have its final team practice on Monday, then will walk-through at Raymond-James on Tuesday.
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