Chizik talks with media after Monday practice

AUBURN - Auburn coach Gene Chizik met with the media following Monday night's practice for the Dec. 31 Chick-fil-A Bowl game. Here's what he had to say.

“We had a really good practice tonight. Again, I thought it was uptempo. Went back to a lot of teaching tonight. Had a pretty good full-padded practice (Saturday) and got after it pretty good. Anyway, we had a great practice. Again, we’re going to go pads tomorrow, and get back after some fundamentals and continue to try and grow in that area. We expect fully to have two more good practices before we get out of here.”

How much game plan is in?

“Piece by piece we’re starting to get there. We’ve got two more days and then we’re going to have four when we get there. We’ll have enough time to get in what we need. Piece by piece, we’ve definitely done that.”

Talk about how T'Sharvan Bell seems to have a good attitude about going through the re-hab on his knee.

“I think outstanding. I think he has done a really, really good job. You know part of the process of rehabbing from injuries is how you mentally go through it. I don’t think there’s any question he has approached this well. So I think that’s half the battle, but he’s in great spirits as you guys know. I think his rehab is really right on time. Again, I don’t see any reason to believe he’s not going to have a great positive attitude moving forward because he has certainly done that the last couple weeks.”

What have you seen from the young guys in bowl practice?

“I feel like we’ve gotten better. I feel like a lot of the young guys who actually played a good bit during the year, you give them a little bit of time off and they come back a little more veteran like, but I think they’ve gotten better.”

What's the key to your success in bowl games?

“I think you have to be really smart in how you proceed in terms of how you’re practicing, how much you’re practicing, how little you’re practicing. Some guys can take it to the other extreme and by the time your team plays they’re tired and beat down. We’re trying to get them to a place where we’re physically and mentally ready, but we’re not overcooked, so to speak. I think we’ve done a good job over the years of managing the time we have with them. And give them the right amount of walk throughs, meeting time and on the field practice time.”