California Dreamin': Inside Auburn's cross-country road trip

AUBURN, Ala. – Months of planning, days of travel and hours of preparation have gone into providing Auburn with the opportunity to earn its first win in The Golden State when the Tigers play California Saturday at 9:30 p.m. CT in Berkeley.

“It creates some challenges, but this will be a good test for all of us: coaches, training staff, nutritionists, strength staff, support staff and players,” said head coach Hugh Freeze, whose first Auburn road trip is a 2,600-mile doozy.

“How do we handle if things are a little uncomfortable or it’s not exactly the way we want it? I’m speaking to myself as much as anyone, and you’ve got to play a really good football team at their place.

“When our body times are 9:30 or 10 at night and we’re kicking off. All of that is going to be a challenge, but that’s what life is. How we approach it and the attitude we have for the opportunity we have ought to be one of gratitude and thankfulness. We get another opportunity to represent this school, our conference, and each other. Let’s go make the most of it.” 

CALIFORNIA, HERE THEY COME

Fewer than 24 hours after Auburn kicked off the 2023 season with a 59-14 victory vs. Massachusetts at Jordan-Hare Stadium, the Tigers’ equipment truck departed the Woltosz Football Performance Center Sunday afternoon for the four-day cross-country journey.

Drivers Mark Sheppard and Greg Trapp made it to Little Rock, Arkansas by Sunday night. Come Monday, they headed west across Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle before stopping for the night in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Desert Tuesday featured a 700-mile trek across Arizona to Barstow, California, before arriving in Berkeley Wednesday afternoon.

Soon after the Tigers dispatched the Minutemen on Saturday, Auburn’s equipment team began washing, packing and loading trunks of items that the team did not need for practice on the Plains during the week.

“We’ll fly the helmets, shoulder pads and jerseys with us,” said assistant equipment manager Hunter Smithwick.

The distance from Auburn to Berkeley is more than three times farther than Auburn’s longest SEC road trip, 775 miles to Texas A&M.

California, here they come!

A quick turnaround for @AuburnEquip

The 🛻 rolls out this afternoon on the 2,500-mile trek to the Bay Area for Saturday night’s @AuburnFootball game at Cal. #WarEagle pic.twitter.com/5jwYNd9EOL

— Jeff Shearer (@jeff_shearer) September 3, 2023

U.S. Department of Transportation regulations require drivers to take a 34-hour break after long hauls such as the one from Alabama to Northern California, a factor that influenced the truck’s early departure.

“Timing that out so they can move the truck when we’re there, get out there and have enough hours to get it back has been the challenging part,” Smithwick said.

After the game, Auburn will load two trucks: the 18-wheeler for the long drive home, and a smaller truck bound for the Oakland airport containing uniforms and equipment that will fly back with the team.

Fifteen Auburn University students assist the full-time equipment staff.

“We couldn’t do it without them,” Smithwick said.

BAY AREA LOGISTICS

Senior associate AD for operations Jeremy Roberts reached out to Stanford to see where its football team stays when it visits the Cal Bears.

“They gave us the recommendation that was our ultimate choice,” Roberts said.

With seven hours of bus and plane travel required to get from Auburn’s campus to the team hotel in San Mateo, California, the Tigers decided to depart Thursday, one day earlier than a normal road trip.

That gives Auburn head football dietitian Danielle Gillen an opportunity to prepare three additional menus with the hotel’s kitchen staff.

Auburn looks for hotels that have experience hosting college football teams, says Roberts.

“We can be in a hotel right across the street from the stadium but if they don’t know how to deal with a team, don’t have the banquet space or the meeting room space it doesn’t do us any good,” he said. “That’s our primary objective when we’re looking for somewhere to stay, especially when we’re going places we haven’t been before.”

Director of football technology & digital innovation Matt Hard makes sure coaches can show video to their units in hotel meeting rooms during the long build-up to Saturday’s late kickoff.

Auburn will practice briefly Friday at the College of San Mateo rather than drive 30 miles each way to California Memorial Stadium in Berkeley for a walk-through.

Roberts informed Cal about Tiger Walk and the possibility of approximately 10,000 Auburn fans greeting the team when the buses arrive at the stadium Saturday evening.

“We want Auburn people to have a good experience while they’re there and you also don’t want the people hosting you to feel like you didn’t give them a chance to prepare and feel confident about their plan,” he said.

For the team behind the team, when the game ends, the work continues.

It figures to be close to 1 a.m. CT at the game’s conclusion. Add another hour before the trucks and buses leave the stadium, and another hour to travel to the airport in Oakland, conduct a security screening and board the plane for the four-hour flight back to Montgomery.

“That’s 7 a.m. and you’ve got to unload the plane and load the truck again so you’re looking at 8:30 or 9 a.m. before we roll back in to campus,” Roberts said. “We have another game the next week so preparations will begin immediately for that.”

Planning for Auburn’s California road trip began with a site visit 18 months ago.

“It’s an important game for us,” Roberts said. “Our job is to make sure that regardless of the distance of the trip that we give our team the best chance to win through our preparation, making sure we’re organized, we communicate with the hotel and when we walk in the door, they 100 percent understand what our expectations are.

“You’re working with a lot of people you don’t really know. You have to have confidence that the relationship you’ve created with them is going to make it great.”

Santa Clara in 1936, Southern California in 2002 and the 2014 BCS championship game vs. Florida State in Pasadena. Three times before the Tigers have made this long westward journey, only to come home empty-handed, a trend the 2023 Tigers are determined to end.

“[Head strength & conditioning] Coach Dom [Studzinksi] will have us prepared with hydration and in the weightroom, Ms. Danielle will with nutrition and Coach Freeze and every single coach will have us prepared,” said jack linebacker and team captain Elijah McAllister. “I’m not worried about the trip because all of our coaches are in tune, they’re going to have us prepared and ready to go on Saturday night.”

Jeff Shearer is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on Twitter: @jeff_shearer