AU FOOTBALL NOTEBOOK: Familiar Auburn names linked to Memphis opening

Memphis athletic director R.C. Johnson will be making a few calls to the 334-area code in his search for a new head coach, according to numerous reports Monday.

Johnson fired nine-year coach Tommy West on Monday, two days after the Tigers fell to 2-7 after a 56-28 loss at Tennessee.

Former Auburn coaches Tommy Tuberville and Terry Bowden, who is 10-1 in his first season at Division II North Alabama, are both considered candidates for the position, according to ESPN.com.

Auburn offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn is also one of the candidates, the Memphis Commercial-Appeal reported, attributing unnamed sources.

“The goal is very simple, to get the best available coach as quickly as possible,” Johnson said at a Monday press conference in Memphis. “We have not hired a coach.

“I don’t have somebody in my hip pocket that I’m going to bring in (today) and announce. But I will tell you that there are people we are ready to consider.”

FootballScoop.com reported Monday that Auburn wide receivers coach Trooper Taylor was also a candidate.

Neither Taylor nor Malzahn have served as a head coach at the college level.

Malzahn will meet with reporters after today’s practice for his weekly media briefing. Taylor typically meets with the media on Wednesdays.

Recognition for Byrum
One year after his sophomore swoon, junior kicker Wes Byrum was named as one of 20 semifinalists for the Lou Groza Award, the Palm Beach County Sports Commission announced Monday.

Byrum has hit on 13 of his 14 field-goal attempts and has made all 43 extra-point attempts. His 92.9 field-goal percentage ranks fifth nationally among those who have attempted at least 10, and he currently sits second in the SEC in scoring with 82 points. He is just 13 points shy of breaking Auburn’s single-season record for points by a kicker.

Voted on by all Division I head coaches and sports information directors, along with national, regional and local football writers, the
Lou Groza Award is given to the nation’s best kicker.

TV talk
Saturday’s Auburn-Georgia game will air on ESPN2 (Charter Cable Channel 32 in Lee County), the network announced on its Web site Monday.

The other option would have been ESPN, which will air Alabama’s game at Mississippi State, instead.

Both games are slated to kick off at 6 p.m.

‘Country coaching’
Defensive coordinator Ted Roof said Sunday that he was able to get 31 players into Saturday’s game against Furman on defense.

Not all of those players had necessarily played a defensive snap in their respective football careers.

“Some guys that were wide receivers, some guys that were scout-team offensive tackles, offensive guards, jumped out there and got some reps for us,” Roof said.

“We were doing some old-time country coaching. But that’s good. That’s fun. Those guys work hard and I’m glad they were able to have that opportunity. I’m just excited about that for those young men.”

The rest for his starters, some of whom had taken less than 30 snaps off in the previous nine games, was “critical,” Roof said.

“We got them off the field there late in that first half and the entire second half so that we’re running 11 straight games as fresh as we can be going into this point,” Roof said. “We’re going to need everything we’ve got to go to Athens and beat Georgia.”

Trendsetter
Lost amid one of the best halves of Chris Todd’s career was the holding call he was whistled for on a Terrell Zachery reverse in the second quarter Saturday.

Todd said he’d never been whistled for that type of penalty before and had never heard of that happening to a quarterback.

“That’s a good way to look at it,” Todd said. “Do something new, not be afraid to be different, be innovative.”

| 737-2561