AUBURN NOTEBOOK: Rhoads thrilled with shutout

Paul Rhoads couldn’t help himself.

Rhoads, Auburn’s defensive coordinator, caught plenty of eyes with an enthusiastic fourth-quarter sideline celebration with 50 seconds left in Saturday’s game against Louisiana-Monroe. His rejoicing was caught on the Jordan-Hare Stadium video board, drawing cheers from the remaining fans.

Rhoads was celebrating Louisiana-Monroe’s second missed field goal, a 45-yarder which missed wide right.

The miss preserved a shutout for Auburn’s defense — not a bad start for Rhoads, who is in his first season as AU’s defensive coordinator. It was the Tigers’ first shutout since 2006.

“Any time you can walk away with (a shutout), you feel pretty good about yourselves,” he said. “Certainly we wanted the kids because of the effort that they had expended at that point, to walk away with that.”

And though the missed field had no chance to affect the final result — Auburn led 34-0 when ULM’s Jeremy Gener missed the kick — denying the Warhawks a score on their final possession was especially satisfying for Rhoads.

“We made too many mistakes that last drive to put them in a position to score,” he said. “Had they physically whipped us and out-executed us, you’re going to live with that. But we had put them in a position to score. That’s why we were thrilled to see the field goal go wide.”

Injury report
Freshman wide receiver Philip Pierre-Louis’ freshman season lasted all of one play. The 5-foot-8, 155-pounder suffered a knee injury on the opening kickoff Saturday.

An MRI exam revealed Pierre-Louis had sustained a season-ending injury to his knee. The freshman will undergo surgery this week and won’t play again until 2009. He will receive a medical hardship redshirt and be a redshirt freshman next season.

Senior James Swinton, who was injured one play after Pierre-Louis, got better news. An MRI revealed no serious damage to Swinton’s knee, according to Tuberville. Swinton is expected to play this weekend against Southern Miss.

Quarterback Kodi Burns sustained a long but shallow cut on his leg during the third quarter Saturday. Tuberville said the injury occurred when Burns fell on a ULM player’s
facemask.

Burns will likely miss today’s practice, but could be back by Tuesday, according to Tuberville.

Wideout Montez Billings (hamstring) and linebacker Merrill Johnson (hamstring) are questionable for this weekend’s game.

The status of tailback Tristan Davis (ankle) and fullback John Douglas (knee) is unknown. Neither player is expected to practice today.

WR Trott earns player of the week honor
Wide receiver Tommy Trott didn’t exactly show up in the box score after Saturday’s game. Trott finished the game without a catch. But offensive coordinator Tony Franklin was still delighted with his play.

Franklin said the Tigers called several plays in which Trott was the quarterback’s first passing option. On several of those plays, Trott was open, but still wasn’t thrown to.

“For whatever reason, he didn’t get the ball,” Franklin said. “He played really well. He blocked really well. He was very physical. He ran good routes.

“He did lots of good stuff. We just didn’t get him the ball.”

Trott was named Auburn’s Offensive Player of the Week on Sunday.

Defensive end Michael Goggans, who returned a fumble for a touchdown on ULM’s first play from scrimmage, earned Defensive Player of the Week honors.

Freshman linebacker Spencer Pybus was the Special Teams Player of the Week. Pybus recovered a third-quarter fumble on a kickoff return, setting up AU’s first offense touchdown. He also recorded a tackle on special teams.

True freshman defensive end Cameron Henderson and walk-on offensive lineman Andrew Parmer were the scout-team players of the week on defense and offense, respectively.

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