The big news out of Tuesday's meet 'n' greet with head coach Tommy Tuberville and select players was that tight end Tommy Trott will have season-ending surgery Thursday for a torn ACL he suffered against Georgia.

"Another report I hate to give you," Tuberville said. "He's played very well for us and is one of the leaders of our offense. Hate to lose him."

Tuberville hopes to get him back for spring practice, which seems like it would be highly optimistic, considering Auburn starts practice at the earliest opportunity, usually in late February. That would only give Trott a little more than three months of recovery time, which simply isn't enough for that kind of injury.

"He'll be back for some things that he can do," Tuberville conceded. "He won't be for all of it."

Tuberville did say that considering all of the surgeries the team has had this year -- which he put at a dozen -- he might push back the start of spring practice to most of those injured players back.

In other developments:

• Auburn had the good fortune of moving Gabe McKenzie back to tight end from defensive end before the Georgia game. True freshman Vance Smith is now McKenzie's backup.

• PK Wes Byrum has got what Tuberville termed "an inflamed knee" and isn't going to practice this week. Byrum suffered the injury a couple weeks ago. Tuberville blamed it on adding kickoffs to his already heavy load of kicking. "When you do the kickoffs, field goals and extra points, you do a lot of kicking during the year," he said. "We're many days into the season and sometimes they tend to over-kick."

• Curious quote from Tuberville on RB Mario Fannin, who had the team's only two touchdowns against Georgia: "It was a good game for him Saturday. He made two very good plays, but I think those other guys could have done the same thing being in that situation. There's not a lot of difference in any of those guys." Maybe it's just me, but Ben Tate doesn't seem to be the home run threat that Fannin is.

• Tuberville claims this year's struggles haven't affected recruiting at all. Three four-star 2009 recruits -- QB Raymond Cotton, TE Philip Lutzenkirchen and RB Onterrio McCalebb -- were on hand for the Georgia game. "Recruiting is going fine," Tuberville said. "It's not affected by losing a few games. As coaches, you'd think it would help mentally a little bit. It really doesn't. A lot of the guys see they may have an opportunity to play a little bit sooner."

• Interesting tid-bit from Sunday that I kind of glossed over about Auburn going back to the huddle. Tuberville hinted that teams might be stealing the Tigers' signals. "As coaches, you're always wondering why are they slanting this way or doing that," Tuberville said. "It's probably not happening but it gives you peace of mind for your players and coaches, 'Hey, you can do more when you give more to your players.' We just haven't been able to give them much up to this point."

• I like center Jason Bosley. He's a good guy who shows up every week to the media sessions and answers questions some of his teammates would rather not. But he certainly was the grand prize winner of the cliche of the week with this comment on the Iron Bowl: "I don't think records really matter in this game. It doesn't matter who's ranked, who's not ranked. You've seen in the past. You can throw records out the window, it's going to be a good game. This game is all about heart and pride in both schools. Both teams have got a lot of friends and family that are affiliated with both schools. It's a fistfight and it's going to be a classic."

• CB Walt McFadden says Auburn has a countdown board to the Iron Bowl that starts in the preseason. I believe him.

• DE Antonio Coleman says he hasn't given much thought about leaving early for the NFL after this season, although his stats -- 43 tackles, 10.5 TFLs and 6 sacks -- certainly make it a possibility. "I'm just focused on finishing the season strong," Coleman said. "I haven't paid too much thought to that. I just see how it pans out."

• Tuberville continues to have a sense of humor about the rumors surrounding his personal and professional life. His wife called in the middle of his interview session Tuesday. "Those that have said my wife has left me, I promise she ain't," he said. "She's still calling. Let me text her and I'll tell her I'll call her back."