Auburn's new coaching staff has been extremely tight-lipped about injuries with us local media, but apparently that's not quite the case when someone like ESPN's Chris Low makes a trip to the Plains.

Low spoke to some coaches today and put the following story up on the Web. Most of it is about depth concerns, which we've covered at great length, but he write a few things about injuries that nobody seems to want to say on the record to us (and to be fair, he didn't quote anybody directly, so he might have gotten this information not for attribution).

Here are two parts:

The Tigers don't expect to have Tim Hawthorne (broken foot) for the first four games, meaning the guys who will start the season atop the receiver rotations are Montez Billings, Terrell Zachery and Darvin Adams.

And ...

Injuries to Aairon Savage and Mike McNeil have put the Tigers in a tough spot at safety. Savage tore his Achilles and is out for the season, while McNeil is still rehabilitating from a broken leg and probably won't be available until midseason at the earliest.

None of that news is particularly surprising, since McNeil and Hawthorne have not done much of anything this August. But I've not seen or heard anything definitive until now about how long they might be out.