AUBURN, Ala. — Ted Roof heard the question and didn't even want to consider the possibility: who is the linebacker backing up true freshman Jonathan Evans?

"Let's not even talk about that," Auburn's defensive coordinator said, shaking his head.

The Tigers' linebacker depth has reached a critical point. Eltoro Freeman hasn't practiced since suffering a concussion and ankle injury against Georgia, and his status for the Iron Bowl remains unknown. Adam Herring doesn't appear to be an option because of a bothersome heel injury.

That leaves Evans and his one half of experience in a meaningful football game as the only other option alongside starters Josh Bynes and Craig Stevens.

"If Jonathan has to be the guy, he had to be the guy in the second half of the Georgia game," Auburn head coach Gene Chizik said. "It's not that he hasn't played."

Evans, who has not been made available for interviews this season, has 20 tackles this year, mostly as a reserve and on special teams. He was thrust into action against Georgia after Freeman went down in the third quarter and responded with four tackles and half of a tackle for a loss.

"It's critical," Roof said of that experience. "There's only one first time and that was his first time really being in there when the game was still in the (balance). I thought he did a good job for the first time. He didn't panic. I'm sure internally things were moving pretty fast, but I thought he did some nice things and I look forward to more and more nice things as time goes forward."

Beyond Evans, Auburn's only options at linebacker are walk-ons Ashton Richardson and Wade Christopher.

"Right now we’re working through Jonathan as being 'that’ guy," Chizik said. "But you’ve got to remember we’ve got to look at who’s the next guy as well. It’s a little bit of a challenging situation for us, but with Eltoro being day-to-day, he’s certainly not out of the equation, either."

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• A lot of Eric Smith stuff came out Tuesday when a civil lawsuit was filed that claims two other Auburn football players were at least somewhat involved in beating up fifth-year engineering student Decari Jenkins. Here was Chizik's response when asked about it Thursday: "I’m not at liberty to talk about those types of issues. We’ve done everything that we needed to do in dealing when the whole thing arose three months ago. I’m not aware of any official anything that has happened right now. I know there is stuff out there. I can assure that we will deal, again, everything the proper way if that does occur. There hasn’t been anything that I’m aware of right now that has happened. Again, when it’s our time, and we have to deal with that, we’ll address it in the right way."

• Roof coached for two years at Alabama as a graduate assistant. He seemed to get the idea of how big this rivalry was, even back then. "This is the best rivalry in college football, and it's an honor and privilege to be a part of it," he said. "I'm a little bit older and more mature now than I was, a little bit more receptive to things that go on around you. Obviously it's a huge deal in this state, it's a game that lives you with for the entire season."

• Chizik had good things to say about CB Walt McFadden, most of which I hope to use in a story next week. Here's what he said about Walt's tendency to talk trash: "Walt has played a lot of football here, and he knows the line not to go over for penalties. Out there, there’s a lot of stuff going on between receivers and DBs. He’s definitely right in the middle of it, but he keeps everything in perspective and keeps under control."

• TE Tommy Trott on all the team's penalties: "We just don't maintain our focus. We've got to realize how they're such big drive-stoppers. Any time you have to play behind the chains, it totally changes the way your offensive coordinator can call plays and the way the defensive coordinator can call plays."

• Trott knows he's been personally responsible for a few of those: "It's tough. It really made me mad about that. You beat yourself up about it. It's a terrible feeling knowing that you're hurting this team on any particular play or any particular drive — especially when you have that kind of momentum. It was tough. It made me really upset with myself."