Starting over

AUBURN - Tommy Tuberville said Sunday that his season-long quarterback search would continue through the bye week.

The only difference: the parameters have been expanded this time, meaning true freshman Barrett Trotter, and possibly Neil Caudle, will get serious consideration.

The Kodi Burns and Chris Todd one-on-one dual is over after the pair combined to complete just 10-of28 passes for 137 yards and three interceptions.

"We're going to look at all options," Tuberville said. "We'll start today. We'll talk about it. If we're going to do anything I'll let you know where we're at on Tuesday."

Tuberville indicated that Trotter would get looks from the coaching staff this week. However, Tuberville doesn't want to burn the true freshman's redshirt unless Trotter will play a major role on the offense.

"Obviously we'll look at Barrett but I'm not going to do anything in terms of if I think he can help and then he would be for it to burn a redshirt this late," Tuberville said. "Really though it wouldn't mean a lot because if we did decide to do that and there was an agreement in terms that he wanted to do it, we wouldn't play him four or five plays.

"We'd put him out there and let him go and get him ready because I think that he could help."

Tuberville made a similar decision last year when he burned Kodi Burns' redshirt during the third game of the season. Burns played a big role in two games - against Mississippi State and starting against New Mexico State - before becoming irrelevant as Brandon Cox' backup for the rest of the regular season.

This time, Tuberville wants to make sure his quarterback is ready before pulling the redshirt.

"It just depends on practice," Tuberville said. "Say we go in and talk about it and we give it a shot and then we practice it for four or five days and then I say it's not going to work, then we won't even go with it."

If Trotter doesn't win the job, Tuberville indicated it would be Burns' job.

Burns struggled in his third career start, but Tuberville said he saw potential.

"We have a good idea of what Kodi can do," Tuberville said. "I think Kodi can do a good job. He'll get better. Kodi is a guy who's going to have to be a factor for us. He has good feet, good legs, can run, can make plays."

Tuberville was not as optimistic about Todd, who completed just 3 of 10 passes for 18 yards. Todd also threw an interception and was sacked three times.

"Last night he didn't play very well at all," Tuberville said. "We wouldn't be talking about these other things if we thought Chris could get it done."

Neil Caudle is another somewhat plausible possibility.

The redshirt sophomore has participated in two career games. He attempted three passes last year against Tennessee Tech, completing zero and tossing an interception.

"We're going to give him a shot," Tuberville said. "I'm not just going to throw Neil under the bus. Whether Barrett comes out there or not, Neil will have an opportunity. We'll give him some reps."

Auburn has more than a week to find its quarterback before its next game at West Virginia on Oct. 23.