AUBURN | It’s the best kept secret in Auburn, for now.

The Tigers will be short some players for Saturday’s game against Tennessee due to positive COVID-19 tests or contact tracing. Exactly who, how many and at what positions is information Gus Malzahn would like to keep to himself.

Although the Tigers’ eighth-year head coach did offer a hint to the extent of the numbers during his Tuesday morning press conference.

“There’ll be a few that will not be able to,” Malzahn said. “We'll see where that goes. I'm not going to get into any specifics, but at this point there will be a few that won't be available for Saturday.”

Auburn hasn’t played since a 48-11 thrashing of LSU on Halloween. Last week’s Mississippi State game was cancelled after a COVID outbreak in the MSU program.

The three weeks off have allowed some injured players to return but there has to be concern about the Tigers losing the momentum of two consecutive wins. Malzahn is trying to counter that by getting his team straight into game preparation this week.

“It's been an interesting two weeks,” Malzahn said. “Last week, we had to shut down a couple of days and all that. We did finish practice at the end of last week. We have had some guys out and all that. We're just trying to continue to improve in the basic fundamentals and just really stressing the run and run the football. Just true Auburn football. And playing 60 minutes. That's really been our focus with all of our guys.

“It's good that we're going to get back in game-week routine today. This will be our traditional Tuesday practice. And of course, it's just good to get in a routine.”

Kickoff at Jordan-Hare Stadium is scheduled for 6 p.m. CT on ESPN.