Auburn LB Shadarius Toodle Adds Prestigious SEC Award to Stellar Debut Weekend

The Auburn Tigers may have found their next great linebacker, as true freshman Shadarius Toodle made his collegiate debut this weekend against Arkansas, dazzling the Jordan-Hare crowd with a stellar performance that quickly won over the hearts of the Auburn faithful.

It wasn’t just the Auburn faithful who had praise for Toodle, though; 247Sports named him True Freshman of the Week on Sunday, and on Monday, the SEC added yet another honor to Toodle’s debut by naming him the SEC Freshman of the Week.

SEC Freshman of the Week 🦅
➡️ @D1Shadarius1 pic.twitter.com/vbfd6Wimvf
— Auburn Football (@AuburnFootball) November 9, 2026

Toodle is the first Tiger to earn this award since Deuce Knight, who netted it for his lone Auburn start against Mercer last season before transferring to Ole Miss.

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Toodle totaled an impressive 11 total tackles, 10 solo tackles, 4.5 tackles for loss and three sacks during his Auburn debut, despite coming in the game late as a replacement for the then-injured Demarcus Riddick and Elijah Melendez. The pair was able to return later in the game, but Toodle’s performance earned him a spot in the rotation, and he finished out the game with the starters.

Toodle’s three sacks were the most by any Auburn true freshman in a single game in program history, as he was just the sixth Tiger since 1995 to eclipse that mark.

A former four-star recruit out of Mobile, Ala., Toodle was rated as the 13th-best linebacker in the 2026 cycle at the time of his final commitment. The road to the Plains was an interesting one for the in-state prospect, who originally committed to Hugh Freeze in 2024 before flipping to Georgia in June of 2025, but he finally settled on the Plains after visiting for the Georgia game in 2025.

Toodle was on the practice squad just three weeks ago, according to head coach Alex Golesh, largely due to the amount of talent the Tigers already had in their linebacker corps. However, after dismissing Xavier Atkins ahead of the LSU game, losing Bryce Deas to season-ending surgery and losing Elijah Melendez and De’Marcus Riddick to injury during the Arkansas game, Toodle’s number was called, and he made the most of the opportunity.

Now, Toodle is expected to continue to contribute to an Auburn linebacker corps that has been battered throughout the season as they approach their final three games of the regular season, which include an away matchup against Mississippi State, the Tigers’ home finale against Samford and a trip to Tuscaloosa to wrap up the season.

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