Trovon Reed didn’t want to say it was frustrating sitting out three games with a shoulder injury after missing his entire true freshman year — save for two snaps — with knee issues.

But, after searching around for adjectives and other ways to describe his mindset sitting out the middle portion of Auburn’s slate, Reed kept coming back to one word.

Frustrating.

“At times it can get frustrating when you see your team out there playing hard and you’re on the side, can’t do nothing and got no chance to do anything,” Reed said. “It can be hard sometimes.”

Reed says he’s back at 100 percent now, and he and Emory Blake are looking to undo some of the reputation hits Auburn’s receivers took when both of them were sideline.

Auburn receivers caught seven passes for 140 yards against Arkansas and Florida, the two games Blake and Reed both missed, except for Blake’s one or two snaps against the Gators.

“When the passing game was struggling and they kept on saying how terrible the receivers are, in my heart I knew our guys,” Reed said. “I knew they work hard every day, and me and Emory don’t make the team. We’re just part of the team.

“That was eating me and him up at the same time.”

Reed returned against LSU and caught two passes for 26 yards before going without a catch against Ole Miss before the bye week.

The Thibodaux, La., native was glad to get back on the field, but less than pleased with the result and subsequent ribbing after Auburn’s 45-10 loss.

“Everybody looks at the alabama game as the big game, but for me it’s the LSU game, because that’s my Iron Bowl,” Reed said. “Losing to them like that, and then to go home and hear it from the players and fans and everybody…my family.

“It was awful, man.”

Blake, coming off a high-ankle sprain, dressed out against LSU, but never expected to play.

Heading into the Ole Miss game, though, it was a different story.

Even if the ankle was only about “75 percent.”

“There’s still definitely some treatment to be done. High ankle sprains take a long time to heal,” Blake said. “So I’m just going to keep going back for treatment and, hopefully, get better quick.”

Blake didn’t show many ill effects from the injury, getting involved on the second series and hauling in five passes for 71 yards.

That included a 25-yard touchdown pass from Clint Moseley, one that wasn’t exactly as picturesque as the 45-yard bomb the quarterback threw to Quindarius Carr earlier in the game.

“He was like, ‘That has to be the worst touchdown pass I’ve ever thrown in my life,’” Blake said. “It was kind of a duck, and I had to adjust to it.

“Anyway, it worked.”

Blake will take it. So will Moseley.

And so will head coach Gene Chizik, now that he has a healthy Blake and Reed back to help stretch the field with the pass game.

“Whether they’re at 85 percent or 100 percent, just having them on the field is really big for us in terms of what we call, how we call it,” Chizik said. “Having Emory back the other night, it was obvious in some third-down situations, him making some big catches and things of that nature that were all at the right time, makes a difference for your whole football team.”