LaFell, Toliver blowing by rest of SEC

• By RANDY ROSETTA
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Nov 6, 2009

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LSU’s wide receiver tandem of Brandon LaFell and Terrance Toliver is lapping the rest of the Southeastern Conference field as the best one-two pass-catching punch.

Toliver leads the Tigers with 38 catches and 501 receiving yards and has reached the end zone three times. LaFell has 37 grabs for 478 yards and leads the league with eight TD catches.

Toliver is third in the SEC in receptions per game and fourth in receiving yards per game, while LaFell is fourth and fifth in those categories.

Combined, Toliver and LaFell have 75 catches for 979 yards and 11 TDs to blow away any other tandem in the league. The closest competition is Florida’s Riley Cooper and Aaron Hernandez, who have teamed up for 77 catches for 895 yards and seven touchdowns.

No other school has more than one receiver in the top in either category.

LaFell is also moving up several career charts. He needs 61 yards to move past Tony Moss into sixth place in all-time receiving yards, six catches to pass Early Doucet for fourth place in receptions and five touchdown catches to take over the top spot from Dwayne Bowe.

Many happy returns

With 1,579 punt return yards, Alabama senior Javier Arenas already owns the Crimson Tide record in that category and he’s closing in on the SEC and NCAA marks as well.

Arenas, who brought a punt back 61 yards for a touchdown against LSU in 2007, needs 117 yards to catch former Vanderbilt standout Lee Nalley for the league record (1,695 from 1947-49) and 182 to draw even with former Texas Tech star Wes Welker (1,761 from 2000-03).

In his career, Arenas has returned 112 punts for 1,579 yards (14.1 average) with six touchdowns — making him the current NCAA leader in all of those categories.

Big-play capability

While Alabama is best known for stingy defense, the Tide offense has been impressive this season with 35 plays of 20 yards or longer, nine that have gone for touchdowns.

Bama has also produced 12 plays of 35 yards or longer, seven for scores.