BATON ROUGE — LSU tailback LaBrandon Toefield has been named the Southeastern Conference and the Louisiana Sports Writers’ Association Offensive Player of the Week after his performance in helping lead the Tigers to a 45-38 overtime win over 13th-ranked Mississippi State on Saturday, it was announced Monday.
Toefield, a freshman from Independence, La., rushed for 119 yards and two touchdowns on a career-high 26 carries. Toefield’s second touchdown was a 13-yard burst in overtime that proved to be the game-winner for the Tigers.
The 119 yards for Toefield was one shy of tying a career-high and it was just three yards shy of the total rushing yards given up by Mississippi State in its first five games combined. Mississippi State entered Saturday’s contest ranked No. 1 in the nation in rushing defense by allowing just 24.4 yards per contest. LSU, behind Toefield, rushed for a season-best 220 yards against the Bulldogs.
For the year, Toefield ranks sixth in the SEC in rushing yards per game with 73.5 per contest. Through eight games, Toefield has rushed for 588 yards and he’s scored five touchdowns.
Toefield is the first LSU freshman to earn SEC Player of the Week honors since 1995 when Kevin Faulk was named the league’s player of the week after a 38-9 win over Ole Miss on Nov. 11.
The SEC Offensive Player of the Week honor is the second for the Tigers this season as quarterback Rohan Davey earned the award after leading the Tigers to a 38-31 overtime win over then-No. 11 ranked Tennessee on Sept. 30.