Taking it to the top

by Barca Blog - It has been a record-breaking year for freshman tailback Warren Norman.

Browsing through Vanderbilt's all-time charts, the Stone Mountain, Ga., native has already surpassed Kwane Doster's mark for all-purpose yardage as a freshman, and topped D.J. Moore's record for single-season kickoff return yardage.

Norman's also closing in on Doster's freshman rushing record (needs 206 yards with 3 games remaining) and on pace to shatter the team's modern kickoff return average.

The records don't stop there, though. Last Saturday against Georgia Tech, Norman became only the second player in SEC history with three kickoff returns for touchdowns in one season. He needs only 51 yards to break the SEC single-season record for kickoff return yardage set by Dennis Johnson (Arkansas, 2008).

But even more impressive than that is the tidbit Chris Low offered in his latest blog on ESPN.com. Low wrote:

Norman leads the SEC with 1,526 all-purpose yards and has a shot to break Herschel Walker’s SEC freshman record for all-purpose yards in a season (1,805). Norman is averaging 169.6 yards per game, which would place him among the top 10 in the SEC all-time in terms of season average, just ahead of Deuce McAllister’s 169.2 yards per game in 1999 and Bo Jackson’s 169 yards per game in 1985.

Even though the Commodores won't be eligible for postseason play, Norman's run towards history will be one of the storylines worth following in the final three weeks.

To read Low's article, click here.

(Photo by John Russell)