Entering the 2010 season, the LSU football team boasted one of the most talented receiving corps in the Southeastern Conference, if not the entire country.
 
Well, at least on paper.
 
Through two games, LSU’s big three — senior Terrence Toliver and sophomores Rueben Randle and Russell Shepard — have only managed to snag 16 balls for 178 yards.
 
The talent is there, but the offense as a whole has been somewhat vanilla.
 
“The only way I can describe it is a lack of rhythm,” Shepard said. “If you can find a rhythm, that’s all the passing is.”
 
Randle enters the Tigers’ home opener this weekend as the leading receiver with six catches for 101 yards, though half of that came on a 51-yard touchdown catch against North Carolina.
 
With LSU running the ball 50 times a game like it did against Vanderbilt, the trio could be in for a long season. Miles said Wednesday he wants to get Toliver, Randle and Shepard more touches, though.
 
“We’d love to get the receivers involved more,” he said. “Hopefully we’ll do that this week.”
 
Toliver, who entered the season as one of the top wideouts in the country, has six catches for a paltry 47 yards. He has seen   double teams after a 2009 season where he caught 53 balls.
 
“We need to step it up,” Toliver said of the Tigers’ passing. “Last week showed a low for us, only 96 yards passing. We do need to pass a little bit more.”
 
Toliver’s frustration comes after junior quarterback Jordan Jefferson completed only eight passes for 96 yards at Vanderbilt, leaving LSU coach Les Miles with no choice but to run the football.
 
“Once we get the first couple of completions, it builds confidence. … We just need to get that early in the game, and our offense will be a lot better,” Jefferson said.
 
The trio also hasn’t done its part either, as Shepard had multiple drops in the Vanderbilt game.
 
“As receivers, we need to make the tough catches for him,” Shepard said. “It’s impossible for a quarterback to throw a perfect ball every time.”
 
Shepard’s statistics resemble that of a running back instead of the “WR” label next to his name on the depth chart. He has only caught four passes for 30 yards, with his longest being a 10-yard catch.
 
All three receivers were five-star recruits out of high school — Toliver in 2007 and Randle and Shepard in 2009. But it has yet to translate to the field.
 
The Tigers have shown no interest in stretching the field so far in their first two contests. Of the 24 completions, only seven have gone for more than 10 yards. These short passes have limited the trio from using their athletic ability in space to create yards after catch.
 
“We have all these playmakers around, and it seems so easy to get them the ball, but before he can even throw the ball, Jordan needs to go through major progressions,” said junior running back Stevan Ridley. “I’m not making an excuse for Jordan, but it’s more than just getting them the ball.”
 
With the exception of Ridley, who exploded for 159 yards and a touchdown last Saturday, the playmakers have been relatively quiet.
 
Besides Randle’s long touchdown catch against UNC, Toliver’s longest play was a 17-yard reception and Shepard’s two biggest plays came at running back.
 
Shepard did have good news for fans who might look for LSU to open the playbook in Tiger Stadium in two days.
 
“We haven’t showed probably half the things that we can do in Tiger Stadium this weekend,” Shepard said. “[Offensive coordinator Gary] Crowton, he wanted to get these first two wins as basic as we can get.
We got a lot of things we haven’t shown that a lot of people are going to be excited to see.”
 
 
 
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Contact Sean Isabella at [email protected]