10/26 at 11:30 PM

Onterio McCalebb: Auburn’s most consistent pass-catching threat.

Read that line again.

Onterio McCalebb: The Tigers’ No. 1 receiver.

Kind of odd for a team with 15 wide receivers listed on its roster.

It’s not exactly something the Auburn running back was expecting heading into his junior season.

“To tell you the truth, no I wouldn’t (have expected be Auburn’s leading pass-catcher),” McCalebb said. “Right now I can be the leading receiver, but I don’t look at stuff like that. I just play the game and do what I can do to help the team win.”

McCalebb leads the Tigers with 22 catches this year and is second on the team with 239 receiving yards.

True, most of McCalebb’s receptions have come on screens, swings, dumpoffs and other throws that don’t travel more than 3 or 4 yards past the line of scrimmage.

But he’s also shown the ability to take short passes and make them into sizable gains.

“He has been carrying a big load, but he is a guy we can hang our hat on. He’s a true champion,” offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn said.

And Auburn hasn’t gotten much of anything going in its downfield passing game over the past three weeks, with top threat Emory Blake shelved with a bum ankle.

McCalebb has caught seven passes for 68 yards in that span, trailing only Philip Lutzenkirchen (82) and DeAngelo Benton (80) in yardage over the past three weeks.

“He’s huge for this offense. He can do so many different things,” quarterback Clint Moseley said. “Coach Malzahn says he’s the fastest player in college football — and it’d be hard to argue.”

McCalebb’s receiving numbers this year are even more impressive when pitted against his stats from his first two years at Auburn.

He caught only 13 passes for 144 yards in his first 25 games with the Tigers.

And, to hear junior receiver Travante Stallworth tell it, he was lucky to catch that many.

“I remember when I first got here, he couldn’t catch very good,” Stallworth said. “Now, he’s become the double threat. Defenses don’t know whether he’s going to catch the ball out of the backfield or he’s going to run the ball.”

Now, he’s caught a ball in a team-high 11 straight games.

Oh, and he’s the Tigers’ second-leading rusher as well, with his 387 yards behind only Mike Dyer’s 812.

McCalebb is first among SEC running backs in receptions, second among Auburn Tigers with 88.8 all-purpose yards per game, 10th on Auburn’s all-time running back receiving yards list and averages 6.9 yards a touch on offense this year.

“He has been a great leader for us the last two years, and we need to continually find ways to get him the ball,” Malzahn said.

So he’s got the versatility angle taken care of.

But what about toughness? Durability’s always been a worry for the slight, 175-pound McCalebb, especially as he makes his living between the tackles more this year.

McCalebb took a pop from LSU safety Eric Reid at the end of a 14-yard catch Saturday and had to come off the field, forcing him to sit out the next play.

He wasn’t too pleased with that.

“It doesn’t matter if I get real hard and I’m on the ground for a second, I still don’t want to come out of the game,” McCalebb said. “I’ll do whatever for my team. That’s the kind of person I am.”

Doesn’t mean it didn’t hurt, though.

“I got my bell rung a lot on that play,” McCalebb said. “I got back in the game. It doesn’t mean anything because in the SEC everybody gets hit hard. You just have to get back up and in the game.”