While reminiscing about his high school playing days last week, Kwane Doster said he was the ''whole'' team.

He hasn't yet reached that rank on the college level, but the freshman running back from Tampa, Fla., certainly established himself as a vital cog for Vanderbilt this past Saturday.

Doster piled up more all-purpose yards in the come-from-behind effort that fell short against Mississippi than any player in the school's history.

When he wasn't teaming with Norval McKenzie in the backfield and keeping the Rebels' defense on its heels, he was returning kickoffs like no Commodore ever has.

Doster finished with 101 rushing yards on 15 carries and 243 kickoff return yards on eight attempts. That is 344 all-purpose yards, which eclipsed the 321 yards Frank Mordica had against Air Force in 1976. All of Mordica's yards were rushing.

''[Strength and conditioning] Coach [John] Sisk said earlier in the week that he felt like I was going to have my first 100-yard rushing game,'' Doster said yesterday. ''And that came, but I didn't really expect to have all those yards returning kickoffs. ''

Doster was nominated for the SEC Special Teams Player of the Week, and that honor will be announced today. He leads the conference with an average of 171 all-purpose yards per game and is ranked ninth nationally.

Doster needed help doing as much damage on offense, and that came from McKenzie. The duo each rushed for 101 yards as Vandy's offense piled up 304 yards on 49 rushes.

It is the first time Vandy had two rushers gain more than 100 yards in a game against an SEC opponent since Jermaine Johnson (177) and Ronnie Gordon (126) did so against Georgia in 1994. It was also the most rushing yards total Vandy has had against an SEC team since it had 435 yards against the Bulldogs that year.

The success on the ground is somewhat surprising considering the Commodores lost starting running back Ronald Hatcher, who broke his leg early in the second game against Furman.

''It was a big loss because Hatch was a great runner who did a lot for us last year,'' tackle Justin Geisinger said. ''But Norval and Kwane have stepped up real good.''

Doster and McKenzie have helped convince first-year Coach Bobby Johnson that switching the offense from the wide-open pro style it used last year to a more conservative ground game was a good move. The Commodores climbed to 23rd nationally in rushing offense (218.3 yards per game).

''Obviously, if you've got somebody like [Auburn's] Carnell Williams or Ricky Williams or somebody like that who's considerably better than whatever you've got, then you're going to go with one guy,'' Johnson said. ''But we like the fact that we can keep both of our guys fresh and we can put them both in the game at the same time like we do sometimes.''