“I think we got a gem,” Neuheisel said that day. “I think we got the best running back in California.”
Maybe Neuheisel really believed it. After all, James ran for more than 2,900 yards and 49 touchdowns as a senior.
But more likely, the University of Washington football coach was taking a little jab at one Lorenzo Booker, a megastar from Ventura, Calif., widely acknowledged as the nation’s top tailback prospect, who turned down Washington and Notre Dame to go to Florida State.
Yet, in his short time at Washington, James is showing signs that the gap between Booker and himself may not have been as wide as many initially thought.
In his 17-carry, 75-yard performance against a very good Fresno State team in the opener, James showed he just might be the tailback Neuheisel had in mind – one who could balance the UW offense, something that hasn’t even remotely happened since the 2000 Rose Bowl year.
Since then, Washington has struggled. The Huskies saw quarterback Cody Pickett break school records throwing to all-world receiver Reggie Williams and standout Charles Frederick. Meanwhile, the ground game suffered when Rich Alexis couldn’t repeat his promising freshman season of 2000 and the line was too busy learning the intricacies of pass protection.
The response: bombs away, with Pickett throwing more than any UW quarterback in history. The problem was that teams caught up to it, and the Huskies finished 8-4 and 7-6 in Neuheisel’s last two seasons.
That was the atmosphere James saw when he enrolled at Washington. Pass, pass, pass. Which could have been reason enough for James to flee.
He didn’t.
“It didn’t worry me at all,” James said. “Coming in here, I knew the University of Washington had a plan to run the ball. Even though it wasn’t a running team, we had to find our identity as a running team. As I got into the system, I got more and more confidence in the running game and I felt the linemen got more confident in the running game.”
It showed.
In 2003, first-year head coach Keith Gilbertson, mindful that Pickett, Williams and Frederick couldn’t be ignored, made a commitment to run the ball with greater frequency. Behind Alexis and James, the Huskies were sixth in the Pacific-10 Conference in rushing offense. While it reminded no one of Woody Hayes’ great Ohio State teams, it was an improvement over the previous year and built a foundation of what Gilbertson wants in the years ahead: a return to the UW’s tradition of tough, relentless offenses that wore down opponents by pounding the ball on the ground.
And James, now a redshirt sophomore, is the centerpiece.
“Hopefully, we can take that dramatic improvement to this year,” James said.
The Huskies will have a chance to show the improvement Saturday against a UCLA team that has struggled to stop the run. The Bruins gave up 462 yards on the ground in their opener against Oklahoma State, then followed it up with 208 against Illinois.
James is a quiet, introspective sort who reads his Bible daily. By all accounts, he is a modest, unassuming young man who wants to talk about himself about as much as he wants to go to Anthropology 101.
But even James lights up when asked about Oklahoma State tailback Vernand Morency, who trampled the Bruins for 261 yards on 29 carries.
“You see a running back like that go for 260 against an opponent, you get the mindset of, ‘Yeah, I can go out there and do the same thing,’ ” James said. “Hopefully, we can go out there and get the job done.”
James showed signs last season of what he can do.
His best game came against Oregon, when he ran for 104 yards on 18 carries, including a 56-yard run. For the season, his redshirt freshman year, he finished with 530 yards on 122 carries.
James’ style is one of power and deceptive speed. Against Fresno State, he dragged three tacklers on one play 8 yards for a first down. He can slip through a hole, knock down a linebacker or juke a safety.
“He’s a very tough runner, very durable,” UW guard Clay Walker said. “He’s not the fastest guy in the world, but you know he’s going to get five yards at a pop. He’s a reliable runner.”
James also has shown that he can be the guy who can take 25 carries a game. At 215 pounds, James has added 10 pounds to his 5-foot-10 frame over the past year. That’s especially true because of the Huskies’ depth at tailback. Gilbertson has said that he wants to get backups Shelton Sampson and Louis Rankin more carries.
That shouldn’t cut into the carries James gets, given the team’s emphasis on the run, especially considering the desire to lessen the load on the quarterback position as Casey Paus develops.
Much of it is determined by the way the game goes. When Washington stays close or leads much of a given game, expect the ground game, and James, to emerge. But if the Huskies fall behind, naturally, they’ll turn to the pass to get back into the game.
Nevertheless, James is physically capable of being the bell cow.
“He’s a durable back,” running backs coach Cornell Jackson said. “He hasn’t been hurt all camp or all fall. He’s thick – 215 pounds. He can carry 25 times a game.”
If it happens Saturday, people will quickly forget about Lorenzo Booker.
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