Oregon Ducks Football: LaMichael James Season Review

The greatest running back in Oregon Ducks history, LaMichael James wisely and unsurprisingly declared for the NFL Draft soon after his team won the Rose Bowl. He was, as always, instrumental in their Rose Bowl victory by gaining 159 yards on the ground on  25 carries, including a one-yard touchdown run in the first quarter.

Ted Miller ranked LaMichael James as the third best player in the Pac-12 last season on the ESPN Pac-12 blog, with quarterbacks Andrew Luck and Matt Barkley obviously being the top two selections. It’s incredible how a running back can have that sort of value, but that’s exactly what the expected second round pick is able to do; he’s easily one of the best running backs in conference history. This is a guy who was even better in 2011 than 2010 (insane right?), because he averaged 7.3 yards per carry and ran for 1,805 yards. Touchdowns are overrated, but it’s the only reason why Montee Ball was supposedly better than LaMichael James last season. The former Ducks back was the second best in the nation last year behind Trent Richardson; he was actually better than Ball.

Touchdowns may be overrated, but the good backs are able to rack them up. James had 18 touchdown runs last season and made it to paydirt once on a passing play. For the third season in a row, LaMichael James tallied exactly 17 receptions and once again increased his yards per catch average to 12.4. He finished off the last season of his college career with over 2,000 yards from scrimmage, and he even made a name for himself on punt returns with a return touchdown and an average of 10.7 yards per return.