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No Oregon running back has been closer to being a cheat code than a three-game stretch in 2011 that saw James average 246 yards per game.
(Photo: Eric Evans/GoDucks.com)
You had to feel for Mike Stoops.
Arizona closed 2010 on a five-game skid, a new athletic director roamed the halls on campus and the Wildcats opened 2011 with a gauntlet of three top-10 opponents in the first four games.
Stoops called it the “perfect storm,” as a 41-10 opening win against Northern Arizona segued into a 37-14 loss to No. 9 Oklahoma State, then a 37-10 loss against No. 6 Stanford with No. 10 Oregon on deck.
The Wildcats really couldn’t afford to lose three in a row, not if they wanted to reach a bowl game for a fourth consecutive season. Not if Stoops wanted to temper talks that his eight-year tenure as coach had plateaued in recent seasons.
“We need to get better,” Stoops told reporters after Stanford, Arizona’s seventh consecutive loss to an FBS opponent. “Hopefully, these game will make us better and more determined.
“This has been the perfect storm, and we’ve got to weather it.”
Stoops and the Wildcats had no chance.
People were calling LaMichael James slow.
And LaMichael James didn’t like that.
LaMichael James wasn’t included on Oregon’s roster for the new “Campus Legends” mode on Madden 22 that released this week. And yes, Royce Freeman is Oregon’s all-time leading rusher, LeGarrette Blount had a better NFL career and of course nobody wants to argue against Kenjon Barner — but James’ absence stood as the biggest omission on a roster that somehow managed to exclude the actual best player in program history, Marcus Mariota.
But with the Rookie of the Year trophy on Justin Herbert’s mantle and a Hall of Fame jacket on Dan Fouts’ back, at least those two could be rationalized.
You can’t really make an argument against James. He rushed for 1,500 yards as a freshman, 1,700 as a sophomore and his 2011 season stands as one of the best in program history. That year James averaged a school-record 7.3 yards per carry and put up actual video game numbers during a three-game stretch that included a then-school record 288 yards against Arizona in Tucson.
And it all started with people calling James slow.
After finishing third in Heisman Trophy voting in 2010, James came into the 2011 season with 20 extra pounds of muscle. Because he looked bigger, and because Oregon struggled in its season-opening loss against LSU — James rushed for 54 yards on 18 carries — a new narrative formed about Oregon’s leading back.
From The Oregonian’s John Canzano after the LSU loss:
The Heisman Trophy campaign of University of Oregon running back LaMichael James died a swift death on the field Saturday at Cowboys Stadium.
Punctured by jammed up holes on the Ducks offensive line. Bled out by a physical LSU defense that didn’t respect Oregon’s pass game enough to give him any room to run. Done in, too, by James himself, who not only arrived to camp heavier, but who ran like a slug, too.
The chorus grew louder when he rushed for 67 yards the next week on 12 carries against Nevada.
James heard it. He didn’t like it, and he made poor Missouri State pay the next week with 204 yards and three touchdowns on just 12 carries. If the 17 yards per carry didn’t indicate James was feeling it, maybe it was the 90-yard touchdown run. Or maybe the 50-yard one. Or the fact that his last carry of the game came with 13:43 in the third quarter.
Oregon won 56-7 and entered Pac-12 play ready to steamroll whoever dared to line up against them next. And that was Arizona, sputtering into the third game of one of the toughest three-game stretches in the country.
James had already given credit to his offensive line and talked about how getting the win was more important than anything else when he was asked the speed question.
See, James had just obliterated Arizona. He had 133 yards while averaging 12.1 yards per carry at the half, and then managed to top both those numbers in the second half, completing the game with a then-school record 288 yards and a pair of touchdowns on 23 carries. The Ducks won 56-31.
People have been writing, saying you’re slow. People have been asking you about it, for sure. Has that motivated you?
“That has motivated me more than anything,” James told reporters. “I love it. I wish more people would write things about me because everybody is on the outside looking in. It’s great motivation, but that stuff doesn’t really matter too much because the team has my back and nobody really matters other than people on the team. We have to come out here and play. You all have to write and hold the camera and do all that stuff. But nobody is playing football except me and the team.”
“I hope everyone keeps writing that,” added Oregon coach Chip Kelly. “They write that he’s fat and slow. I just hope they keep writing that.”
The 288 yards eclipsed Onterrio Smith’s single-game mark of 285 set in 2001.
Stoops called it “humiliating.”
“LaMichael James was spectacular tonight,” Stoops said. “We just couldn’t find a way to stop him.”
To be fair to Stoops, few could the rest of the season. James eclipsed 200 yards again the next week with 239 against Cal. He finished 2011 with a school-record 1,805 yards. And while Freeman would best that mark in 2015 (13 games and 283 carries against James’ 12 games and 247 carries), and then break James’ Oregon career mark in 2017 (5,621 yards on 947 attempts against James’ 5,082 yards on 771 attempts) the number of responses Madden’s little “Campus Legends” roster elicited from fans on Twitter showed just how much of an impact James made during his time in Eugene.
Stoops likely hasn’t forgotten. He made it just two more games before being fired.
He’s now Willie Taggart’s defensive coordinator at Florida Atlantic.
And while James might not be in this video game, Oregon fans certainly know how he’d look in one.
— Tyson Alger
