RB Respect Month Vol. 3, Day 14: Edgerrin James runs with the big dogs (1997)
BIG PAWS ON A PUPPY!
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Welcome to day 14 of Running Back Respect Month! Yesterday, Steven Jackson closed out his Oregon State career with a dominant night in the 2003 Las Vegas Bowl. Here's where we're at today, and how the rest of the month looks:
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Today: Edgerrin James vs. Boston College (1997)
RB Respect Month Vol. 3, Day 14: Edgerrin James runs with the big dogs (1997)
As much as I love HBO's The Wire, I made a promise to myself when I started 2StripesCPD that I'd be the only millennial white guy with a sports blog/website/newsletter to never reference it in my writing. There's only so many times I can stomach a, "Come at the king, you best not miss!!" reference, you know? Sadly, despite my best efforts, I have no other choice but to go back on my word today. As Chris and Marlo once said about Michael –and as friend of the site Kyron Samuels loves to say– the best way to describe the 1997 Miami Hurricanes was, "big paws on a puppy."
Miami came into the year with high hopes after a 9-3 1996. They had a No. 13 preseason ranking, and were loaded with future NFL talent. Head Coach Butch Davis was entering his third season, and had South Florida recruiting on lock. The only problem? They were ridiculously young. On a roster that sported names like Ed Reed, Edgerrin James, Reggie Wayne, Santana Moss, Najeh Davenport, Dan Morgan, Nate Webster, Bubba Franks, James Jackson and Duane Starks, only Starks (a senior) wasn't either a freshman or sophomore. No one outside of the program even knew Reed's name until 1998, because he redshirted! In retrospect, it's not surprising that the Canes struggled, given their youth.
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Miami finished with their first losing season (5-6) since 1979, which included the program's most lopsided loss to rival Florida State (47-0). It was a disappointment for sure, but there were some silver linings. After a 1-4 start, the Canes went 4-2 over their final six. They scored 40+ points in all four wins, getting contributions from the young players they threw into the fire. This was a gangly puppy starting to grow into its paws. Edgerrin James' 271-yard, 3-touchdown performance in their 45-44 double overtime win at Boston College was the best evidence of that growth:
Unlike most of the other guys I mentioned above, James was already somewhat of a known quantity. He ran for 415 yards and two TD as a freshman in 1996. Boston College definitely knew who he was, given 123 of those yards and both scores came against them. He already had four 100-yard games in his young career - he just needed a true breakout day to put his name in the national scope. The second play of the game made it clear that James was finally ready to run with the big dogs:
