Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks
James Heads Into 2019 As One of the Next Guys Up At Receiver
May 06, 2019 02:27 PM | Football
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – It's a regular deal in college football. When one player leaves the program another guy has to take his place.
That's what happened at Oklahoma last season when 2018 Heisman Trophy winner Kyler Murray replaced 2017 Heisman Trophy winner Baker Mayfield. Players graduate or move on to the pros all the time, but life must go on.
At West Virginia, life after standout wide receivers David Sills V and Gary Jennings Jr. is about to fall onto the shoulders of players such as junior T.J. Simmons and youngster Sam James.
Simmons is a name most Mountaineer fans are familiar with since he transferred from Alabama. His 28-catch, 341-yard, one-touchdown effort in a supporting role in 2018 provided a teaser for what he's capable of doing as a No. 1 target.
James is a name many WVU fans are still learning.
He came to West Virginia two years ago from Richmond Hill, Georgia - about a driver and a couple of 3-woods south of Savannah off Interstate 95.
James earned honorable mention Class 6 All-Georgia honors during his senior season after catching 53 passes for 905 yards and 11 touchdowns for his 7-3 prep team that made the state playoffs. Georgia high school football doesn't get the same publicity neighboring Florida gets, or Texas, California or Ohio for that matter, but there are a lot of tremendous prep football players in the Peach State.
WVU began making Georgia a recruiting priority a few years ago because there were more good players than Georgia, Georgia Tech and Alabama could take. And new coach Neal Brown plans to continue the practice.
"We have a lot of good players in Georgia," James explained. "It's just a different breed of football down there. It's hard-nosed."
James said he whittled his list of schools down to Mississippi State, Cincinnati, Maryland and South Carolina before choosing the Mountaineers.
His reason?
"A lot of kids down there need a way out and the only way out for some of them is to play sports," James said. "And most of them just play football because there are more positions on the field than any other sport.
"I wanted to be a little farther away from home and experience a different atmosphere," he said.
Morgantown is definitely different than southern Georgia, that's for sure, and James is going to be different than the guy he's aiming to replace, Sills.
For you older Mountaineer fans, in terms of body type and speed, James is probably similar to players such as Marshall Mills from the early 1970s or Rich Hollins from the early 1980s.
More recently, Shelton Gibson would be a good comparison size and speed wise.
Gibson was a burner who could stretch defenses vertically with his ability to run past defenders and catch the ball over his shoulder. That's the type of player James could be for Brown, who has professed a willingness to throw the football down the field.
Following last month's Gold-Blue Game, WVU's first-year coach offered a little insight on what he's looking for from his downfield passing game.
"If you go back and look at the last three years at Troy, our plays of plus-20 have been up there, and I think you have to threaten defenses vertically now," he said. "Guys in the secondary that are really well coached do a great job of reading routes and those types of things. I want to threaten the guys downfield and really give us some one-on-one opportunities."
The guy who happened to be doing most of the downfield threatening in the spring game was James, whose four-catch, 85-yard effort led all receivers that afternoon.
Twice, James ran right past corner Hakeem Bailey for long sideline receptions from Austin Kendall. His second grab was a thing of beauty when he made a great adjustment on the ball in the air and caught it before falling backwards out of bounds.
It was the type of catch that we got used to seeing Sills and Jennings make, and it demonstrated that James is much more than just a fast guy playing wide receiver.
He's got some ability.
"He's a guy that I'm excited about," Brown said. "He runs well. He's coachable. He plays with a lot of energy. He's very humble and hungry as well. I think his future is really bright."
First-year outside receivers coach Xavier Dye, in charge of James on a daily basis, likes what he sees as well. "I describe Sam as a full-speed player all the time; he knows one speed and that's full-speed," Dye said.
James said he's always played fast, even when he wasn't sure what he was doing. Every high school player ever recruited to play college football thinks the transition will be easy until he actually makes the transition.
Then, the first time he tries to get off the line of scrimmage in practice the defensive back is stuck to him like Velcro. That's because those DBs can run just as fast.
"You have to know how to play receiver in college to be successful," James admitted. "You realize you aren't as good as you think and you've got to work."
So he spent last year working and learning behind Sills at outside receiver. He watched how David knocked down the hands of the defender trying to cover him or how to attack defensive backs when running certain routes.
It was wash, rinse and repeat. Over and over.
"Just being able to watch them practice every day and play games helped me because now I'm doing those things," James said.
James was able to take advantage of the new redshirt rule by appearing in four games last year and still retaining his freshman year of eligibility. Even though it was just a sip that amounted to just two catches, it was an extremely valuable experience for him.
"That was crazy because I didn't expect to play at all coming off the redshirt," he admitted. "It was amazing being out there hearing all of the people cheering."
Perhaps this year, those same people will be cheering for him.
In order for that to happen, he's got to become more consistent catching the football. He needs to run more precise routes and he has to fill out his slender 180-pound frame.
The schedule West Virginia is facing this year with 11 different Power 5 opponents is going to be extremely challenging, as are the expectations for James, Simmons and the other receivers to match what Sills and Jennings did last year in the passing game.
"Yeah, there's pressure because people expect the new receiving corps to live up to what they did last year," James said. "We just have to step up and work hard to be able to do that."
Season tickets for the 2019 season are now on sale and can be purchased by logging on to WVUGAME.com or by calling the Mountaineer Ticket Office toll-free at 1-800-WVU GAME.
That's what happened at Oklahoma last season when 2018 Heisman Trophy winner Kyler Murray replaced 2017 Heisman Trophy winner Baker Mayfield. Players graduate or move on to the pros all the time, but life must go on.
At West Virginia, life after standout wide receivers David Sills V and Gary Jennings Jr. is about to fall onto the shoulders of players such as junior T.J. Simmons and youngster Sam James.
Simmons is a name most Mountaineer fans are familiar with since he transferred from Alabama. His 28-catch, 341-yard, one-touchdown effort in a supporting role in 2018 provided a teaser for what he's capable of doing as a No. 1 target.
James is a name many WVU fans are still learning.
He came to West Virginia two years ago from Richmond Hill, Georgia - about a driver and a couple of 3-woods south of Savannah off Interstate 95.
James earned honorable mention Class 6 All-Georgia honors during his senior season after catching 53 passes for 905 yards and 11 touchdowns for his 7-3 prep team that made the state playoffs. Georgia high school football doesn't get the same publicity neighboring Florida gets, or Texas, California or Ohio for that matter, but there are a lot of tremendous prep football players in the Peach State.
WVU began making Georgia a recruiting priority a few years ago because there were more good players than Georgia, Georgia Tech and Alabama could take. And new coach Neal Brown plans to continue the practice.
"We have a lot of good players in Georgia," James explained. "It's just a different breed of football down there. It's hard-nosed."
James said he whittled his list of schools down to Mississippi State, Cincinnati, Maryland and South Carolina before choosing the Mountaineers.His reason?
"A lot of kids down there need a way out and the only way out for some of them is to play sports," James said. "And most of them just play football because there are more positions on the field than any other sport.
"I wanted to be a little farther away from home and experience a different atmosphere," he said.
Morgantown is definitely different than southern Georgia, that's for sure, and James is going to be different than the guy he's aiming to replace, Sills.
For you older Mountaineer fans, in terms of body type and speed, James is probably similar to players such as Marshall Mills from the early 1970s or Rich Hollins from the early 1980s.
More recently, Shelton Gibson would be a good comparison size and speed wise.
Gibson was a burner who could stretch defenses vertically with his ability to run past defenders and catch the ball over his shoulder. That's the type of player James could be for Brown, who has professed a willingness to throw the football down the field.
Following last month's Gold-Blue Game, WVU's first-year coach offered a little insight on what he's looking for from his downfield passing game.
"If you go back and look at the last three years at Troy, our plays of plus-20 have been up there, and I think you have to threaten defenses vertically now," he said. "Guys in the secondary that are really well coached do a great job of reading routes and those types of things. I want to threaten the guys downfield and really give us some one-on-one opportunities."
The guy who happened to be doing most of the downfield threatening in the spring game was James, whose four-catch, 85-yard effort led all receivers that afternoon.
Twice, James ran right past corner Hakeem Bailey for long sideline receptions from Austin Kendall. His second grab was a thing of beauty when he made a great adjustment on the ball in the air and caught it before falling backwards out of bounds.
It was the type of catch that we got used to seeing Sills and Jennings make, and it demonstrated that James is much more than just a fast guy playing wide receiver.
He's got some ability.
"He's a guy that I'm excited about," Brown said. "He runs well. He's coachable. He plays with a lot of energy. He's very humble and hungry as well. I think his future is really bright."
First-year outside receivers coach Xavier Dye, in charge of James on a daily basis, likes what he sees as well. "I describe Sam as a full-speed player all the time; he knows one speed and that's full-speed," Dye said.
James said he's always played fast, even when he wasn't sure what he was doing. Every high school player ever recruited to play college football thinks the transition will be easy until he actually makes the transition.
Then, the first time he tries to get off the line of scrimmage in practice the defensive back is stuck to him like Velcro. That's because those DBs can run just as fast.
"You have to know how to play receiver in college to be successful," James admitted. "You realize you aren't as good as you think and you've got to work."
So he spent last year working and learning behind Sills at outside receiver. He watched how David knocked down the hands of the defender trying to cover him or how to attack defensive backs when running certain routes.
It was wash, rinse and repeat. Over and over.
"Just being able to watch them practice every day and play games helped me because now I'm doing those things," James said.
James was able to take advantage of the new redshirt rule by appearing in four games last year and still retaining his freshman year of eligibility. Even though it was just a sip that amounted to just two catches, it was an extremely valuable experience for him.
"That was crazy because I didn't expect to play at all coming off the redshirt," he admitted. "It was amazing being out there hearing all of the people cheering."
Perhaps this year, those same people will be cheering for him.
In order for that to happen, he's got to become more consistent catching the football. He needs to run more precise routes and he has to fill out his slender 180-pound frame.
The schedule West Virginia is facing this year with 11 different Power 5 opponents is going to be extremely challenging, as are the expectations for James, Simmons and the other receivers to match what Sills and Jennings did last year in the passing game.
"Yeah, there's pressure because people expect the new receiving corps to live up to what they did last year," James said. "We just have to step up and work hard to be able to do that."
Season tickets for the 2019 season are now on sale and can be purchased by logging on to WVUGAME.com or by calling the Mountaineer Ticket Office toll-free at 1-800-WVU GAME.
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