Through the Smoke

I don't think so. I think Mike will have a really solid year. Dukes body isn't ready for the full load. He will probably get 5-10 touches a game at RB this season.

Duke is a lot more talented than Mike James, but I just don't think he is ready. I will say this though, I do think Mike James is on a short leash after having an underwhelming season last year.

Mike James was not utilized in way to bring out the best of him...it wasn't his or the coaches fault...Miller was just better. You don't give Mike James 7 touches a game and expect him to light up the stat sheet....You give him 20+ and let him tire out the defense. I just don't see duke getting many touches before week 6ish unless eduardo really struggles. After week 6-8 i see Dukes load steadily increasing but nothing over 10-12 overall touches.....Lets not forget that mike james is certainly a much better pass blocker than Duke at this point which is also a major factor that will keep him on the field....especially in 3rd down passing situations.

I'm probably the only one here on ur side...!

you should put down the pipe...

"Crack is whack" - Whitney Houston

also, this theory doesnt hold a drop of water....because how many times last year did we need to get a first down in short yardage late in the game and James (as well as others) failed miserably? If this were true, he should have had a better year last year because Miller was the one tiring the defense out with most of the carries, he should have been able to come in fresh and run all over a tired defense....but that didnt happen at all.

Your missing the point....mike james wasn't the starter when he averaged 3.8.... Dukes avg is 0.0. Attrition and ball control is what wins tight games...and i'm sure we'll be in a lot of them like last year. We relied heavily on our run game in 4th in the VT matchup...remember lamar miller going beastmode and actually breaking tackles? Must i mention the RB's other job PASS PROTECTION??? No way duke is ready for that.

youre cant expect the line to move the LOS past the first down marker, their job is to create holes... and its even more unrealistic when theres literally 18-20 bodies between the hashes becasue everyone has their goal line package in. you cant expect the line to do all the work and the RB is just going to walk for a first down, he has to make the first guy miss and fall forward, which also rarely happened. they would get put on their back and pushed back by one guy. CLements was the lone bright spot in short yardage situations last year, he could find the crease and hit it quickly.

The OL was the problem. James seems to be better the more carries he gets. So judging him off of a handful of carries behind a bad OL is too much. He will be fine for 15-20 carries, OT with 5-10 and Duke with 5-10 touches as well.

and I think youre putting way too much blame on the OL. How is it that they were good enough to give us our first 1000 yd rusher in 10 years, but they get all the blame for the short yardage failures? I think some of it was play-calling..you cant always jsut run it straight ahead and some of it was the RB's that didnt have either the vision or the strength to get 1 yd. The OL wasnt dominant in those situations but they also cant block more than one guy at a time. Im putting the blame on a guy with a 3.8 avg and another RB who had great speed but couldnt break a tackle from a CB to save his life. All Im saying is James was supposed to be the smash to Millers dash, and all I remember from him last year was running into tackles (and not breaking them) and fumbling the ball when we put it in his hands. there were very few bright spots for him last year when he had his moments to shine. PLEASE FIND HIS INDIVISUAL STATS FROM EACH GAME LAST YEAR AND TELL ME THEY WERE ANYTHING SHORT OF ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE FOR 10 OUT OF THE 12 GAMES. His avgs were 2.8,3.8,2.5,-1,6.5,3,3,.5,8.3,4,2.6,0. and maybe the reason he got fewer carries as the year went along was because he got 12 each in the first 2 games and only avgd 2.8 and 3.8. why would you give him more carries?