Brandon James made his mark on special teams in his first three years with the Gators. He has powered past the wedge, sneaked through tiny gaps in the return’s team coverage and used his signature speed to set Florida records in single-season and career punt return yardage.
But for his senior year, he’ll face his biggest challenge: replacing departed wide receiver Percy Harvin in the H-back role in Florida’s offense. What will that role look like?
“A little bit of receiver and running back,” James said after practice Wednesday, “and a lot more involvement on offense. I’m really excited about it and am ready to go for Saturday.”
James has been waiting to star on offense since he arrived on campus in 2006. In those three years of waiting, the competitor in him would quietly wonder why he couldn’t have more time on the offense, but he knows now that everything comes in due time.
“Being a senior, it’s my turn to really step in and fill the offensive void,” James said. “I’ve been waiting on it a long time. We’ve had a lot of depth and playmakers, so I had to wait my turn.”
His turn might not have ever truly come, but a hamstring injury to freshman receiver Andre Debose cleared the path for James to assume the H-back role full-time. Debose, who has been compared to Harvin since his freshman year in high school, is more of a true receiver than James.
The competition was intense this summer, and James is confident that his body benefited from it.
“You just have to take care of your body a lot more,” he said. “I’ve never done as much running as I’m doing now, so I just had to get adjusted to it. I think I did a good job of it. I’m just gonna carry it over from the summer.”
He also used the summer to improve his main weakness on offense: the technical aspects of the passing game.
“I feel like, coming in, I had pretty decent hands,” James said. “But I really had to work on my route running and things like that. Catching the balls comes natural.”
He also is confident in his new position because he knows it well. Not only was he the primary backup for Harvin last year, he was also Harvin’s roommate.
“I played the slot a little last year – I backed up Percy (Harvin),” James said. “I’m very aware of the position. I know the plays and everything, and coming into this year, I already knew the whole offense.”
His confidence in himself has spread to his teammates, who voted him a captain for the upcoming season. James was thrilled when he hear the news, and described it as a big “honor.”
“I’m just gonna do my best to live up to it,” he said.
With Debose out for the foreseeable future – Coach Meyer ruled him out of Saturday’s season opener against Charleston Southern Saturday – depth is thin for the Gators at H-back. Senior receiver David Nelson will work with James in the slot receiver position.
“We just go back and forth,” James said. “Dave (Nelson) is a little more versatile. He’ll do the X, Y and Z (receiver positions). I’ll be doing mostly H-back and running back stuff.”
Not to mention his continued role on special teams. He had fewer opportunities to return kicks last season because the Florida defense wasn’t scored on very often, but he made up for it by posting 738 return yards – a mark only surpassed by James himself, in 2008.
“When the defense doesn’t allow many points,” James said, “you won’t get many return yards because the team isn’t kicking off to you a lot. But I’m not really worried about that. Hopefully, we’ll have a good defense again, and I’ll only have to return it once a game, at the beginning.”
James will do whatever is asked of him – whatever will get him on the field. For three years, he has returned kicks. Now, he’ll take hand offs, run counter plays and catch passes in the flat.
Even though he is eager to get involved and will do what is asked of him, he does admit that he favors one kind of play.
“When the ball is coming to me,“ he said, “that’s my favorite play.”