James Davis

From NCAA College Football Information & Resource

James Davis

Profile
College	Clemson University
Position	HB
Jersey No.	1
Class	Junior
Career	2005 – present
Height	5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)
Weight	210 lbs (95.3 kg)
Nationality	American
B-date	January 1, 1986
B-place	Atlanta, Georgia
High School	Douglass High School
Career Highlights
Awards
2007 ACC All-League First Team 2007 Clemson's Solid Rock Award 2007 CollegeFootballNews.com All-ACC Offense 2007 Phil Steele's All-ACC Second Team 2007 Rivals.com All-ACC Second Team
Championships
none
Bowl Games
2007 Chick-Fil-A Bowl 2006 Music City Bowl

James Davis (born January 1, 1986 in Atlanta, Georgia) plays running back for the Clemson Tigers in the NCAA college football tournament. In his three seasons with Clemson, Davis has been a consistent leader and producer in the Tiger offense, topping the 1000-yard mark for the past two seasons and joining Raymond Priester and Woody Dantzler as the only rushers to achieve the feat. The ACC Rookie of the Year in 2005, Davis is just 836 yards short of becoming Clemson's all-time leading rusher after amassing 3,130 rush yards in three years. His 38 total touchdowns, 36 scoring runs, and 12 career 100-yard rushing games are also all ranked second in school annals. With the "Thunder" returning for his senior year, Clemson will be considered as one of the favorites in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

1 Personal Life
2 High School
3 College
4 Highlights
5 Achievements
6 References
7 External Links

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Personal Life

James was born on New Year's Day of 1986 and grew up in downtown Atlanta, Georgia with his mother Theresa. He is majoring in sociology at Clemson University.

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High School

Davis played under coach Gary Cantrell at Douglass High School which was considered a football powerhouse since its establishment. An honorable mention AAAAA all-state as a junior, Davis took charge as the Astros' team captain during his senior year, rushing for 2,389 yards and 28 touchdowns on 350 carries on his way to being awarded with the Golden Helmet Award as the team MVP and several postseason accolades that include a spot at the All-Southern team (honorable mention) from the Orlando Sentinel. He was also chosen to play in the Georgia North/South game and was named co-MVP after scoring his team's only touchdown in the North victory. Davis ended his high school career with career numbers of 7,339 rushing yards and 80 scoring runs, including two 300+yard games as a senior and was one of the highly ranked players in the nation. Rivals.com ranked Davis as the #42 player in the nation, #7 running back in the nation, and #16 player in Georgia; Superprep Dixie chose him as the #4 prospect in Georgia; ESPN.com and CollegeFootballNews.com rated him as the #17 running back in the nation; SuperPrep All-American chose him as the #24 running back in the nation; Scout.com rated him as the #26 prospect; while Superprep ranked him as the #56 player in the southeast.

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College

With a highly impressive resume, several schools showed interest in recruiting Davis, including Clemson, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana State, Mississippi State, Tennessee, and Virginia Tech. In the end, he chose to sign with Clemson "in an effort to get an arms-length away from Atlanta."

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2005

Davis shared running back chores with Reggie Merriweather, starting in six games and playing in 366 snaps which ranks as the most among first year freshmen in school history and third overall among all freshmen. He made his debut against Texas A&M where he was named ACC Rookie-of-the-Week after rushing 19 times for 101 yards and catching a pass for 6 yards. He also emerged as the team's leading rusher the following week after rushing for 82 yards on 20 carries against Maryland. Davis scored his first TDs against Wake Forest, reaching the endzone twice while rushing for 51 yards on 13 carries. Davis claimed the league's ACC Rookie-of-the-Week for the second time against N.C. State, after rushing for 143 yards and two touchdowns on 12 carries but sustained a broken wrist against the Wolfpack. He missed Clemson's next game against Temple and played just one snap and rushed for a yard against Georgia Tech the following week. On his third game from injury, Davis produced 65 yards on 17 carries against Florida State to claim his third ACC Rookie-of-the-Week accolades. In the regular season finale, he had 27 carries for 145 yards and a touchdown in the win against 19th ranked South Carolina to claim the ACC Offensive Back-of-the-Week and the coaches' offensive player-of-the-game honors. He made his postseason debut at the Champs Sports Bowl against Colorado, rushing 28 times for a season-high 150 yards and a TD to earn his second consecutive offensive player-of-the-game honors from the coaches and the Bowl game's MVP honors. His 150 rushing yards against the Buffaloes was the second-highest rushing total in a bowl game by a Tiger and was the only 100-rush yard performance against the CU defense.

Among his postseason accolades include an All-ACC honorable mention selection from the ACC Sportswriters Association, a second-team, third-team, and honorable mention freshman All-American selection from Rivals.com, CollegeFootballNews.com, and the Sporting News, respectively, and a first-team freshman All-ACC accolades from the Sporting News. Davis, the first Clemson ACC Rookie of the Year since 1995, also broke and established several records as a freshman with his 9 touchdowns, 5.3 yards per rush average, 1,031 all-purpose yards, and four 100-yard rushing games all listed as Clemson freshman records. Davis also figured prominently in the statistical race, placing 4th in the league (1st among ACC freshmen) and 56th in the nation in rushing (79.9), 7th in the conference in all-purpose yards (93.7), 4th in the ACC in rushing touchdowns (9), and 1st (tied) in the conference in TDs against ACC teams (7). The team's offensive rookie of the year, as voted by the coaches, ended the year as the Tigers' top rusher, fourth-leading receiver, and leader in all-purpose yardage on a per-game basis.

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2006

With the success of his rookie year, there was no way but up for Davis and his stats showed his improvement as a sophomore. He made 13 consecutive starts, 15 overall counting the last two games of his freshman year, making his season debut against Florida Atlantic where he had 14 carries for 94 yards and a TD. Davis strung up five straight games with a TD or more, highlighted by a four TD performance (first Tiger to score 4 TDs since 2003) against North Carolina and includes his game-winning 1-yard touchdown run on the road against 9th ranked Florida State. His efforts against the Tar Heels, which include 15 attempts for 95 yards, earned him offensive player-of-the-week honors from the Clemson coaches. In a game against a team from his hometown, Georgia Tech, Davis dished out one of the finest performances of his career, establishing a career-best 216 rush yards (most rushing yards by a Tiger since Raymond Priester had a record 263 against Duke in 1995 and the most rushing yards in a game by an ACC player during the season) to go with 2 scoring runs on 21 carries against the Yellow Jackets to claim the Walter Camp Foundation national offensive player-of-the-week and the team coaches' offensive player-of-the-week accolades. He ended the season with his second straight postseason appearance against Kentucky in the Music City Bowl, rushing 8 times for 53 yards.

By the end of the year, Davis improved his yards per carry from 5.3 to 5.8 (2nd in school history for backs with 1,000 yards in a season), his TDs scored from 9 to 17 (5th in ACC history, Clemson single-season record and one short of matching the Clemson overall TD record set at 18 in 2000), and his yards per game from 80 to 91.3 (28th in the nation, 3rd in ACC) from the previous season. The first team All-ACC running back also gained 1,187 yards (6th in school history) and led the team in plays of 20 yards or more with 14, including 12 rushes and two receptions.

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2007

Davis returned as a co-starter for the Tigers during his junior season. During the season-opener, Davis dashed for 102 yards and a TD from 18 carries in a win over Florida State. He went four straight games with a touchdown, capped by a 24-carry, 166-yard effort against N.C. State. He also notched his first TD reception against the Wolfpack and caught 4 passes for 13 yards. After a two-game losing streak to Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech, where he only had a combined 18 carries, and 69 yards with no TDs, Davis rebounded with 22 attempts for 88 yards and a season-high 2 TDs with 2 catches for 19 yards and a scoring catch against Central Michigan to claim the AgSouth Homegrown Athlete of the Week honors. He went on to appear in his third straight bowl game, rushing 23 times for 72 yards and a TD in the Chick-Fil-A Bowl defeat at the hands of Auburn. Davis was selected as part of the All-ACC first team, his second straight (first RB to accomplish the feat after Terry Allen did it from 1897-88) after producing his second consecutive 1000-yard season with 1,064 yards and 10 TDs on 214 carries.

After a disappointing showing by the Tigers in the bowl game, Davis considered joining the 2008 NFL draft, only to withdraw his name from the pool just before the deadline expired.

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