Davis Named National Freshman of the Week

Sept. 6, 2005

Clemson first-year freshman running back James Davis has been named national Freshman of the week by Rivals.com. Davis led Clemson in rushing in the season opening win against #17 Texas A&M with 19 carries for 101 yards. His evening included a 33-yard run, the long rush by a Tiger in the game and tied for the longest play of the game for Rob Spence’s offense. He had eight consecutive carries for 33 yards on Clemson’s game-winning field goal drive that culminated with a 42-yard field goal by Jad Dean, giving the Tigers a 25-24 victory.

That was quite a debut for the running back from Atlanta. He became just the fourth firth-year freshman in Clemson history to gain at least 100 yards in his first game, the first to do it in 60 years. The last time it happened was on September 22, 1945 when freshman Bobby Gage and Jim Reynolds both had 100-yard performances in a 76-0 win over Presbyterian. Gage had 8-144 rushing and Reynolds 5-105. The only other time a first-year freshman had a 100-yard rushing game in the opener was in 1943 when Jim Whitmire had 15-121 in a 13-12 loss to Presbyterian. That 1943 Clemson team was just about all freshman as the United States military had drafted Clemson’s entire junior and senior class for World War II.