ESPN West recruiting Blog

Posted by Greg Biggins

Under Armour All-American running back Jordon James (Corona, Calif./Corona) was back in action Friday night and had a huge game for the Panthers. He then headed out to Cal Saturday for his second official visit.

James suffered a shoulder injury two weeks ago, but showed why he's one of the nation's elite backs in a tough 50-43 loss to state ranked Norco (Calif.). James had over 400 all-purpose yards, including 374 yards rushing and four touchdowns.

"It felt great to be back out there," James said. "Our team played really well and I think if we would have gotten the ball back with more time left on the clock, we could have won. Basically, neither team stopped the other all night, it was like a basketball game.

"They had the ball last and scored. We got the ball back with like four seconds and you can't do much with that. Still we competed hard and they have a great team so it showed how good we can be this year."

The following day, James hopped on a plane and headed to Berkeley. He had previously visited Washington.

"I loved it there," James said. "There was around 11-12 recruits all visiting and it was a fun atmosphere. When I got there Saturday, we all waited around a little for everyone to show up and then headed over to the stadium. We met the coaches and were on the field for the walk through before we went up in the stands to take our seats.

"It was different than Washington because on my official visit to UW, we sat in the student section. At Cal, we sat across from the students in the regular section and a lot of the fans there were yelling at us to take our seats because they couldn't see since we were a little late getting up there. It was weird, some of the fans were just plain rude to us and we had a lot of the USC fans sitting in our section too so that part was a lot different than my other visit."

As for the game itself, James said he kept his eye on one player in particular.

"I watched Jahvid Best the whole time," James said. "I kind of looked at this as a business trip so I studied how they use him and I really liked it. They put him in the I Formation, split him out wide, put him at the wildcat, they do a lot of things with him and that's how I would like to be used in college as well.

"It's pretty accepted that Best will come out early this year so if I chose Cal, I would be able to go in there and compete for playing time right away. They have some other good backs too, Shane Vereen is really good but the coaches told me I would have a chance to compete for playing time and that's all I'm looking to do.

"After the game, we went in to the locker room and coach [Jeff] Tedford just told the players not to hang your head and said they were going to keep improving and would get better. I met my host, Isi Sofele and everyone else went out but I was too tired. I only had three hours of sleep the night before so I just went back to the hotel and crashed for the night."

Sunday was a lot more active for James because he had a chance to do the tours and spend more one-on-one time with the coaches.

"I spent a lot of time with coach [Ron] Gould, the running back coach," James said. "We watched film on how they use the running backs there and he showed me film of guys like J.J Arrington, Marshawn Lynch, Justin Forsett and of course Jahvid. It's pretty incredible but Cal has had a 1,000 yard rusher the past seven or eight years.

"My parents and I also met with coach Tedford and we talked about football and the academics at Cal. We also toured the campus and met some academic advisers. That night we took a ferry into San Francisco for dinner and that was real cool as well.

"Overall, I had a great time and I'm definitely considering Cal. Both of my trips so far were pretty comparable. There wasn't one school where I felt more comfortable at or felt was one the better fit. I think I fit in well at both. Now I just need to take my last three visits and find the best place for me."

James will officially visit Notre Dame in two weeks and then take November visits to Arizona and UCLA.