Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM OCT. 3, 2026 19 PUTTING IN THE WORK James scrawls five letters across the long eye black sticker that crosses his face over his nose. The message: "TP- BAM." The translation: "Touch Paper By Any Means." It's a saying that James came up with teammates Jerome Bettis Jr., Elijah Burress and Cree Thomas when they were freshmen last year. Thomas, a cor- nerback who has since transferred to Colorado, still has the acronym in the bio on his Instagram profile. So does James. "It means you just got to do what- ever you got to do to get whatever you want," James said. "That's really what it means, and I write it on myself, and it's kind of a reminder to myself like you got to put in the work, and like you got to do what you got to do if you want to achieve what you want to achieve." The work for James didn't slow down during the offseason. When he went home to New Jersey this summer, he filled his schedule with workouts. He trained with three different groups in an effort to keep rounding out his game. He spent time with Alliance Performance to work on his speed. He worked with Extreme Training Systems on running back movements. He even spent time running routes to catch passes for the quarterbacks trained by Matt Simms. "I always pride myself on work ethic," James said. "I fine-tuned everything on a scheduled basis. I trained always in multiple places, but I had days of recov- ery. I had multiple workouts a day, and I think I really had everything scheduled out to the hour — whether it was lei- surely or not. "When I was home or when I was here, I didn't really have much time where I was just sitting around like chilling. I kind of had everything sched- uled out." The balanced focus allowed James to prepare himself to impact games in various ways. Like his 4 receptions for 67 yards and 1 touchdown in the season opener against Wisconsin. Or his 121 rushing yards against Michigan State, which included a season-long run of 17 yards. "Each one of those things should be implemented into a lot of running backs' games, but my game specifically," James said. "So, I just try to train every aspect that should show up." MAKING IT TRANSLATE Notre Dame offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock foretold what James was capable of this season when he spoke to reporters in August following preseason camp. "When he's in there," Denbrock said of James, "he's a difference-maker." The 5-foot-10, 215-pound James proved difficult to tackle in the first three games of the season. Pro Football Focus credited him with 10 missed tack- les forced — 8 of which came on carries and the others following receptions. "He has those natural movements," said Notre Dame running backs coach Ja'Juan Seider. "It's a gift. He's got a similar gift to the two guys that left here last year [Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price]. "There's some guys that are tight and some guys that are loose. He's one of the loose-hipped kids. He can step and be over here in the next play, and I think he's going to continue to get bet- ter here." For those moves to benefit James, he needed to adjust the speed and patience with which he played. He admitted to be- ing in too much of a hurry during his first meaningful carries against Wisconsin. "I've made a conscious effort in prac- tice to really focus on that," James said. "Each and every day, I'm really focused, even if it feels like over-exaggerating it, because I know in the game it'll natu- rally speed up a little bit." That patience doesn't pay off un- less James beats defenders through the holes. He's demonstrated an ability to squeeze through small spaces, but it requires the right timing to execute consistently. The more times James can experience those moments in games, the better he can anticipate what his offensive line is going to do, how the defense will react and what it takes to maximize the yard- age. The Irish might not give him the ball 26 times in another game this sea- son, but he'll be ready for it regardless. "My whole life I've kind of just been like a workhorse," James said. "I've al- ways just ran the ball a whole lot, so it's not anything out of the ordinary for me." ✦ James posted 121 rushing yards and 1 touchdown on his 26 carries in Notre Dame's 27-10 win over Michigan State. PHOTO BY MICHAEL MILLER