LaMichael James Injury: How Will the Loss Shake Up the Initial BCS Rankings?

Ouch!

That was my first thought when I saw LaMichael James’ arm bend the exact opposite way it was made to bend on a goal-line run early in the fourth quarter of Oregon’s blowout win over Cal last night.

Before the injury, James was having one of the best games of his career, as he rushed for 239 yards on 30 carries. In a sad twist of irony, James had actually run in for a touchdown on a previous play before it was ruled that he had stepped out of bounds at the 3-yard line, which forced the goal-line situation.

The initial report on the injury is that it’s a dislocated elbow but no official prognosis or timetable for a return has been given yet.

James, who was in the thick of the Heisman Trophy race, sounded upbeat in a postgame press conference, vowing that he would return at some point this season.

Still, he’s obviously going to need at least a few weeks to heal up and you have to wonder how Oregon will deal with such a big loss.

This Oregon offense still has the pieces in place to stay explosive, with guys like Darron Thomas, Kenjon Barner and emerging freshman De’Anthony Thomas, but you simply can’t replace a dangerous weapon like James.

This in all likelihood ends the speedy junior’s quest for the Heisman this season, and you also have to figure that it will change people’s perceptions of this Oregon team just a bit.

The Ducks went into last night’s game ranked No. 9 in both polls, the highest position for a team with a blemish on its record.

We’ll learn a lot about this Oregon team next week when No. 22 Arizona State comes to town.

The first official BCS rankings will be released in Week 8 and it will be interesting to see where the Ducks get slotted, especially if it’s revealed that James will miss considerable time.

A lot will depend on how well Oregon performs in next week’s game against the Sun Devils.

If the Ducks show that they can still rack up yards and light up scoreboards without their star running back, they should be fine, but if the offense struggles against Arizona State, voters might start to lose some faith in this team.