Jim Popp has had his eye on James Wilder Jr. since 2013 when Wilder won an NCAA National Championship at Florida State University.
“Being from North Carolina I had easy ties to ACC Football,” Popp said. “I watched him through college and I got enamoured with his size.”
Wilder stands six-foot-three and weighs 232 pounds and he’s “cut up” as scouts would describe, meaning extremely muscular. His dad ran for over 6,000 yards as a running back in the NFL with the Buccaneers, Redskins and Lions, mom Barbara was a sprinter and sister Courtney played running back in the Lingerie Football League.
“I have to keep that secret,” Wilder said about how he’s maintained a great physique. “If I gave that out we would have everybody looking like little mannequins.”
That frame is part genetics and Wilder used it to become a two-time high school all-American in Tampa, earned a scholarship from the Seminoles – choosing them over the University of Florida and the University of Georgia. During three seasons at Florida State, Wilder was used in a talented backfield that included Devonta Freeman, currently the NFL’s highest-paid running back. Freeman and Wilder remain friends, but the crowded backfield led to Wilder going undrafted in the 2014 NFL draft.
“There were two or three backs rotationally, it wasn’t one guy all the time. That happens at some of these big schools because there are so many guys highly recruited and they want to get them playtime,” Popp said.
Parts of three seasons – all on the practice squad – were spent in the NFL with the Bengals (2014 and 2015) and Bills (2016), but Wilder wanted an opportunity to get on the field. Popp was working in Montreal those years and he had Wilder on the Alouettes negotiation list. After the 52-year-old general manager was hired by the Argonauts, Wilder was dropped by the Als and Popp promptly added the physical back to Toronto’s neg list.
“We worked for a year or two – because he kept coming in and off rosters in the NFL,” Popp said. “I felt like if you could ever get a guy that size into the CFL they would have an advantage.”
Special teams were initially where Wilder made an impact for Toronto.
“For us, he was probably our best special teams player through the first 12 weeks of the season, he was in the tops as one of our tacklers, but disrupting, blowing the wedge up,” Popp said.
“The last guy who was like that I was a part of was Avon Cobourne. He was our top special teams tackler and he did our punt and kick return all at the same time. He was top three in each category in punt return, kick return and he was our No. 1 tackler. That was before Cobourne ever started at running back.”
Wilder found a similar way to Cobourne: earning trust on special teams and parlaying that into a lead runner role. He earned his first start in Week 13 and every game since that he’s been the main man in the backfield. The Argos are 4-1 in five starts with Wilder Jr. at running back, Toronto is 8-9 through 17 games. He has 1,178 yards from scrimmage, 736 rushing and 442 receiving – over 235 yards of total offence per game. That leads all rookies in offensive yards.
“James has this whole other gear to him – he can go,” Popp said of Wilder who has the longest rush in the CFL this season (85) along with being the only player with multiple 60-yard carries and is tied for the most amount of 20-yard runs (6).
Popp had a difficult time comparing Wilder to any past or present CFL backs because he was around the great Mike Pringle at the peak of his career.
“Mike was five-nine, 210 pounds and played like he was 250. He was so powerful and had leverage on people. Mike especially early in his career had great speed, he could run into his own lineman, bounce off, and still could take it to the house. He could break tackles, run over, run around, through and outrun people. When you take those elements in different sized people, James has that ability to do all those things.”
Pringle was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 2008 as the CFL’s career rushing record holder (16,425). Even with Popp’s high praise, head coach Marc Trestman believes Wilder has room to grow.
“Protection-wise we’re extremely confident in his ability there. He’s done a really good job – knock on wood – of taking care of the football because he’s taken some tremendous hits, guys are falling off of him, he’s finishing with his feet, he’s dropping his pads, so that’s exciting,” Trestman said.
That running style Wilder patterned after his dad. Popp remembers vividly the senior Wilder was big, even for the NFL.
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“We’re the same size, but the game has changed from the ‘80’s until now, that was 30 years ago,” Wilder said.
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“Especially in this league, I can take advantage of my size because the defences are smaller and I’m really the biggest guy except for the offensive and defensive linemen on the field at a skill position.”
Wilder wants to create a new era with his size and speed and if he keeps running wild it’s going to happen.
