Former Faith Academy standout Shemar James will be back next week to play one more game in Mobile.
“It feels great being a Mobile kid coming back to play in the Senior Bowl,” James said on Monday. “I mean, it’s surreal, you know, just dreams coming true right in front of your eyes.”
James could have played in the 2026 Reese’s Senior Bowl instead of this year’s game. But after three seasons at Florida, the linebacker deemed himself ready to reach for the NFL.
“I felt as if I was ready to enter the draft,” James said. “You know, just the preparation my coaches and the support staff around the facility has given me for the past two years, I feel like they put me in the best position after my third year to enter the draft and put my best foot forward.”
James probably would play in a Faith Academy uniform if they would let him.
“It means a whole lot,” James said. “I was actually the first SEC signee to come from Faith in football, so just making history there and just putting on for where I come from and also my high school I come from.”
James’ journey to the Senior Bowl started at Denton Middle School on Pleasant Valley Road in Mobile.
“(Coach Edmond Wilder), he was kind of the coach that brought me into, like, the sports scene,” James said. “He told me that I can be great at it. He seen me playing one day at PE, and he was like, ‘Yeah, you can be pretty good at it.’ So I would say him just putting that belief in my heart at a young age.
“And then from there, coming to Faith Academy with coach Jack French. He was another coach that kind of lit that fire in my heart to play the game of football. And from that, you know, the rest is history. So I would say Jack French and coach Wilder were the two coaches, two main coaches that got me into this sport.”
The Alabama Sports Writers Association selected James for the athlete position on its Class 5A All-State team for the 2020 season. Faith tied the school record with 12 victories in that campaign and lost only twice – both times to St. Paul’s Episcopal. The Saints defeated the Rams 20-6 in a regular-season game on Sept. 19 and 21-20 in overtime in the AHSAA Class 5A semifinals on Nov. 27.
In addition to playing on the defense, James ran for 42 yards on eight carries and caught four passes for 78 yards in the playoff game.
“Man, that was probably my first heartbreak,” James said. “Those games, St. Paul’s, they had — who was it? — coach Mask, Steve Mask over there at the time. And they had some, I mean, like everybody in the offensive line was like a Power 5 guy at the time. They had a great running back. I forget his name – (Javonte Graves-)Billips, I believe. But, you know, that’s when the rivalry was first introduced to my life – the high school rivalry between Faith Academy and St. Paul’s. They ruined my life in high school. But that was just great competition coming up and just preparing me for the college rivalries, I would say,”
Florida started to make a mark in its SEC rivalries again in the 2024 season, including defeating No. 9 Ole Miss 24-17 on Nov. 23 as part of a four-game winning streak to end the season.
“That was probably one of those games that showed us, like me personally and the rest of my teammates, that we could play with some of the best in the country,” James said. “I mean, the week before that, we beat LSU that was ranked like No. (21) or something like that. And, you know, that kind of just showed us that we could play with anybody in the country, we could beat anybody in the country. So, you know, that was kind of like, I would say, like one of those momentum games going into next year that showed this team that you can – the sky’s the limit.”
By beating LSU, Ole Miss, Florida State and, in the Gasparilla Bowl, Tulane to close the 2024 season with an 8-5 record, Florida is in better shape, James thinks, than when he arrived in Gainesville. The Gators entered the campaign off three consecutive sub-.500 seasons.
“I’m part of that rebuilding phase, as they may say,” James said. “But it was great just having that strong finish at the end of the season and just giving them that momentum going into the next year.”
Florida’s losses in 2024 included setbacks against No. 19 Miami (Fla.), No. 8 Tennessee, No. 2 Georgia and No. 5 Texas before the Gators scored back-to-back upsets of ranked opponents LSU and Ole Miss.
“At the beginning of the season, I kind of felt as if we fell into that, you know, the toughest, toughest schedule in the country,” James said. “We kind of believed that. We kind of believed as if certain teams was better than us. But towards the end of the year, we kind of, like, locked arms. It was like nobody’s going to believe in us if we don’t believe in ourselves. So that’s kind of what we did, and we came out with big wins at the end of the year.”
That leaves James with one more game in a Gators helmet. Growing up in Mobile, James’ favorite part of the Senior Bowl is just what he’s doing – an area high school player returning for the Port City’s annual all-star game.
To the youngsters looking up to him now, James said his advice was: “The sky’s the limit. Whatever you dream of, you can go get it, so just dream, keep your head down, keep working and keep God first.”
The 76th Reese’s Senior Bowl kicks off at 1:30 p.m. CST Feb. 1 at Hancock Whitney Stadium in Mobile. Tickets can be purchase online. NFL Network will televise the game.
But there’s more to the Senior Bowl than the game. The activity schedule includes:
Monday, Jan. 27
Fellowship of Christian Athletes Rally, Cottage Hill Baptist Church, 11 a.m.-1 p.m.
Tuesday, Jan. 28
Senior Bowl practices (open to public):
National team, Hancock Whitney Stadium, 9:30 a.m.-11:30 a.m.
American team, Hancock Whitney Stadium, noon-2 p.m.
Wednesday, Jan. 29
Senior Bowl practices (open to public):
National team, Hancock Whitney Stadium, 9:30 a.m.-11:30 a.m.
American team, Hancock Whitney Stadium, noon-2 p.m.
Thursday, Jan. 30
Senior Bowl practices (open to public):
National team, Hancock Whitney Stadium, 9:30 a.m.-11:30 a.m.
American team, Hancock Whitney Stadium, noon-2 p.m.
USA Health Doc Rock, Soul Kitchen, 6:30 p.m.
Friday, Jan. 31
Saints Cheer Krewe clinic, Jaguar Training Center, noon-3 p.m. (Open to high school-aged cheerleaders and dancers. Cost is $75.)
Friday Night Street Party (downtown Mobile) with player parade at 6 p.m. and free concert featuring Eli Young Band and Sammy Kershaw at 7 p.m. in Cathedral Square
Saturday, Feb. 1
Senior Bowl Fan Fest (free), south lawn of Hancock Whitney Stadium, 10:30 a.m.
Legacy Tailgate HBCU Experience (free), south end of Jaguar Training Center, 10:30 a.m.
Path to the Draft players walk, outside Hancock Whitney Stadium, 11 a.m.
Reese’s Senior Bowl, 1:30 p.m. at Hancock Whitney Stadium, featuring performances by Jaguar Marching Band and Saints Cheer Krewe
1/20
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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X at @AMarkG1.
