If there was a day that Charles James went from pretty good cornerback to an All-America candidate, it was Oct. 9, 2010 when Charleston Southern played Liberty in Lynchburg.

The Flames won the game 44-20, using a fourth-quarter burst to pull away from the Buccaneers, who lost quarterback A.J. Toscano that day. But it was a breakout day for James, who intercepted three passes and held top Liberty receiver Chris Summers to 72 yards on five receptions. Consider too that Summers’ lone touchdown grab, a 29-yard reception, came with 28 seconds left and the Flames well in control.

“It basically showed that I could go out and compete against just about anyone,” James said last week at Big South football media day in Charlotte. “Chris Summers is one of the great receivers in our conference, and nationally. It just gave me a lot of confidence to go out and continue the rest of the season with the same confidence I had going into that game.”

James finished the season with eight interceptions and 12 pass break-ups in just nine games. The Sporting News named him a preseason All-American. At 5-foot-10 and 175 pounds, James doesn’t have the pure size to go up against taller receivers like Summers, who is 6-5. But he uses superior technique to put himself in position to succeed.

“I pride myself on being a technician,” James said. “I play a lot of press man, and I like to get my hands on the taller receivers so I can basically feel them out and find out where they’re going, rather than playing off and having to decide by their maneuvers. Basically, it’s a ball skill game. You put your hand between the ball when they get it. When they look up, you look up. It’s that type of game, especially when he’s 6-5 and I’m only 5-9, 5-10, stretching it. It’s basically a ball skills game.”

—The Buccaneers’ season ended in disastrous fashion with a 70-3 loss to rival Coastal Carolina. Because of the tiebreaker that was in place, Coastal coach David Bennett said his team couldn’t let up defensively because he knew he had to keep the Buccaneers from scoring a lot of points. That meant defensive starters stayed in the game far after it was decided.

Being on the wrong end of a 70-3 score was a humbling experience, James said.

“It was a game that you want to forget, but you can’t forget,” he said. “For one, you have to look at the game and say how did we lose this game this bad? Where we did we go wrong? How do we rebound and fix it for when we play these guys next year? I feel that this year, that game is going to do a lot. It’s going to be a motivational tool like no other. Losing a game that bad just shows a lot of different signs. From a media standpoint, it was like, ‘Those guys didn’t even show up to the game. Where were the players?’ All types of jokes. I feel like our team is not to be taken as a joke this year. We’re going to come out and show we’re ready to compete on Saturdays. It’s about proving points this year. As long as we take no days off, we’ll be fine.”

—Malcolm Dixon emerged as the top quarterback for CSU after Toscano blew out his knee at Liberty, and he was the starter throughout the spring. Dixon split time between receiver and quarterback before settling down under center in the Bucs’ final three games. The then-freshman had a breakout game in CSU’s loss at Kentucky, completing 21 of 27 passes for 236 yards and four touchdowns.

Dixon is the Bucs’ most athletic quarterback since Collin Drafts was under center in 2006.

“He’s a talent,” Bucs coach Jay Mills said. “Even last fall, though, he wasn’t able to develop fully. What people don’t realize is that we were going to redshirt him. Then we moved him to wide receiver because of injuries there. Then he got injured and was out for six weeks. Then he came back and we moved him back to quarterback to build for this year. Then we needed him at wide receiver again.

“So when he came back and played quarterback at the end, he had had very little practice time at quarterback, but he really did some good things. We almost nurtured along while playing him in the last three games. He basically came in for his legs, and then high-percentage passes off the run game. Then we tried to move build him up more the last game of the year. So we were building and investing for 2011 with him even in 2010.”

—Charleston Southern loves to recruit Florida, as 45 of the players on the Bucs’ roster this year are from the Sunshine State. CSU will have plenty of exposure there this season, as it opens the year with consecutive games at Central Florida, Florida State and Jacksonville.

—We’ll be back at it Monday with a look at the VMI Keydets.