When the

media relations department received a request to speak with

this week for this interview, they had only one question.

They said this: "Don't you want to wait until after he suits up for a game?"

No. This is exactly when we want to hear from James. The

in University of Oregon history left college a year early and hasn't suited up yet in the regular season. His NFL career has consisted, to this point, of mostly working on the scout team in practices. And right now, with his college program undefeated and ranked No. 2 nationally, this is exactly when we're most curious about what James thinks.

James said: "I'd be lying to you if I said it's not frustrating. ... I want to be out there, but I understand we have a lot of running backs and it's difficult to get on the field."

The 49ers have Frank Gore, Kendall Hunter, Anthony Dixon and Brandon Jacobs. And then, there's the guy at UO who was so skilled as a college player that you expected him to score every time he touched the ball. So well-regarded that he garnered more Heisman Trophy votes as a Duck than anyone in school history. And so good, James left college after his junior season to pursue his dream of playing in the NFL.

Only James hasn't played a regular-season down.

Is the NFL all it's cracked up to be?

"Honestly, no," James said, "I thought it would be something different."

He's learning, though. And teammates and coaches say James works hard as part of the scout team. And even as he sounds a touch lonely in San Francisco, wistful for the Autzen Stadium crowd, James said of his experience, "You have to be more of a man, more mature" in the NFL.

This is a second-round selection who doesn't want to be left behind. A player who doesn't want to be forgotten. James, 22, is so resolute about succeeding in the NFL that when he talks about carrying the ball again someday, you understand that he's determined to be more than another great college player who didn't cut it in the NFL.

"I'm blessed, I really do believe that," James said. "I think I would actually go out and play for free right now, ya know, just to actually be playing. You're getting a paycheck, but you don't really play. You make all this money, week to week, and you don't play and I'm like, 'I'd rather play and get less pay.'

"That's how much I love this game."

James doesn't regret leaving Oregon after his junior season, mind you. He doesn't even regret watching 49ers games in street clothes. He reassures himself that he made the right decision by declaring for the draft by saying things such as, "It was time for Kenjon (Barner) to show what he could do. He's my best friend. It's time for him. It was time for me to move on."

We talk all the time about whether college players should be paid. Or whether the opportunity and scholarship is enough payment for a young, gifted athlete. I'm a firm believer that in the world of billion-dollar NCAA revenue streams and $20 million annual Pac-12 Network television payouts, that there's something wrong with not giving players a cent of revenue.

But for James it was not just about getting paid. He'd already won conference championships, and been invited to the Downtown Athletic Club, and played for a national championship against Auburn. He left college, maybe, for the same reason a computer science major takes a job with a technology company -- money, yeah, a career, sure, but also because there was nothing left for him to prove in college and he wanted to see how far his talent could take him.

"There are people who actually think, like, I get a paycheck every week I'm fine just sitting on the sidelines. That means you don't love the game. I'd do it for the lowest (pay). ... I'll get the little stipend you get every month (in college) and I'll go along with it and I'll be happy. I'll enjoy life just because I enjoy being on the field."

So why didn't he stay at Oregon?

"It was just time," James said.

I've heard over the last decade a long line of former Ducks players talk about how special they felt walking into Autzen Stadium, and how accepted they were in the college community. They leave. They walk into an NFL stadium, and play in a professional program, and realize in a rude awakening that they can never really go back.

Said James: "As far as being on the (UO) team and the family atmosphere, sometimes I wish I was back there with the guys in the locker room. I miss them. They were like my brothers. Sometimes you do think about that and reminisce."

James said he sees similarities in intensity in his college coach, Chip Kelly, and his coach with the 49ers, Jim Harbaugh. He called them intense. He called them offensive-minded. He hopes Harbaugh sees how hard he works in practice, and James said, "I'm going against one of the best defenses in the league right now in practice. I think they make me better. I try to have the same mindset (as a freshman in college). Everyone doubted me then, and I had to come out and emerge."

He lets that word hang. James wants nothing more than to emerge.

It strikes me, too, that James did this interview during the same week in which his former Ducks teammate Darron Thomas, now on the practice squad with the Canadian Football League's Calgary Stampeders, announced he will not conduct media interviews. Thomas doesn't want to talk about leaving Oregon after his junior season and going undrafted. Meanwhile, James, who isn't satisfied where he is either, wants to do nothing but talk about it.

"I don't talk to any of the coaches about (being frustrated). I just stay in my lane and practice hard. I talk with some of my teammates. I have a teammate who is a first-round draft pick and he's not playing. It still sucks because you're competitive and you want to be productive and get out on the field and show them what you can do."

And so life bounces along for James. We've all seen him dart, and dash, and someday, I have no doubt that he'll do it on the NFL field. But now, in this moment, at this point of his career, he's talking and sounding like a much older man.

Does he like being paid to play?

"You don't really like the taxes," he said. "And how expensive it is to live here. I never thought I'd be a person to start thinking like that, but once you see how much money they take out of your check or try to put gas in your car, it's like, it's really expensive to live."

The education of LaMichael James continues.

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Catch him on the radio on "The Bald-Faced Truth," noon-3 p.m. weekdays on KXTG (750).