James Thomson remembers the exact play that he realized Ralph Webb would be a Division I running back.

Thomson, Webb’s high school coach in Gainesville, Fla., recalled to SDS this week that it came during Webb’s junior season. Webb dropped a shoulder on a safety so hard, he was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct, even though he was the ball carrier.

“The ref didn’t know what to do,” said Thomson, who is now an offensive quality control assistant at UCLA, the same staff where his uncle, Kennedy Polamalu, is the Bruins’ offensive coordinator.

While Webb went on as a senior to lead his team to an undefeated season until a loss in the state championship against Miami Central and Dalvin Cook, his recruiting prospects didn’t follow his development.

Even into the high school playoffs, his best offers were from Minnesota and Florida Atlantic.

Meanwhile, the Will Muschamp-led Florida Gators went more than four hours away to recruit Kelvin Taylor, while Webb, listed at 5-foot-9 and 185 pounds coming out of high school, was about two blocks away from campus at Gainesville High School.

“We would sit there and wonder why none of the big schools were coming,” said Thomson, who added that he and Webb stay in touch and talk these days about once a month. “We talked about it every day. We used it as fuel.”

Thomson credited Webb’s unselfish nature with helping the team reach the 2012 state championship. That game was televised, putting Webb on stage for then-Vanderbilt coach James Franklin to take notice. Webb rushed for 155 yards and two touchdowns in the loss. A scholarship offer soon followed.

Webb took the offer and made the most of it. He needs a mere 27 yards against Tennessee on Saturday to break Vanderbilt’s career rushing record at the end of his junior year. Webb has 3,117 yards, while Zac Stacy holds the record with 3,143, set from 2009-12.

In a press conference this week, Webb said he wouldn’t think about the record, but instead just focus on his job.

“I’m just going to let it come as it happens,” he said. “Just going out there and executing to the best of my ability to put us in the best position to win.”

Coach Derek Mason said he believes Webb doesn’t care about the record.

“If you ask him about the record versus winning, he’ll take winning every day of the week,” Mason said. “… Ralph cares more about winning this game than setting a record.”

Asked about Webb’s consistency, Mason compared the now 5-10, 202-pound running back to a wolf.

“I think he’s different, I think he’s a wild animal, I think he loves to play ball,” the coach said. “He’s ferocious. He loves to compete and you really can’t judge him by what he looks like, you have to judge him by what he does on the field. He’s never been afraid of anybody, he’s played hurt. … One thing about a wolf, he may grow up as a puppy, but he’ll bite you if you let him. I think this dude’s fully grown, he’s doing great things. He’s helping the pack around him grow up.”

Despite playing injured (ankle), Webb last week had his fifth 100-yard game of the season when he went for 123 yards and three touchdowns in the win over Ole Miss. He is 94 yards from last year’s rushing total of 1,152 and he already has double the touchdowns of last season at 10.

Webb holds Vanderbilt yearly records for freshmen (907) and sophomores (1,152), and he needs 135 yards to reach Stacy’s overall single-season record (1,193), which Stacy did as a junior. In fact, Webb topped Kwane Doster’s freshmen record set in 2002 against his hometown Gators in 2014. Webb had 760 yards entering that game and rushed 16 times for 83 yards in a 34-10 loss.

Last year, Webb had 22 carries for 118 yards and a touchdown in a 9-7 loss to Florida.

But perhaps the most impressive stat is that Webb has done it without missing a game, starting all 35 games in his career. Webb has far and away the most carries of any Vanderbilt player in history, with 697. Carl Woods, who played in the mid-1980s, is next with 619 rushes.

NFL Draft projections are not yet widely known about Webb, but Thomson thinks he’ll likely go in the third round. What’s not debatable is the sheer number of running backs expected to leave the SEC and elsewhere during this draft cycle, and presumably be ranked ahead of Webb.

But Thomson believes history has a good chance to repeat itself. Webb will arrive at a team and quickly exceed expectations.

“It’s going to be the same thing,” he said. “Someone’s going to be calling me in three years. He’s going to be proving people wrong again.”