Friday, July 15, 2016

Michigan Friday: Thinks About What Could Have Been With Derrick Green


Image result for derrick green
Zimbio
Derrick Green's career at Michigan is a microcosm of the Brady Hoke era.    Derrick came to Ann Arbor as a 5 star #1 RB in the country.    Many expected him to start right away and tear into the Big Ten like a hot knife through butter.  

DG showed up in the summer of 2013 over weight and really had a hard time getting into football shape his freshman year.   In 2013, he got 83 carries but only gained 270 yards.

In 2014, his sophomore year we really thought DG started to figure it out.  He was in better shape, but was still a north and south runner who struggled to make defenders miss.   Ironically, he had 82 carries in 2014 (before he got hurt) for 471 yards.  That was an average of over 5 yards per carry.   His year was cut short with a shoulder injury.  

Under Jimmy, I expected two scenarios:  he would play a lot and be the focus of the offense or he would barley see the field.   We know that Smith took over the #1 RB spot and Houma became the power back.  A healthy Green only got 47 carries for 157 yards last season.    Most of those carries came when Michigan was comfortably ahead and the offense needed to run some clock. 

This 5 star RB got a total of 898 yards in 3 years in Michigan's offense.   Many of us expected that to be a low estimate for one year.  Not all of it is on DG as Michigan's offensive line struggled during this time in Ann Arbor, but his college career so far as been clearly disappointing.  

Sources are saying that Derrick has decided to transfer to TCU.  If DG was able to graduate early from Michigan, he will be able to play this season.   TCU's spread offense, should provide DG with some large holes and I expect he could easily run for a 1000 yards in that offense if he gets enough touches.   I hope he is in shape and has the luck Rawls and Cox had in transferring for their final year and making it to an NFL roster.  Rawls had the highest yards per carry average of any NFL running back last year before getting injured. 

Good Luck DG!

1 comment:

Scott K said...

I see what you did there Bob......

Green's career is a microcosm of the Brady Hoke era. Green showed up to U of M overweight. That's a veiled Brady Hoke fat joke, isn't it. LOL

Best of luck to Green, I hope he does well, where ever he lands.

Go Blue