A History of #1 Tailbacks (via touchthebanner)

click "nice rundown" in the OP

He is like a bulldozer, but faster.

Stronger than Trent Richardson, faster than Denard, more shifty than Barry Sanders. There's your answer.

He's like Bo Jackson, but able to play more sports.

I think since most UM linemen redshirt, the OL class this year is less relevant this year and next than the upperclassmen and last year's OL recruits.

It probably doesn't impact his success for a couple of years. Hopefully, by the time those guys are starting, Green will be in his Jr. year. 

He gone

I think he was a college bust, by anybody's definition. And if his fumble woes continue in the NFL, he likely won't last long there either.

I think there's some truth to that. They only have so many scholarships and are still facing a minor scholarship reduction due to sanctions. Not that they didn't want him, but they got a big back last year (Dunn), and they don't need as many big backs as they used to. They also have a prototypical spread back committed (Elliot). They just had other needs that needed to be addressed. Kind of how we stopped recruiting Pocic. We definitely wanted him, but we took other guys we liked and then had other needs that needed to be addressed. Doesn't mean he was all of a sudden evaluated as a bad player, or that the coaches 'passed' on him.

A-Train was fast, so the comparison should probably just be "A-Train."  And we don't know how long it will take Green to produce in college, so predicting he'll have four years like Perry's senior season is going waaaay too far.   Perry was the Doak winner his senior year, so if Green has one year like Perry's senior year, I'll be thrilled.

If you look at Anthony Thomas's numbers, I think you'll be surprised at the number of big plays he had.  He was big and he was no Chris Johnson, but he had pretty darn good speed.

A-Train, you say???

A-Train himself "@A_Train3235: @BrOoKyLn_boii27 welcome to Michigan, good luck man. #GoBlue"

Thanks...?

King was a DB from '92-'96 which were some pretty talented defenses.

His balance has improved since his junior year, and I think he's learned to make people miss a little bit more.  There are times in his junior film where he just runs straight ahead into guys, when there are clearly alleys to run to avoid contact.  I think he's shifty enough to make defensive linemen miss, and he can make second-level defenders miss ENOUGH to break their tackles.  He won't leave people flailing at air, but he can force them into arm tackles that won't do much good against a guy who's so powerfully built.

I don't really know how good of a blocker Green is, since that type of thing isn't shown on film much.  He does need to get better at catching the ball out of the backfield.  I also think he needs to run more powerfully; sometimes he slows down for contact rather than lowering his shoulders and running through guys at full speed.  He doesn't break as many tackles as he should for someone his size, but he's still better than the vast majority of high school backs.

Looking at the highlight tapes for both of them, I would've believed that this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLMuUkyRz44 was Darrick Green, too. The tape that I see here seems to suggest that Smith is actually the slightly better lateral back, which is a valuable skill to have; Green doesn't seem to do much more than run straight ahead, through people using his incredible streangth (note: novice film study in the previous paragraph).

I wouldn't be surprised to see Smith win the starting job over Green, or Green over Smith. I wouldn't be surprised if there was a season where the two of them rushed for a thousand yards each. Having two top-flight backs like this in our system is a huge boon, and should be a topic of great joy. Two guys who can work against each other to get better every year is hopefully just what the doctor ordered for some manball.