MJ14

January 5th, 2013 at 10:43 PM ^

BALTIMORE -- Two years ago, Derrick Green looked nothing like an invitee to The Opening. As a matter of fact, he didn't even look like a tailback.

Green, who now is 6-foot and 215 pounds, was once a 5-8, 268-pound offensive lineman. Suffice to say, Green, a running back from Richmond (Va.) Heritage who ranks as the nation's No. 83 player, worked hard secure his ticket to The Opening.

"I was always downhill," he said. "If you look at my film, I'm not really a bounce guy. I'm a one-cut-and-go, real straight, north-south runner and I have the speed to kick it up in sixth gear. All that bouncing and shaking, I wouldn't say that was me. If you're in the way, I'm going to blow you up. I'm not going to try to shake you.

"At my school, they call me 'The Freight Train.' I like that a lot. I'm going to run you over and let you know I'm here. I'm coming."

Green and his family said he has consistently run the 40-yard dash in the 4.3 area.

When Derrick read on a website that he didn't catch the ball well, father and son were outside working on pass-receiving for hours after work and school.

"He wanted to get better, so we had to take the time to get him better," Chris Green said. "The next camp he went to, they were saying he had hands good enough to play wide receiver. He accomplished that. He got over that hurdle."

Derrick led his family to better health, and he's also trying to inspire his teammates. He used to be the only player to run laps after practice. Now most of the team is joining him. When he gets his allowance, it's already spent. He buys food -- probably salad -- for the team on Wednesday evenings while they study game video. He takes his offensive linemen to Golden Corral if the team wins on Friday night.

Good article on Derrick. You can read it all here: http://espn.go.com/college-sports/recruiting/football/story/_/id/792300…

Joined: 01/09/2011

MGoPoints: 16487

turd ferguson

January 5th, 2013 at 10:51 PM ^

Seriously, just to put to rest some of the nonsense about that, part of me wants him to choose Michigan on Signing Day (HOKE CAN'T CLOSE LATE) by picking a Michigan hat instead of an Auburn hat (HOKE CAN'T WIN HEAD-TO-HEAD BATTLES) and then remind the country that running back is in fact a SKILL POSITION.

Joined: 12/09/2009

MGoPoints: 26493

Don

January 5th, 2013 at 10:53 PM ^

I'll give that 3 fakes out of 5.

Rivals lists him as running a 4.4, while Scout lists one of his weaknesses as "breakaway speed", saying "not a conventional breakaway threat because of raw speed..."

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 148571