Derrick Green to Transfer

Submitted by OaklandInPlay on
Derrick Green has been granted release to transfer per College Football Talk.Can't embed on mobile.

DairyQueen

January 15th, 2016 at 9:38 PM ^

Admittedly the overweight thing was very disappointing/confusing.

There's a lot of research showing how young, single-sport athletes can easily burnout. And there's no question that this kid did a lot of work (hiring personal trainers to drop from 270+lbs) during his high school career in order to become the #1 ranked back in the country. Not to mention, with the media-attention and the recruiting services these days, not everyone can be prepared to deal with all the attention(how do you learn to, really?), which can lead to mental burnout as well.

All the hype that #1 RB in the nation brings, cannot be very easy to deal with.

Plenty of players don't pan out in college (hell, even the brightest high-school students can end up transferring to elswhere for a better fit), being a "5-Star Recruit" only makes it more noticeable.

Mr. Yost

January 15th, 2016 at 9:26 PM ^

Who since Mike Hart?

Meanwhile, guys that he's coached that haven't done much at Michigan besides one year of healthy Fitz have had success elsewhere and a few of them have had success in the NFL despite never having major success at Michigan.

It's sad that a kid transfers from Michigan and people want to make fun of him just because he was highly recruited.

Read this thread and then read the Terry Richardson or the RT-D threads. Completely different. Was Green a bad kid or is it just because he was a 5* prospect once in his life we can crack jokes?

Anyway, Fred Jackson shouldn't get all the blame - no, that's silly. We had poor OL, poor OL coaching, and the athlete himself could've likely done things to get better and be better. But I'm not going to sit up here and defend Jackson either...because it's not like he was showing he was doing anything else as of late. I'm sorry, but living off the 90s, Perry and Hart isn't enough in 2015 or 2016. It just doesn't cut it...sometimes people get old and it's time of them to go.

Steve Spurrier and Frank Beamer are LEGENDS...doesn't mean either is the coach today he was 10-15 years ago.

Mr. Yost

January 16th, 2016 at 9:14 AM ^

I would take them all too...

That's not my point. My point is that none were rockstars. My point was Jackson had no one to the level of Hart or his predecessors.

Mike Hart ran here almost 10 years ago!

People are still acting like Jackson was a great coach because of his overall resume.

Which is why I made the comparison to legends Spurrier and Beamer.

Jackson could still identify talent. No question. He just couldn't coach it up the way he could before.

Magnus

January 16th, 2016 at 11:13 AM ^

I think your argument is misleading. Maybe even misinformed.

Mike Hart had a little over 1,000 carries for a little over 5,000 yards.

Brandon Minor had 1/3 as many carries for approximately 1/3 as many yards.

Both averaged 5.0 yards/carry. Hart's 67 touchdowns are a little more than three times as many as Minor's 20 touchdowns.

I can't sit here and agree with you that Jackson hasn't coached a running back well since Hart. Minor's production was just as good as Hart's, although injuries (and backing up Hart for two years) held down his production.

Also, when Fred Jackson was the coach in 2014, ALL THREE of Michigan's primary tailbacks (Smith, Green, Johnson) had better yards per carry than they did in 2015 under the younger, NFL-experienced, more exciting Tyrone Wheatley, Jr. The OL supposedly improved this year, and yet the yards per carry dropped by .6, 2.4, and 1.0 for each player, respectively.

The negative Fred Jackson narrative is flat-out wrong or, at the very least, blown out of proportion.

A Fan In Fargo

January 15th, 2016 at 3:30 PM ^

What was he like the top half back in the country out of high school? How in the hell do you get that much praise and then not be able to do anything? I don't think I ever saw him fight for one yard after contact. He leveled a db against Rutgers one time if I remember right. Damn I shoud've lifted weights harder and got better grades.

Lanknows

January 15th, 2016 at 3:04 PM ^

As a freshman in 2012, Green ran for 3.3 ypc.  Similar to future NFL starter Fitz Toussaint (3.5 ypc). 2 years earlier (when still coached by Fred Jackson, but with a very good OL and offensive scheme), Fitz Toussaint ran for 5.6 ypc.

Green ran for 5.7 ypc in 2014 (when he was coached by Fred Jackson).

Last year (not coached by Fred Jackson) he ran for 3.3 ypc.

I think it's pretty reasonable to consider that the bigger issues here are OL-related than RB-coach related.

wahooverine

January 15th, 2016 at 3:14 PM ^

Anyone with eyeballs could see that Green wasn't an effective back. What's the use of a back that big that flops like a sack of potatoes at first contact and lacks vision and toughness even if he does have above average speed for his size?  Additionally anyone with eyeballs could see Fitz was a good back, observing his timely cutting and decent burst.

Lanknows

January 15th, 2016 at 5:03 PM ^

I wonder if the "anyone with eyeballs" perceptions of '12 Toussaint would be different if Toussaint hadn't already been so productive in 2011 and 2010.

I don't think Green is better than Toussaint, by any stretch - but blaming it on Jackson or 'vision' isn't really logical either. Given the year-by-year changes of individual running backs and similarities in production levels of different backs in the same year make it seem like there's more to it.

Everything is pretty easily explained by ineptitude of Brady Hoke and Al Borges steadily driving Rodriguez's offense into the ground and OL personnel/lack of development.

 

uncle leo

January 15th, 2016 at 3:20 PM ^

Is Derrick Green. He's just not very good. Every RB can make things happen occasionally with struggles on the o-line, whether it be with burst, cutting ability, shedding tackles, etc... Green showed basically none of that. There is not a single attribute about his running that stood out.

Wish him the best of luck, and he seemed like a good dude, but what a huge bust.

uncle leo

January 15th, 2016 at 4:31 PM ^

The guy's not a good running back. It's nothing against him as a human being. I'm sure he'll go on to do wonderful things for the community.

But when it comes to the sport that he participates, he sucks. I'm sure he's heard worse throughout his career, people like me and the other critics shouldn't offend him.

grumbler

January 15th, 2016 at 5:13 PM ^

It's gross overstatements like "he sucks" that show people to be either mean or deliberately ignorant.

Green was a disappointment, but hardly a "bust."

There are critics, and then there are assholes.  You can tell them apart because the assholes use phrases like "he sucks."

uncle leo

January 15th, 2016 at 6:35 PM ^

I find it hard to believe that in your entire existence of watching sports, you haven't said a player "sucks." 

He was hardly a bust?? Did you pay attention to the hype and the actual on-field performance? If he's not a bust, who is??

Relax dude. Like I said, this has NOTHING to do with him as a human being. I play basketball, I'm decent, but I'm sure people have said, "Man, that dude sucks." In fact, it's been said to my face when I was younger. That's how people are. I don't take it as an insult to my status as a person. 

Again, if he can't handle people being critical and he gets all teary-eyed reading a message board, then he's not going anywhere in his PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL CAREER. Notice what I put in caps, because I'm sure he will excel in whatever venture he does.

Magnus

January 15th, 2016 at 4:18 PM ^

Michigan's other running backs seemed to do okay this year. Smith was at 4.2 yards/carry, Isaac was at 6.8 yards/carry, Drake Johnson was at 5.0. Green was almost a full yard per carry below anyone else who got significant carries (so not including Karan Higdon).

In reply to by Lanknows

Magnus

January 15th, 2016 at 6:31 PM ^

...but the other running backs did better than Green this year. By a significant margin. And Smith/Johnson's yards didn't come against worse opponents.

Lanknows

January 15th, 2016 at 5:18 PM ^

This is my larger point - when RBs get good blocking they will produce, as Green did.  Scheme and OL (and of course how good the D is) are a far bigger factors in run game production than RB ability.  But it's easier to just say Fred Jackson is lazy and Derrick Green sucks.

I don't think Green is a great back. I agree he goes down easy.  But he's good enough to have played ahead of Thomas Rawls, to split carries with Fitz Toussaint, and to start over DeVeon Smith (at least in the opinion of both Borges, Nussmeir, and of course Hoke.)  He was good enough to be ahead of Ty Isaac and Karan Higdon for much of the season.  He was good enough for Nussmeir (apparently) to want to coach him again.

Nussmeir is a solid OC. His endorsement should tell you something.  It should mean more to you than

how awful Green looked running behind the worst run-blocking Michigan OLs in memory.

wolverine1987

January 15th, 2016 at 3:07 PM ^

or anyone for that matter, but I remember looking at his film and thinking "number one RB in country?" His film did not look super impressive but in any case, far better evaluators than I thought he was excellent, cause they all wanted him. Just shows what an inexact thing projecting talent is