Back in January, CFT reported that Derrick Green had been granted a release from his Michigan scholarship and would transfer. A half-year later, the once-touted running back has a new home.
A source with knowledge of the situation has confirmed to CFT that Green has decided to transfer into the TCU football program. The move was first reported by Jeremy Clark of 247Sports.com.
A TCU official tells us that there “could be news” on the Green front in the coming days.
Green stayed in school at UM through the spring in order to graduate. As such, he’ll be a grad transfer and eligible to play immediately in 2016. As an added bonus for the Horned Frogs, the back will have two seasons of eligibility remaining to give to the program.
It will also give Green the opportunity to jumpstart a career that began with much promise and hype until going completely off the rails at the end.
Green came to the Wolverines as one of the highest-rated recruits in the Class of 2013. In fact, according to Rivals.com, he was the No. 8 player at any position in the country, ahead of the likes of Ole Miss’ Laremy Tunsil (No. 14), Penn State’s Christian Hackenberg (No. 24) and 2015 Heisman winner Derrick Henry (No. 36), all of whom made themselves eligible for the April NFL draft. That on-paper talent, though, never really translated into the anticipated on-field production.
In three seasons in Ann Arbor, Green totaled 898 yards on 212 carries (4.2 ypc) and seven touchdowns. His best season came in 2014, when as a sophomore he ran for 471 yards and averaged 5.7 ypc before injuries derailed the last half of the year.
Instead of building off that momentum, however, Green ran for just 157 yards the first nine games of the 2015 season before failing to see the field the last four games. As if to put an exclamation on the disappointment, Green did not travel with his teammates to Orlando for the Jan. 1 Citrus Bowl because of what head coach Jim Harbaugh described as “an internal matter.”