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Treyvon Green, Northwestern Wildcats football, No. 22

Treyvon Green is a junior running back with a bigger build, and there's a role for him, even if it's one behind Venric Mark and Mike Trumpy.

By Rodger Sherman
US PRESSWIRE

Sorry I didn't get around to this earlier, but anyway: 22! Treyvon Green!

Y'all know Treyvon: a 5'10, 215-pound running back who's maybe not as fast as Venric Mark -- well, nobody's as fast as Venric Mark -- but he's got a bigger body, and that could be useful: Green fell almost completely out of the running back rotation in 2012 after looking decent as a true freshman, but there's an opening for a short-yardage back who can take hits, and that's Green. REad on him!

Origin myth

Green hails from Mesquite, Texas, which is one of the most smokily-flavored cities in the Dallas-Ft. Worth metropolitan area, attending Rowlett. He played RB there, second-team all-district as a junior with 975 yards and 16 touchdowns but bumping that up to first-team with 1,456 yards and 19 touchdowns as a senior. Let me just say, I'm glad we've gotten to a run of three running backs in a row, because their high school highlight videos are CHOICE. (not tashard):

Smart decision to cram all the crazy touchdown runs up front. My personal fave here is at the :48 second mark where he's totally wrapped up, then busts out, cuts back to juke another guy, and still makes it to the one-yard line. You can tell Green's running style tends towards power rather than speed, which makes it fun to watch as he bowls dudes over and stiff-arms a few guys. Definitely a natural at running through contact.

But a lot of people just saw a kinda slow-ish running back, so he was between a two-and-three star recruit. He was ranked the No. 71 RB in 247's composite, but only garnered offers from Wake Forest, Memphis, UL-Monroe, Western Kentucky, and -- wait for the outlier -- Northwestern. He chose Northwestern in the weeks before his senior year.

At Northwestern

Green impressed enough at his first training camp in 2011 that he entered the fall as a player in the mix at running back. He looked alright enough as a big back in the post-Tyrell Sutton pre-Venric Mark era of Northwestern running backs, with some highs -- four touchdowns, three in Big Ten play -- and a big low -- a fumble at the three-yard line in a winnable game against Michigan State. Due to his nature as a bigger guy, he found himself in a lot of two-back sets, or as a pass protector, but when Mike Trumpy tore his ACL against Illinois, he stepped up, with a game-high 67 yards rushing. He passed Adonis Smith to become Jacob Schmidt's primary backup, but it's kinda gone downhill. He hasn't had over 60 yards rushing since that Illinois game, and only managed one touchdown this year, against South Dakota. With Mark and Trumpy healthy, he was at best a third-stringer, but more aptly described as a special-teamer. Tyris Jones grabbed the third-down back role, and Green only had 22 carries for 73 yards. Of those, 45 came against South Dakota, 33 on a single carry, and 13 came against Illinois, and zero came against any other Big Ten teams.

(I had intended to write about -- but didn't -- a scary injury suffered in camp last year, where he needed to go to the hospital. Turned out to be a concussion, but he was suited up by Week 1.)

Career highlight

Probably a seven-yard touchdown against Michigan to put Nrothwestern up 14-7 in 2011. NU would lose 42-17, so things kinda went downhill after that.

Anagram of choice

Discovering the Wildcats' true inner selves through spelling

Treyvon Green, anagrammed, is

TRY ON REVENGE

Revenge will look good on you. It matches the color of your eyes. Try it. TRY IT. I expect this means Green will score touchdowns against Nebraska and Michigan this year, and then show up at a Penn State game and score a TD for good measure. (Also considered: "regret no envy," which, woah, Treyvon Green has some seriously insecure anagrams about hating other people, "no nervy egret," which, well, it's nice that that egret has such self-confidence, and "very Roentgen," which is apparently related to a unit of measuring gamma rays and may be my favorite thing the machine has ever spit out.

Relevant musical selection

YOU KNOW WHAT IT IS

YOU! MAKE! ME! FEEL LIKE I'M LIVIN A TREY! VON! GREEN! I hope the band still plays that song.

How he can help

Well, Mark's the starter, Trumpy's the backup, but Northwestern could use somebody to be the third-down back with Jones gone. The fumble in 2011 against MSU is worrisome, but Green did show he could generally handle the role back in 2011 before being usurped by a senior. It saves Trumpy to be Mark's primary spell back, and since Green seems apt as a pass protector, it works out. Green could also work in two-back sets as a lead-blocking type who has the potential to do something with the ball if teams sell out too hard on stopping Venric Mark.

Depth chart projection

There's a role for Treyvon, but there's not a spot on the traditional depth chart. Burning his redshirt as a freshman was really necessary at the time considering the lack of depth, but he might be needed more in two years than he is now, since Venric and Trumpy are gone after this year. Then again, I did write that article about how NU needs to redshirt guys less a few months back, so never listen to anything I say.

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