I’m a big believer in athletes not being subjected to too much criticism over hype because most of the time that hype is generated by others who have different skin in the game and are mostly looking for a buck at some point along the way. However, sometimes things get so ridiculous that we have to go back and ask, “How did this happen?”

It’s the 2013 recruiting cycle and Notre Dame is putting together what statistically would be the best class of the Brian Kelly era led by in-state phenom Jaylon Smith. Up to the north, Brady Hoke is also putting together a big time class at Michigan. Their top recruit of this cycle would turn out to be running back Derrick Green.

Everyone misses on prospects. It happens. Many players are scouted incorrectly or we project future improvements that never develop. However, I will never, ever understand Derrick Green being a 5-star running back in 2013.

This was a cycle with the likes of Alvin Kamara (Alabama, later Tennessee), Ty Isaac (USC, later Michigan), Ezekiel Elliott (Ohio State), Thomas Tyner (Oregon), Keith Ford (Oklahoma, later A&M), Alex Collins (Arkansas), Justin Davis (USC), Corey Clement (Wisconsin), with Notre Dame signing Greg Bryant and Tarean Folston. It was a very deep running back class.

Rivals and Scout saw all of this talent and thought Derrick Green was the no. 1 running back in the country.

Look, Green was a respectable national running back. He had good stats at a decent high school in Virginia and could actually scoot pretty well for his size, although a reported 4.31 time in the 40-yard dash was the height of comedy. What made his recruitment maddening was all the talk about Green’s fit in Michigan’s MANBALL scheme and the bigger back coming in to run people over. For someone who was not an elite athlete this provided alarm bells for me.

Gasp, he ran through an arm tackle!

Green stated during his senior season: “If you’re in the way, I’m going to blow you up. I’m not going to try and 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.” 

ESPN’s Tom Luginbill said: “This is an identity back. This is what Brady Hoke wants the offense to revolve around. A downhill, power running game with a back that can be a bell cow.”

Green was a 220 pound Division I prospect playing against mostly peers who wouldn’t be playing college football. Running through some arm tackles is the absolute minimum requirement but folks wanted to see what wasn’t there.

The problem with this scouting is that we tend to see the mixture of size with good speed and extrapolate that the combination will be dominant at the next level. In reality, for the vast majority of big backs they find out the hard way that it’s difficult to stay lean and they also find out their speed was a lot more average than they thought once FBS defenders started chasing them.

Surprise, surprise Green came in as a freshman listed at 240 pounds and shared some reps with classmate De’Veon Smith while both backed up senior Fitzgerald Toussaint. In the second game of the season, he carried the ball once against Notre Dame for -1 yard and finished the season with a disappointing 270 total yards at 3.25 yards per carry.

As a sophomore, Green slimmed down and lost some weight. It was supposed to be his break out season.

Completely shut down by a BVG defense, that’s eternal shame. 

In the 2014 opener, Green rushed for 170 yards against Appalachian State. Here comes the 5-star breakout! A week later, Notre Dame put an end to that nonsense as Green was stifled for 25 yards on 13 carries. Michigan tried this physical gameplan and got absolutely pancaked, only affirming my belief that Green had no business being the no. 1 back by any recruiting service.

He’d get hurt as a sophomore and again as a junior at Michigan only to transfer to TCU for his final season. In total, Green rushed for 1,039 yards and 9 touchdowns in his career at 4.2 per rush.

I’m writing this today because I saw this coming. I saw the skill-set and the overrated hype ready to collide with a Brady Hoke galaxy brain offense. Michigan fans fell for it and were stupid.