Derrick Green Out For Season
By Ashley Dunkak
@AshleyDunkak
CBS DETROIT - The 2014 football season has already been one many Michigan fans would like to forget, and it just keeps getting worse.
Wolverines head coach Brady Hoke announced Monday that starting running back Derrick Green has been lost for the season. Green was Michigan's leading rusher with 471 yards on 82 carries through six games.
"You know I don't talk about injuries unless a guy is going to miss the year, and unfortunately that's what Derrick Green is," Hoke said. "He broke his clavicle late in the football game. Nice run on our sidelines. But Derrick's attitude is very good. He knows an expectation of him [is] to help coach those young guys and coach guys and be integral in what we're trying to get done.
"We're going to miss him, but De'Veon [Smith] and Justice Hayes and Drake Johnson are three guys that need to step up. Two of them have had a lot of game experience and played a lot of plays, so [we] feel good about that. We'll miss Derrick, but this is like anything else in competition, in sports. Next man's got to stand up."
Smith, a sophomore, has totaled 282 yards on 47 carries this season. Hayes, a junior, has added 101 yards on 19 carries, and Johnson, a sophomore, has contributed 28 yards on three carries.
The Wolverines have a record of 2-4 and have lost three straight games. Besides subpar play on the field, Michigan has dealt with several other incidents that reflected poorly on the program.
Coca-Cola at one point gave away pairs of tickets to the Michigan-Minnesota game with purchases of $3 worth of soda. That the company placed so little value on Michigan football seemed to epitomize how far the program has fallen in recent years.
In a much more serious incident, the Wolverines mishandled the situation of quarterback Shane Morris, who suffered a concussion but remained in the game for one more play and, after being removed from the game, later returned for another play. Video of Morris's woozy reaction to the hit highlighted Michigan's shortcoming.
The situation unraveled further when Hoke told reporters the Monday after the game that Morris did not have a concussion, and athletic director Dave Brandon issue a statement more than 12 hours later saying Morris did have a concussion.
Brandon later attributed the discrepancy to the same worrisome lack of communication exposed by the situation with Gardner.
All in all, it has been a rough year for Michigan football.
