Coach Ralph Friedgen announced today senior running back Morgan Green has left the Terrapin football team.
Green will remain in school this semester and Friedgen said he will need nine credits of summer school to graduate. Green then hopes to transfer and play his final year of eligibility for Towson, whom Friedgen said has not yet asked for a release.
“Morgan came in to [see] me, and we had talked about this already before,” Friedgen said. “I told Morgan if it didn’t look like he was going to see a lot of action I would help him transfer.”
A highly-touted recruit, Green struggled with injuries throughout his career and would have likely been sixth on the depth chart this fall.
Green left Lackey High School as the fifth-leading rusher in Maryland high school history, and when he committed to play at this university as part of the 2005 recruiting class Friedgen essentially gave him the scholarship that would have otherwise been used on current Houston Texan Steve Slaton, who ended up starring at West Virginia.
He spent the 2005 season at Hargrave Military Academy, then redshirted in 2006 and played in only one game in 2007.
After Keon Lattimore and Lance Ball left after the 2007 season, Green appeared to be one of the Terps’ top-two options at running back along with Da’Rel Scott for the 2008 season. But Green couldn’t stay healthy and Davin Meggett complemented Scott who developed into one of the better backs in the ACC.
Redshirt freshman Gary Douglas and true freshman Caleb Porzel passed Green on the depth chart last season, and D.J. Adams moved ahead of Green heading into this spring.
“He’s been a good kid. He’s worked hard,” Friedgen said. “He wants to play his last year and I don’t have any problem with that.”
TERPS TO START PREPARING FOR NAVY
The Terps’ season opener against Navy isn’t until Sept. 6, but Friedgen said the Terps will start implementing their gameplan for the Midshipmen in practice next week.
Friedgen said it is not typical for the Terps to start preparing for a specific opponent during the last week of spring practice, but in this case it is necessarily to try to be ready to face the Mids’ unconventional triple-option offense.
“Their offense makes you do that,” Friedgen said. “Nobody runs what they run, and they run it so well that, to me, we need to use the extra time we have to prepare for them.”
MACKALL SUFFERS CONCUSSION
True freshman linebacker David Mackall has been one of Friedgen’s favorite subjects during the coach’s post-practice media availability sessions this spring, but Mackall suffered a concussion during practice today.
Friedgen said he hopes Mackall will be able to return for the Terps’ closed scrimmage on Saturday.
After the scrimmage, the Terps have only two more practices before the Red-White Spring Game on April 24.
Greg Schimmel is The Diamondback’s Terrapin Football Beat Writer. He can be reached at schimmeldbk@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/Greg_Schimmel
[...] is the third academic casualty since the end of last season), and veteran stalwart Morgan Green transferring to Towson for more playing time, the Terps will still have a veritable stable of talented running backs at [...]