RB Green to transfer

The Nebraska football team will be minus one running back for the 2012 season.

According to stories that appeared in the Lincoln Journal Star and Omaha World Herald, sophomore running back Aaron Green has been released from his scholarship and will transfer from Nebraska.

Green, a 5-foot-11, 180-pounder from San Antonio, carried the ball 24 times for 105 yards as a true freshman in 2011. He had a productive set of spring practices in March and April, according to the Husker coaching staff but Aaron Green will finish the spring semester at NU this week and start looking for a new school, his father Tony Green said.

Aaron's brother, Andrew, is a junior and projected starter at cornerback for the Huskers. Baylor, Houston, TCU, Texas A&M and Texas Tech are among Aaron's early list of potential destinations, according to Tony. Aaron Green hasn't redshirted and will have to sit out a year because of NCAA transfer rules.

Nebraska does return its top rusher from 2011, senior Rex Burkhead. Sophomore Ameer Abdullah will be the expected No. 2 back.

Junior running back Mike Marrow, who transferred to NU last year, reportedly had a strong spring and will be eligible to play this fall after sitting out a season. Freshman Imani Cross joins the program this summer.

Sophomore Braylon Heard, who carried the ball 25 times last season, moved to cornerback this spring.

Anytime a player transfers, message boards light up from fans saying, “I don’t blame him” or “screw him if he doesn’t want to be here.” I generally tend to lean to the philosophical side when players transfer. I don’t want to speculate why Green transferred because he hasn’t said anything publically but I’m guessing that playing time, or lackthereof, was the root of his dissatisfaction at Nebraska.

If you counted up all Husker running backs last year that weren’t Burkhead, it wasn’t a bad number for a backup, but to divide that number by three meant someone was going to feel shorted.

The truth of the matter is that if player that doesn’t want to be there will never become a great player. It’s better to find out now than in the thick of conference play.

However, the Nebraska coaching staff is not blameless in this matter either. I have said it in this space time after time, why play THREE true freshmen that are barely seeing the field while Burkhead gets his legs bashed in with 30-plus carries a game? I’m not going to sit here and try to advocate that Green is better than Burkhead, because he’s not but any sane coaching staff would have provided Burkhead with some relief and on top of that would not have burned three redshirts at the same position when none are making an impact.