Morgan Green Makes It Official, Leaves Team

Rumors of Morgan Green transferring out of Maryland have been rampant for the past few months. In fact, the expectation was that he wouldn't be on the team, not that he would. He's basically been the football team's version of Steve Goins for the past five months, or like Braxton Dupree last year.

Well, it's finally official. The word is from IMS, via Twitter:

Terps senior running back Morgan Green has left the team but will remain in school with hopes to finish this summer.

Turns out he's not transferring so much as just leaving the team, but the effect is the same.

This probably doesn't have a huge practical impact on the field, seeing how he never projected to receive much playing time anyway, but it's still semi-important because it opens up another scholarship spot.

Green is rather infamous for being the man that took the place of Steve Slaton, who of course ended up at West Virginia and destroyed Maryland on more than one occasion. The story has mutated over the years thanks in part to ESPN bleating it for years, but it's something along these lines:

Green committed to Maryland in June. Slaton committed a month or two later. Slaton reportedly never stopped listening to other schools, likely because Green was much higher ranked and seemed to be the better running back. At some point, Slaton realized or was told by the staff that Green - a higher-ranked RB - would get the majority of carries, and there was quickly a "mutual parting of ways". Slaton ended up at West Virginia.

According to Slaton, his scholarship offer was rescinded by the staff. According to generally knowledgeable Maryland fans, Slaton committed without telling Maryland's staff, and when he tried to let them know, they weren't very receptive and told him that they had stopped recruiting him. Regardless, somewhere down the line Maryland picked the highly-touted Green over the three-star Slaton, something most of us thought was the right decision.

The rest is history.

Unfortunately, Green's time at Maryland, delayed one year by prep school, would have to ultimately be decided by how he compared to Slaton. It might've been unfair, but it's the reality of the situation. Slaton became a star; Green's career was marked by poor practices and play, never fulfilling what he was supposed to become.

It's an unfortunate tale, but one that is in the history books now. Hopefully Morgan goes on to get his degree and be successful in life. Let's just put the story behind behind us.