WILDCATS GO GREEN
Two TDs for junior RB as NU keeps details of Mark injury quiet
Venric Mark hasn’t relinquished his throne as king of Northwestern’s read option, but in his absence, NU has added to its court.
Mark sat out his second straight game Saturday against Western Michigan with what the team is calling a lower-body injury. He played sparingly in the season opener at Cal and has been a limited participant in practice since.
In stepped junior Treyvon Green, who carried the ball 20 times for 158 yards and two touchdowns in a 38-17 victory. It was Green’s second game of more than 100 yards rushing this season.
‘‘He had a really good bowl practice and offseason,’’ coach Pat Fitzgerald said. ‘‘He’s probably in the best shape of his career here. He had an attitude and a look in his eyes that he was not happy with his role here.’’
With Mark out, the thought was that NU would suffer most when it came to the read option. The speedy combination of Mark and quarterback Kain Colter made it difficult to defend last season.
The Wildcats didn’t have anybody on their roster as fast as Mark. But Green not only has shown the ability to turn perimeter runs into big gains, he has used his 5-10, 215-pound frame to punish teams between the tackles.
Already he has runs of 55 and 42 yards this season, the latter going for a touchdown Saturday.
Even when Mark returns, Green has done enough to be NU’s power runner long-term. He already has unseated senior Mike Trumpy, who was expected to fill that role.
Trumpy lost a fumble in the third quarter Saturday and only had eight carries on a night when NU ran the ball 55 times.
“Trey has been really solid here for the first three weeks of the season. Been really impressed by him,” Fitzgerald said. ‘‘He’s looking like a much faster, stronger Trey Green that was here for us as a freshman.
‘‘It’s more about the skill set he can bring and what he can do [as opposed to who is healthy].”
NU has been coy about the situ- ation with Mark. Fitzgerald said Mark left camp ‘‘close to 100 percent’’ but has classified him as day to day since the Cal game, in which he played in the fourth quarter.
On Saturday, NU burned the redshirt of freshman running back Warren Long despite having used four other running backs in the game. That gives reason to speculate that Mark’s injury may be more serious than originally thought.
Asked if he would have used Long if Mark were healthy, Fitzgerald said it was a hypothetical he couldn’t answer. He did say Long has played well in practice and that using him had nothing to do with depth concerns.
Long initially played on special teams but carried the ball twice for 13 yards in the second half.