Resilient DE Green leads UM defense
CORAL GABLES — Miami defensive end Shayon Green’s football season almost didn’t happen.
After tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee as a freshman in preseason camp in 2009, he tore it again in the spring of 2011. Doctors never told Green his football career could be finished, but he knew itwas a possibility.
“During the second injury, I got down the most because I thought it was over for me,” Green said. “But I thought to myself, ‘ I’ve been here. I knowwhat to do. I know what it takes.’ Since then, I never stopped grinding. I never gave up and I did rehab four or five times per day.”
As if that wasn’t enough, the Tifton, Ga., native suffered another knee injury this past spring, tearing his meniscus. Still, he was optimistic.
“It never crossed my mind that I wouldn’t play football again,” he said. “Even when I tore my meniscus, I knew that it was nothing major compared to the ACL and I would be back in a couple months.”
The redshirt junior was right.
Not only is Green back on the field, he’s excelling. After playing in just six games in the past two years, the 6- foot- 3, 260- pound defensive lineman leads theHurricanes in tackles with 57 in nine games this season.
According to the University of Miami’s almanac that dates back to 1981, Green would become the first defensive lineman to finish a season as the Hurricanes’ leading tackler if he can continue the pace he’s on.
“Any time a defensive lineman leads your team in tackles, it means he plays with tremendous effort because those plays don’t just come to him,” Miami defensive coordinator Mark D’Onofrio said. “It means he’s chasing the ball and he’s showing up. That just speaks volumes for who he is.”
UM ( 5- 4, 4- 2 ACC) will be counting on Green to keep coming up big when the Hurricanes play a critical ACC game at Virginia ( 3- 6, 4- 1ACC) Saturday.
Green knows he wouldn’t have reached this point without his family’s help. And not many have played a bigger role in his comeback than his grandmother, Ethel Green, who has attended every one of Green’s games despite knee issues of her own.
“To see my grandmother going through the situation she’s going through, it really impactsmy life a lot,” Green said. “She’s like my other best friend. We talk every day, and knowing her struggles and knowing what she has to go through, it keeps me going. It keeps motivating me to never give up. She never quits on me, so I’m never going to quit on her.”
Now, he is playing at a level he has never been able to reach. In Miami’s 30- 12 victory over Virginia Tech on Nov. 1, Green’s performance received a perfect grade from the coaches for the first time in his time as a Hurricane.
That’s just one of the signs that Green has finally left all of the knee injuries in the past. Instead, he can now focus on a football career that was nearly cut short.
“When I was at the bottom and working my way up, I really didn’t knowhow thiswould be,” he said. “And nowI see.”