TCU’s Green making memorable plays this season

Leave an impression, Aaron Green tells himself.

“Every time I step on the field, there’s someone in the stands that’s never heard of Aaron Green, someone that probably will never see me play again,” the TCU running back said. “I want them to know who I am before I leave.”

Will an 86-yard touchdown run on the first play of the game do the trick?

Green smiled.

How about a catch off a tip in the back of the end zone?

“I try to do it every time I touch the ball.”

Every time he has touched the ball, Green has helped the Horned Frogs win games. The senior from San Antonio Madison leads the team in carries, rushing yards and rushing touchdowns. He opened the game at Kansas State last week with an 86-yard touchdown run. He finished with two touchdown runs, the fourth time in five weeks he’s had that many in a game.

Two years after transferring from Nebraska, his career is starting to resemble what he imagined coming out of high school as a four-star prospect headed to big-time college football.

“It definitely took a little longer, but I think that’s just how things work sometimes,” he said “Everybody takes different paths. I’m glad for where I’m at.”

Obviously, so are the Horned Frogs. They leaned on him in the last five games of the season last year after B.J. Catalon sat out with a concussion from the West Virginia game.

Green, who had already prepared to sit behind Rex Burkhead at Nebraska and was waiting his turn at TCU behind Catalon, proved to be an electric runner with his opportunity. He averaged 7.1 yards per carry, the third-most ever in the Big 12, despite the emphasis on the pass in the Air Raid offense.

“Not only in this offense, but every offense, it’s just confidence — trust in yourself,” Green said. “I trust my vision, I trust my judgment. Every once in a while, I miss a hole. But a lot of times, I hit the right holes. I trust my eyes. I trust my feet. Just run. Just do what I’ve been doing for all these years.”

He has earned TCU coach Gary Patterson’s trust, which is no small thing.

“The guy is older, plus the guy plays with confidence,” Patterson said. “You know Aaron is going to do everything during the week he’s supposed to do to get ready for Saturday.”

Patterson even broke a personal rule for Green. He let him play in the season opener despite the amount of time Green had missed in fall camp while he recovered from a groin injury.

“That’s different for Gary Patterson,” Patterson said. “You’re not practicing in two-a-days, you’re probably not going to play. That’s just the way it is. The times have changed. In this league, you’ve just got to get your best players to Saturday.”

Green thinks back on what could have been early in his career. Indirectly, he blames himself for not being his best.

“I can kind of look back and see ways that I was probably immature, said things I probably shouldn’t have said; but I mean, that’s kind of normal for a kid coming out of high school not playing, used to being the star,” he said. “It’s definitely humbled me a lot. I’m grateful just for the lessons that I’ve had, honestly.”

Green’s first action at TCU came for a 4-8 team in 2013. He helped get one of those four wins when he ran for 40 yards in the game-winning drive at Iowa State, where he and the Horned Frogs return on Saturday.

“It means everything to me,” he said, asked what it means to be part of a resurgent TCU program in the past two years. “I’ve never been a part of a team that I just love so much, that I love to play with, love to work for. It means everything.”

It is a fit for TCU and Green. He’s just glad he found it.

“I’ve always known what I can do,” he said. “I just knew that it was a matter of time when I got my opportunity that I would shine.”

This story was originally published October 15, 2015 at 2:14 PM with the headline "TCU’s Green making memorable plays this season."