Two-thousand miles.
That is approximately how far senior linebacker Remington Green moved to come to Colorado Mesa University (CMU). He moved from King George, Va. where he was living and taking care of his family.
“I got out of a long relationship with a girl that I honestly thought I was going to marry, but God had a different plan. My grandma was going through some stuff, her health was bad. God rest her soul, she ended up passing away,” Green said.
The same thing was kind of going on with my mom and she was having non-stop surgeries, and this stuff is happening at the same time. I’m feeling lost and down, and I was creating bad habits, just putting vice grips on my life. I feel like I just needed to get out, but I was also trying to be a good son, be a good leader for my family.”
Along with the struggles in his personal life, Liberty University (LU) brought in a new coaching staff. All the factors made Green feel like he needs a change of scenary, so he entered the transfer portal.
“I was at Liberty and we had a coaching staff change, and everybody was gone. It kind of hit me hard because I felt like they were my family, they were father figures and that’s nothing against the new staff right now. I feel like they are good coaches, but I feel like the guys that they brought in, just wasn’t the right fit for me,” Green said.
That was where the CMU Running Backs Coach Todd Macon came into play. Macon and Green played together at LU, and Macon then got in contact with Green once he saw that he was in the transfer portal.
The recruitment process happened in a unique way. Due to the existing relationship between Macon and Green, a lot of the recruiting happened while playing Call of Duty: Warzone.
“Coach Macon, the running backs coach and Coach Brian Blechen when he was the linebackers coach, they recruited me on Warzone. Just because I knew Todd Macon,” Green said.
I remember in quarantine, we were just sitting there, and he’s always been my boy and I was in the portal so he could talk to me. I told them, ‘you know let’s do it. I trust you without a doubt.’ I know that he wouldn’t put me in a bad position, he was going to take care of me and that was something that was huge to me.”
Green had 12 different offers on the table, but CMU started to stick out over the others. It was the DOG Mentality and that the CMU coaching staff preaches that drew Green here.
“He embodies what DOG really is. We are talking about a guy with a college degree that goes out every day and plays extremely hard, even in practice. Every day is the game for him,” Head Coach Tremaine Jackson said.
So, I think that he is a model for what we want everyone in our program to look like, and he is a great model for the younger kids. He is a captain, he hasn’t been here that long but he won the captainship from him team. I think he is a model Maverick for what we want moving forward.”
The King George, Va. native fit perfectly within the Maverick’s philosophy.
“He’s just a coach on the field,” Defensive Coordinator Brandon Allen said. “He understands what we are looking for and he’s always asking, ‘hey what do you need me to do more?’ Then also, an attitude, defensive football is supposed to be fun and it’s supposed to be intense at the same time. He brings all of that, there’s a certain confidence, a certain edgyness where your kind of walking the fine line between being cocky and confident and I think he brings a good amount of all that to us.”
Green is disciplined with how he watches film, and picks up tendencies that each offense to put himself in the best position for each play. Green said if the offensive lineman are in a three-point stance, it’s a run play, and if they are in a two-point stance, it’s a pass play.
“I’d like to say, there are seven to eight times out of 10, I know exactly what play they are going to run and a lot of that is based off of tendencies. A lot of it is on personnel whether they are in 10, 11 or 12 personnel, and formations are huge,” Green said. “Guys that they have in the game, like against [Fort Lewis], they have two different running backs, two different styles and whichever one they have in the game, I know what play they are going to run.”
Green said that he tries to model his play-style after Fred Warner, Bobby Wagner and Roquan Smith because of their cerebral style.
“I’ve played ball for a long time, so it all just flows accordingly now with just having so much experience. I know if the quarterback’s going to pass set, his leg is cocked back and he is standing up tall because he is trying to get the ball out,” Green said.
Lineman, if they are in a three-point stance, they are most likely going to run the ball. Two-point stance, they are pass setting. If a guard has most of his weight shifted on one heel, I know he is probably going to pull or he’s going to try to get a bucket step to try to out leverage me in my gap.”
His ability to breakdown defenses quickly is what separates him defensively and has led him to compile 45 total tackles so far this year. He also has four tackles for loss this year with two sacks as well.
The Maverick’s next game is Saturday, Oct. 23 at 1 p.m. against Colorado School of Mines for CMU’s Homecoming Game.
