Kansas State University Athletics
Back and Healthy
Apr 10, 2023 | Football, Sports Extra
By: D. Scott Fritchen
Daniel Green sat in a chair, a thousand thoughts running through his head, in the aftermath of the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans, Louisiana. He wore a white Kansas State jersey, a bowl patch sewn into the right shoulder, a purple 'C' emblazoned on the left, and the No. 22 ever prominent — the last thing many opposing offensive players see before hitting the turf.
It was December 31, 2022. He spoke slowly. He spoke quietly. He talked like a guy who had played his last snap in a college career that spanned five years. And, oh, what a journey it had been.
"I'm going to miss it," he said. "I'm going to miss it a lot."
The heart is an interesting thing. Sometimes the love is so great that we simply cannot say goodbye. This is one of those stories. Because something happened within Green between the time he sat inside the Superdome and January 14. The love was simply too great to take off the pads for a final time.
On January 14, Green announced on Twitter "SEE Y'ALL IN THE FALL."
"Coming to K-State has been one of the greatest decisions I have made," he wrote. "The relationships and bonds I have formed here along with having the greatest fan base in the nation, have been truly a blessing. With that being said, I have thought long and hard about leaving and entering the 2023 NFL Draft.
"After a senior year plagued by injury and not being 100% for most of the year, I want to finish my college career playing my best ball."
He's returning to K-State for his sixth season in fall 2023.
Never underestimate the heart.
Steve Stanard has 30 years of coaching experience and this fall enters his fourth season at K-State as linebackers coach.
In 2013, Stanard coached North Dakota State's Grant Olson, who was named All-American by the Associated Press. At Wyoming, he coached Logan Wilson, who earned 2016 Mountain West Freshman of the Year and went on to be selected in the third round of the 2020 NFL Draft. At Syracuse, he coached Alton Robinson and Kendall Coleman, and Robinson earned 2018 Second Team All-ACC honors.
At K-State, he's coached many fine linebackers, including Justin Hughes, Cody Fletcher, Elijah Sullivan, Austin Moore and Green, a two-time All-Big 12 Honorable Mention selection.
Stanard stands inside the team meeting room at the Vanier Family Football Complex. K-State is past the midway point of spring practice. Everyone wants to hear about Green.
"Having Daniel back was the best phone call I've had in a long time," he says. "He called and said, 'Coach, is it OK if I come back?'"
He chuckles.
"What do you say? No?"
He pauses.
"We were hoping that he'd come back," Stanard continues, "but at the end of the day we knew it was him and his family's decision. It was a complete surprise when he called."
Defensive coordinator Joe Klanderman was taken aback as well.
"Every hint was, 'I'm going to show what I can do at the next level,'" he says. "When (his decision) came out, I've got to tell you, it was big-time and incredibly unexpected.
"He's outstanding."
Green, a 6-foot-3, 245-pound native of Portland, Oregon, is the leader of the Wildcats' defense.
It's a position that he could've only dreamed about many years ago.
Arguably the top inside linebacker on the west coast in the Class of 2017, Green, a standout at Madison High School, chose K-State over Oregon State, Utah, USC and Arizona. He was the highest-rated signee for K-State and the No. 6-rated high school prospect out of the state or Oregon by 247Sports.
(Trivia: Green was nicknamed "Deuce" when he was given jersey number 22 prior to his freshman season at Madison High School.)
Dreams of making an immediate impact at K-State stalled due to the NCAA Clearinghouse. Green was delayed getting to campus. He did a lot of thinking during his time away from football. Sometimes he wondered if he would ever make it to Manhattan.
"I feel like God brought me here for a reason," Green said prior to the 2019 season. "I'm happy to be here. I feel blessed to be here. I'm just ready to play."
Deuce went out and recorded the first quarterback sack for the Wildcats in 2019 and caused a fumble and recovered a fumble over the first three games of his K-State career.
"My early memories of Daniel?" Klanderman says. "I thought he was like a cannonball."
Green progressed as redshirt freshman (34 tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss and 2.0 sacks) and as a sophomore (39 tackles, 5.5 tackles for loss and 2.5 sacks). He thrived during his first full season as a starter as a junior (89 tackles, 16.9 tackles for loss and three sacks). But Green fought through injury as a fifth-year senior.
"After the first or second game last season he was kind of a shell of himself with a foot (injury) and even when he came back and he started feeling as good as he ever had, then he had the hit where he tore cartilage in his ribs," Stanard says. "Daniel played two games where he was completely healthy."
Green started in 13 games last season. He missed one game (a 48-0 win over No. 19 Oklahoma State). He finished fifth on the team with 58 tackles, including 3.5 tackles for a loss with 2.0 sacks, two interceptions and four passes defended. He had a season-high 10 tackles in a 31-28 overtime win over No. 3 TCU in the Big 12 Championship Game. That included when he teamed up with Eli Huggins for a tackle on fourth-and-goal inside the one-yard line in overtime.
There's truly something special about the game of football. There's a beauty in Will Howard throwing a tight spiral to RJ Garcia II for a touchdown. Last season, there was absolute beauty in watching Deuce Vaughn wiggle and break free. And, yes, there's beauty in watching Green pummel an opposing player and send him to the turf. In his career, Green has 219 career tackles, including 28.5 tackles for a loss with 9.5 sacks, two interceptions, three fumble recoveries and one forced fumble. He enters this fall needing 95 total tackles to break into the school's career top-10 list and needs 17 solo tackles to enter the school's career top-10 list.
"His leadership for the entire team and for the defensive side of the football is big," Stanard says. "He played in the four-down front and now in the 3-3-5 alignment, and he's just starting to come into his own. His knowledge now of the 3-3-5 is outstanding."
It goes beyond the four-down front and three-down front. It's about the maturation of the man, the machine, the leader and playmaker. He played behind Justin Hughes and believed that he was the man. Now for two years, he's been the man.
"I think he started to realize that everybody was looking at him," Klanderman says. "I don't know if he felt that way in 2019 and 2020 when he was still the young guy, the backup guy. He became the guy and realized he's out there making plays and everything is happening how he thought it'd happen for him and his confidence just went through the roof. When that started to happen, he started to apply himself in other areas: taking care of his body, weight room, change of direction, nutrition. He's doing all the little things we preach on a daily basis. We've seen it right before our eyes.
"He's as good of a personification of that as anybody we've ever had. He didn't come on campus and was the guy right away. He's become the man through his hard work and through what he's done on the field. That's why I'm so proud of him."
His impact is felt all over.
"He's the quarterback of our defense," defensive tackle coach Mike Tuiasosopo says. "That experience in itself means everything. It's invaluable in my eyes. Having that presence and command as the quarterback of our defense is invaluable."
Adds defensive ends coach Buddy Wyatt: "Daniel, he means everything to this defense. He's like having a coach on the field. He controls the locker room. Deuce has to be that leader for our front seven."
You ask what Green looks like these days when he's healthy, when everything is in working order, and when he's out there playing free and making plays. Stanard stands there, smiles, and shakes his head.
"Deuce is going to come downhill," he says, "and punch you — hard."
"Daniel is really a downhill linebacker, meaning the things that we're doing with him right now really causes disruption to the offense," Stanard continues. "He's a big body. He's 247 pounds now. The thing for him is the 3-3-5 is a much more aggressive downhill attack defense for the linebackers. You ask Deuce with alignment he likes better, and he'll tell you he likes this better because your base defense allows him to pin his ears back."
Which is exactly what we could see in the fall.
It all goes back to that day in the Superdome, when he sat there with a thousand thoughts running through his head. Little did anyone, including Green, realize what would happen next.
Yes, there's beauty in football. There's heart and there's love that burns within the competitors we see on the field each Saturday. Green perhaps demonstrates that as much as anybody. In the end, he wanted to play to his ability. In the end, he wanted to play injury-free. And now he's back for a sixth season in Manhattan.
"He has a really special place in my heart the fact that he came back," Stanard says. "I just feel like I owe him everything I can give him this year to help him accomplish what he wants to accomplish."
Daniel Green sat in a chair, a thousand thoughts running through his head, in the aftermath of the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans, Louisiana. He wore a white Kansas State jersey, a bowl patch sewn into the right shoulder, a purple 'C' emblazoned on the left, and the No. 22 ever prominent — the last thing many opposing offensive players see before hitting the turf.
It was December 31, 2022. He spoke slowly. He spoke quietly. He talked like a guy who had played his last snap in a college career that spanned five years. And, oh, what a journey it had been.
"I'm going to miss it," he said. "I'm going to miss it a lot."
The heart is an interesting thing. Sometimes the love is so great that we simply cannot say goodbye. This is one of those stories. Because something happened within Green between the time he sat inside the Superdome and January 14. The love was simply too great to take off the pads for a final time.
On January 14, Green announced on Twitter "SEE Y'ALL IN THE FALL."
"Coming to K-State has been one of the greatest decisions I have made," he wrote. "The relationships and bonds I have formed here along with having the greatest fan base in the nation, have been truly a blessing. With that being said, I have thought long and hard about leaving and entering the 2023 NFL Draft.
"After a senior year plagued by injury and not being 100% for most of the year, I want to finish my college career playing my best ball."
Green signed his letter-of-intent with K-State on February 1, 2017.~ Jeremiah 29:11 pic.twitter.com/acmCgwiV5N
— Daniel X Green (Deuce) (@Only1_Deuce2) January 14, 2023
He's returning to K-State for his sixth season in fall 2023.
Never underestimate the heart.
Steve Stanard has 30 years of coaching experience and this fall enters his fourth season at K-State as linebackers coach.
In 2013, Stanard coached North Dakota State's Grant Olson, who was named All-American by the Associated Press. At Wyoming, he coached Logan Wilson, who earned 2016 Mountain West Freshman of the Year and went on to be selected in the third round of the 2020 NFL Draft. At Syracuse, he coached Alton Robinson and Kendall Coleman, and Robinson earned 2018 Second Team All-ACC honors.
At K-State, he's coached many fine linebackers, including Justin Hughes, Cody Fletcher, Elijah Sullivan, Austin Moore and Green, a two-time All-Big 12 Honorable Mention selection.
Stanard stands inside the team meeting room at the Vanier Family Football Complex. K-State is past the midway point of spring practice. Everyone wants to hear about Green.
"Having Daniel back was the best phone call I've had in a long time," he says. "He called and said, 'Coach, is it OK if I come back?'"
He chuckles.
"What do you say? No?"
He pauses.
"We were hoping that he'd come back," Stanard continues, "but at the end of the day we knew it was him and his family's decision. It was a complete surprise when he called."
Defensive coordinator Joe Klanderman was taken aback as well.
"Every hint was, 'I'm going to show what I can do at the next level,'" he says. "When (his decision) came out, I've got to tell you, it was big-time and incredibly unexpected.
"He's outstanding."
Green, a 6-foot-3, 245-pound native of Portland, Oregon, is the leader of the Wildcats' defense.
It's a position that he could've only dreamed about many years ago.
Arguably the top inside linebacker on the west coast in the Class of 2017, Green, a standout at Madison High School, chose K-State over Oregon State, Utah, USC and Arizona. He was the highest-rated signee for K-State and the No. 6-rated high school prospect out of the state or Oregon by 247Sports.
(Trivia: Green was nicknamed "Deuce" when he was given jersey number 22 prior to his freshman season at Madison High School.)
Dreams of making an immediate impact at K-State stalled due to the NCAA Clearinghouse. Green was delayed getting to campus. He did a lot of thinking during his time away from football. Sometimes he wondered if he would ever make it to Manhattan.
"I feel like God brought me here for a reason," Green said prior to the 2019 season. "I'm happy to be here. I feel blessed to be here. I'm just ready to play."
Deuce went out and recorded the first quarterback sack for the Wildcats in 2019 and caused a fumble and recovered a fumble over the first three games of his K-State career.
"My early memories of Daniel?" Klanderman says. "I thought he was like a cannonball."
Green progressed as redshirt freshman (34 tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss and 2.0 sacks) and as a sophomore (39 tackles, 5.5 tackles for loss and 2.5 sacks). He thrived during his first full season as a starter as a junior (89 tackles, 16.9 tackles for loss and three sacks). But Green fought through injury as a fifth-year senior.
"After the first or second game last season he was kind of a shell of himself with a foot (injury) and even when he came back and he started feeling as good as he ever had, then he had the hit where he tore cartilage in his ribs," Stanard says. "Daniel played two games where he was completely healthy."
Green started in 13 games last season. He missed one game (a 48-0 win over No. 19 Oklahoma State). He finished fifth on the team with 58 tackles, including 3.5 tackles for a loss with 2.0 sacks, two interceptions and four passes defended. He had a season-high 10 tackles in a 31-28 overtime win over No. 3 TCU in the Big 12 Championship Game. That included when he teamed up with Eli Huggins for a tackle on fourth-and-goal inside the one-yard line in overtime.
There's truly something special about the game of football. There's a beauty in Will Howard throwing a tight spiral to RJ Garcia II for a touchdown. Last season, there was absolute beauty in watching Deuce Vaughn wiggle and break free. And, yes, there's beauty in watching Green pummel an opposing player and send him to the turf. In his career, Green has 219 career tackles, including 28.5 tackles for a loss with 9.5 sacks, two interceptions, three fumble recoveries and one forced fumble. He enters this fall needing 95 total tackles to break into the school's career top-10 list and needs 17 solo tackles to enter the school's career top-10 list.
"His leadership for the entire team and for the defensive side of the football is big," Stanard says. "He played in the four-down front and now in the 3-3-5 alignment, and he's just starting to come into his own. His knowledge now of the 3-3-5 is outstanding."
It goes beyond the four-down front and three-down front. It's about the maturation of the man, the machine, the leader and playmaker. He played behind Justin Hughes and believed that he was the man. Now for two years, he's been the man.
"I think he started to realize that everybody was looking at him," Klanderman says. "I don't know if he felt that way in 2019 and 2020 when he was still the young guy, the backup guy. He became the guy and realized he's out there making plays and everything is happening how he thought it'd happen for him and his confidence just went through the roof. When that started to happen, he started to apply himself in other areas: taking care of his body, weight room, change of direction, nutrition. He's doing all the little things we preach on a daily basis. We've seen it right before our eyes.
"He's as good of a personification of that as anybody we've ever had. He didn't come on campus and was the guy right away. He's become the man through his hard work and through what he's done on the field. That's why I'm so proud of him."
His impact is felt all over.
"He's the quarterback of our defense," defensive tackle coach Mike Tuiasosopo says. "That experience in itself means everything. It's invaluable in my eyes. Having that presence and command as the quarterback of our defense is invaluable."
Adds defensive ends coach Buddy Wyatt: "Daniel, he means everything to this defense. He's like having a coach on the field. He controls the locker room. Deuce has to be that leader for our front seven."
You ask what Green looks like these days when he's healthy, when everything is in working order, and when he's out there playing free and making plays. Stanard stands there, smiles, and shakes his head.
"Deuce is going to come downhill," he says, "and punch you — hard."
"Daniel is really a downhill linebacker, meaning the things that we're doing with him right now really causes disruption to the offense," Stanard continues. "He's a big body. He's 247 pounds now. The thing for him is the 3-3-5 is a much more aggressive downhill attack defense for the linebackers. You ask Deuce with alignment he likes better, and he'll tell you he likes this better because your base defense allows him to pin his ears back."
Which is exactly what we could see in the fall.
It all goes back to that day in the Superdome, when he sat there with a thousand thoughts running through his head. Little did anyone, including Green, realize what would happen next.
Yes, there's beauty in football. There's heart and there's love that burns within the competitors we see on the field each Saturday. Green perhaps demonstrates that as much as anybody. In the end, he wanted to play to his ability. In the end, he wanted to play injury-free. And now he's back for a sixth season in Manhattan.
"He has a really special place in my heart the fact that he came back," Stanard says. "I just feel like I owe him everything I can give him this year to help him accomplish what he wants to accomplish."
Players Mentioned
WR
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QB
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NG
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RB
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