Disclaimer: As the 2020 football season still is “technically” scheduled to proceed as planned in Manhattan, with the recent delay of our season opener until Sept. 12 against Arkansas State, we will reset and continue this Countdown for just a little bit longer...

#22 Daniel Green

Redshirt Sophomore | 6-2 | 238 lbs. | Portland, Oregon

Courtesy Kansas State Athletics

• Position: Linebacker
• Previous College: None
• Projection: Second-String
• Status: On Scholarship

Daniel X. Green (b. Jan. 8, 1999) is a young, athletic linebacker majoring in sociology who redshirted in 2018 and spent the 2019 season getting his feet wet at the Division I level.

Originally announced as part of the 2017 class, Green was promising, physical defensive end/linebacker prospect from Oregon who was a bit of a February Signing Day surprise.

The four-star linebacker selected K-State over offers from Mississippi, Oregon State and Utah. But academic eligibility issues kept him from enrolling until spring 2018 as a grayshirt.

Green played in all 13 games in 2019 as a reserve linebacker and on special teams, making an immediate impact while totaling 34 tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss and two sacks. He also chipped in three pass breakups, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery.

Green carded a season-high seven tackles at Mississippi State, a game that featured a fumble recovery that led to a K-State touchdown to put the Wildcats up by two scores.

He also had five stops and a sack against TCU, while he registered four tackles, a sack and a forced fumble against Bowling Green.

Green played for Madison High School under head coach Don Johnson Jr.

With the Senators, he earned second-team all-state honors from The Oregonian, while he also was a two-time first-team all-conference honoree.

Green was named one of the top 250 prospects in the Class of 2017 by Rivals.

The organization also viewed him as the 10th-best inside linebacker in the nation and the third-best player in the state of Oregon.

Many remain high on his defensive potential, including Ian Boyd of SportsTreatise:

Green is a really solid inside backer prospect who likes to play with some depth and then play downhill once he’s diagnosed the play. I think that could get him into trouble if the Wildcats defensive line can’t keep him covered up, or he’s facing a team with a really quality tackle or fullback who can get out on him 4 yards past the line of scrimmage.

That said, he’s really sudden and powerful coming downhill, and he’s pretty hard to block once he’s aiming for the ball. He also can blitz with some thunder and pursue the ball outside of the tackle box. With some refinement, he might be a really good player.