Kiper Warns Insiders: Watch Out For Greene

Mel Kiper, draft analyst, hair gel enthusiast, and all around God, (I think he needs his own 24-hour a day channel along with Tim Kurkjian, Barry Melrose - he'll be back, and Peter Gammons, but that's a whole other fanpost) is advising fans and scouts to "Keep an eye on Shonn Greene."  This has been lingering on ESPN.com for the past week or so, but I thought it warranted mention here.  If you're an ESPN.com Insider, you can click this link.  Or because I know how lazy you all are, I've plagarized block-quoted the Greene portion of the column after the jump.

And down the hair gel slope we go...

One of the breakout stars, not only in the Big Ten, but in all of college football this season has been Iowa's junior RB Shonn Greene.

The aggressive, hard-nosed 5-10½, 230-pounder has been putting on quite a show every week, producing off the charts results and proving to be a model of consistency for the 5-3 Hawkeyes.

Greene has averaged over 5.0 yards per carry in each of the last 7 games, has carried the ball 20+ times the last 6 games, and back on October 4th, out-produced Michigan State's highly regarded senior Javon Ringer by 66 yards. In that game at East Lansing, Greene finished with 157 yards on 30 carries, averaging 5.2 yards per rush.

On Saturday against Wisconsin at Iowa City, he thrilled the crowd at Kinnick Stadium time and time again, busting loose for TD scampers that covered 12, 34, 52, and 34 yards. For the day, he rushed for a career-high 217 yards on 25 carries, averaging 8.7 yards per tote.

Greene, who sat out last year (attended Kirkwood Community College) in order to get his academic standing in order, really impresses me with his decisive style and ability to get those critical extra yards after initial contact.

Over the final month of the season, the game to circle will take place on Nov. 8 when the Hawkeyes play host to Joe Paterno's talent-laden Nittany Lions of Penn State at Kinnick Stadium.

It will be interesting to see how Greene fares in that contest, but rest assured folks, he's already done more than enough to guarantee a meteoric rise up the NFL draft board. And remember, he's a fourth-year junior with the option of remaining at Iowa for another campaign or entering the 2009 NFL Draft coming up in late April.