EVANSTON-TJ Green knows where he stands in this quarterback competition.
He is aware that everyone this summer is talking about his competitor in the battle for the starting job, highly touted Clemson trransfer Hunter Johnson. He also understands that, outside of his family, there may not be a single Northwestern fan out there who wants to see him trot out with the first team in the season opener on Aug. 31 at Stanford Stadium.
And that's okay with him. He doesn't let that stuff bother him.
"That’s fine," he said with a shrug while Johnson conducted an interview on camera for a local television station nearby. "Everybody does want to talk about Hunter, and he’s earned that. He’s got the five stars coming out of high school. He came from Clemson, an absolutely great program. And I’m fine with that, flying under the radar, doing what I’ve got to do. I’m just being myself.
"I just want to stay in my lane, focus on myself and be the best quarterback I can be, and the rest will take care of itself."
Green is used to it, anyway. He was in essentially the same spot as "the other guy" last year, under different circumstances.
Last season, it was Clayton Thorson, a three-year starting quarterback who was recovering from an ACL tear, that everyone wanted to see in the starting role. No one was pulling for Green to win the job.
Thorson, of course, wound up starting every game, but Green got a significant number of snaps through the first three weeks as QB 1A, playing every third series or so as Thorson slowly got back closer to 100%. Green finished the year playing in nine games, completing 20 of 36 passes for 169 yards, with one interception, and carrying the ball 11 times for 21 yards and another score.
This year, it's Johnson, the No. 2 quarterback in the country in the 2017 class, who is the media and fan darling. So Green is still the underdog, despite the fact that he's in his fifth year in the program.
And that's okay with him, too. He's had to prove himself since he arrived in Evanston as a walkon in 2015.
Despite being named the Missouri Gatorade Player of the Year, USA Today Missouri Offensive Player of the Year and first-team all-state as a senior at Rockhurst High School, Green didn't earn a single FBS offer. The lone school to offer him a scholarship was FCS powerhouse North Dakota State. An outstanding student, he chose to walk on at Northwestern rather than Stanford.
"Coming in as a walkon, having a chip on my shoulder, wanting to prove not only to everyone else, but myself, that I deserve to be at a Big Ten school, in a Big Ten program," he said. "My dad (former NFL QB Trent Green) played at Indiana, so it was my dream to play at a Big Ten school as a quarterback since I was little.
"I wanted to prove to myself and to everybody else that I could do it, so that’s always been there, pushing me."
Now, it's pushed him into a battle for the starting job for the defending Big Ten West division champions. It also finally earned him a scholarship at Northwestern. Green was put on scholarship at the end of last season, so the school paid for his last two quarters of 2018, summer school and now, the entire 2019-20 academic year.
Green will take full advantage of this extra year. He graduated with a degree in Economics in June and is now in the Kellogg Graduate School of Management for his Master of Management Science program.
While Green may be outgunned in the physical talent department by Johnson, his biggest edge is between his ears. He knows the Wildcat offense better than anyone else in that quarterback room.
"Really, where I think I can separate myself, or try to separate myself, from everyone else, is my knowledge of the playbook," he said. "I know I’m not the biggest guy, I’m not the strongest guy, I’m not the fastest guy. But if I know everything better, than that gives me an advantage."
Johnson praises Green for that knowledge, and he's tried to leverage Green's familiarity with the playbook at every turn as he gets up to speed on the Northwestern system after spending a year running the Wildcats' opponents offenses on the scout team.
"TJ is a really smart guy; on the field, off the field, he’s a smart guy," said Johnson. "He’s a worker, too. He works and works and works. He’s been here for a long time and he’s worked his butt off to get to where he’s at. From a knowledge standpoint, he’s a smart QB, he knows his reads, he knows what he’s doing out there, so he can go out and play fast."
He continued, "TJ was a big help for me as a guy that I can always go to and ask questions, ‘What do you think about this?’ Even in fall camp, we both bounce ideas off of each other. Every time, after I play, I try to go over to him and say, ‘Hey, what did you see on that one.’"
But it's not like Green is all brain and no brawn, either. Genetics eventually kicked in and he has grown from about 6-foot and 180 pounds as a true freshman to 6-foot-2 and "between 210 and 220 pounds" as a fifth-year senior.
Right now, reps in fall camp are being split up among Green, Johnson and the other four quarterbacks on the roster. Head coach Pat Fitzgerald didn't name a starter after spring practice, and he has said that he won't name his QB1 until the opener at Stanford.
As for criteria for deciding who will win the job, he says that “it’s the guy that can execute the offense and take care of the football, a guy that, when he walks on the field, the other 10 guys believe in him. … A guy that can help lead us to a championship.”
Just about every college football media member expects that starter to be Johnson, though Fitzgerald emphasized that "you need more than one quarterback."
While the quarterback drama continues to unfold, one thing is certain: whether he wins the starting job, plays a reliever role again or is relegated to being the backup, TJ Green will be just fine with it.
