Shonn Greene‘s journey as a football player at Iowa took an unexpected path, but it ended with Greene being one of the top running backs in program history.

Greene was among the most dominant offensive players in the nation in 2008 when he was named the winner of the Doak Walker Award, given annually to the nation’s top running back. He became the first Iowa running back to earn consensus All-America honors since Nile Kinnick in 1939.

Greene was awarded the Chicago Tribune‘s Silver Football Award as the Big Ten’s most valuable player, and he added the conference’s player of the year honor in voting by coaches and the media.

“It’s a great story of success,” Greene said on the Big Ten Network the night he was named the conference’s offensive player of the year. “I came a long way, and I had a lot of people help me down this path.”

Greene missed the entire 2007 season when he left the university because of academic issues. He attended Kirkwood Community College and worked in a local furniture store, rejoining the Hawkeyes in the summer of 2008.

“I just wanted to get back on the team,” Greene said to the Iowa City Press-Citizen. “I didn’t know if I’d be starting, what my role would be.”

Greene’s 2008 season was one for the record books. He rushed for 100 yards or more in every game that season, the only running back in the nation to do so, and he finished with Iowa’s single-season records of 1,850 yards and 20 rushing touchdowns.

“If this guy’s not an All-American, all-everything, I don’t know what it takes,” Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said that season.

Greene, a native of Sicklerville, N.J., was a third-round pick by the New York Jets in the 2009 NFL draft. He played six seasons in the NFL with the Jets and Tennessee Titans, rushing for 4,110 yards and 24 touchdowns.