text: ricky powers richard " ricky " powers ( born november 30 , 1970 ) is a former running back in the national football league ( nfl ) for the cleveland browns , and a former university of michigan wolverines football co - captain . in the nfl , he had a brief career with the browns during their final season before they relocated to become the baltimore ravens after starring for the wolverines . his career ended due to being lost in the shuffle when the browns moved to baltimore and changed coaching staffs . in college , he set the michigan football freshman rushing record that stood 14 seasons , and as a sophomore was the leading rusher for the team during desmond howard 's heisman trophy - winning season . at michigan , he was a member of three consecutive big ten conference football champions . in high school , he was the parade all - american star running back of the two - time ohio high school athletic association ( ohsaa ) football championship team at buchtel high school , where he has returned to coach baseball and football . high school powers was both born and raised in akron , where he led the buchtel high school football team to back - to - back ohsaa championships , as well as being named a high school all - american . powers graduated from buchtel in 1990 after leading them to the 1987 and 1988 ohio division ii state high school championships . as a sophomore in 1987 , powers rushed for 1 , 600 yards including 600 in four playoff games and helped his coach earn summit county coach of the year honors . powers rushed for 1 , 741 yards and 28 touchdowns as a junior , including 289 yards against high school in a playoff game , and 2 , 014 yards and 19 touchdowns as a senior . during that junior season , he became the third junior ( following chris spielman and jeff logan , by one account and spielman and charles gladman by another ) to earn akron beacon journal player of the year honors . during the season , he topped his sophomore championship game 161 yard effort with a championship game record 206 rushing yard effort . he earned all - ohio division ii honors . ohio rival , robert smith , earned usa today player of the year honors and powers earned an honorable mention during their junior years . powers entered his senior season on numerous lists including the chicago sun - times national top 100 and 24 - man all - midwest lists , the times - picayune top 25 national prospects , and usa today top 13 ohio players . his senior season ended with a " turkey day " city championship game . he and smith , who chose to go to rival ohio state , were the two top football prospects in ohio and the nation in 1989 . smith was named mr. football ( ohio ) , but powers was named the top player in the nation by the dallas morning news . in a poll of 14 experts produced by the detroit free press , powers was the all - midwest ( big ten states of illinois , indiana , iowa , michigan , minnesota , ohio and wisconsin because penn state had not yet joined the conference ) offensive player of the year in a first - team backfield with jerome bettis and chris weinke . powers became the first two - time akron beacon journal player of the year . he was a parade all - american and earned first - team all - usa honors from usa today . many publications across the country listed powers among the best five or ten players in the nation . powers was recruited by both the michigan wolverines and the ohio state buckeyes . college powers , who wore # 12 for the michigan wolverines football program from 1990 to 1993 , shared the tailback position with jon vaughn as a freshman and tyrone wheatley as a junior and senior . although he was only the official starter for one game as a freshman in 1990 , he set the michigan freshman rushing record with 789 rushing yards , a record broken by mike hart in 2004 . that season , he led the wolverines , who three - as big ten conference champions , to victories in their last four games with 100 - yard rushing efforts in each game , and tied vaughn with five 100 - yard rushing efforts . the next year , as a sophomore , he started eleven of twelve games and was named to the all - big ten conference team . although as a sophomore in 1991 he led the team in rushing with 1251 yards , he shared the spotlight with heisman trophy winner desmond howard . that 1991 team would again win the big ten conference championship , and it would produce eighteen national football league draftees between 1992 and 1995 . in 1992 and 1993 , his offensive totals were lower than in 1991 because he was sharing playing time with tyrone wheatley . however , in 1993 , he was named michigan football co - captain of a five - time big ten conference team . powers currently ranks 13th on the all - time michigan rushing yards list with career yards . powers obtained his bachelor 's degree in kinesiology . both the 1991 and 1992 conference champions went to the rose bowl . professional career in the nfl , powers , who measured 6 feet ( 1 . 83 m ) and 213 pounds ( 96 . 6 kg ) , was signed as a free agent in 1994 by the detroit lions , but he was waived before the season started . he later that year signed with the cleveland browns , joining their practice squad . he remained on the practice squad until being promoted to the regular roster for the final three games of the 1995 national football league season . he totaled 51 yards on 14 rushes , one six - yard pass reception , and three kickoff returns for a total of 54 yards . when the browns relocated following the 1995 season to become the baltimore ravens , and ted replaced bill belichick as coach , powers got lost in the shuffle . he dabbled with world league of american football and spring football league afterwards , but soon retired . in 2007 , powers assumed the football coaching duties at his high school alma mater , akron buchtel high school , where he has been the head baseball coach since 2004 . at buchtel , he inherits a football team that has a tradition of producing major college scholarship athletes and a few professional ones . recent buchtel griffins who have become professional athletes include antonio pittman , charlton keith , and ramon walker . for 2007 and 2008 , buchtel competes in ohio high school athletic association division ii , which is for schools with enrollments of between 365 to 523 . buchtel has qualified for the state tournament 9 times in the past as both a division ii and division iii entrant , but they were not among the 32 teams in the 120 team division ii class to qualify in 2007 . personal powers ' older brother , scott , had been an all - district cornerback who recorded nine interceptions , six fumbles recoveries and four blocked field goals and three blocked extra points during his 1987 senior season . ricky powers ' final decision came down to michigan state and michigan according to his mother . at the time , scott was a sophomore starting cornerback for the cincinnati bearcats and was trying to transfer to michigan state . due to a suspicion of tampering , scott would only be allowed to transfer if ricky chose michigan . powers ' mother , rosetta , claimed ricky had been leaning toward michigan state prior to the determination regarding his brother .