Error processing SSI fileHart's return gives Wolverines huge boost
Running back lends U-M the spark it needed to pull out victory with his talent, tenacity.
David Herron Jr. tackles Mike Hart, but the U-M sophomore got away for 218 yards and a touchdown on 36 carries.
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ANN ARBOR -- Mike Hart had just completed a 45-yard run on the third Michigan play of the game, when he danced by the Michigan State bench uttering a few, choice words.
"When I broke that run, I wanted to tell them, 'We're coming, we're playing today. It's not last week, it's not the week before that. We came to play, and we came to win,'" Hart said.
Hart, the sophomore back who has been out since the first quarter of the Notre Dame game when he injured his left hamstring, made a memorable return after nearly three games on the bench. He had 36 carries for 218 yards and a touchdown to help lift Michigan to a 34-31 overtime victory over Michigan State Saturday in Spartan Stadium.
Michigan coach Lloyd Carr said he had no idea entering the game how much Hart -- who said he is not yet 100 percent healthy -- could do.
"On Tuesday, he practiced, he was out there, but he didn't look like Mike Hart," Carr said, referring to last week's practices.
"He practiced on Wednesday, and he didn't look like Mike Hart, but our trainer, Paul Schmidt said, 'He'll be there. He'll be ready.'"
I asked (Hart) after warm-ups, 'Now, are you sure you want to play in this game, Hart? You know, this isn't just another game. This is a physical...this is a big game.' He said, 'Yeah, I'm ready, coach.'"
Hart said he could feel some pain on the long runs -- his longest was 64 yards, and he averaged 6.1 yards a carry -- but it wasn't significant enough to hold him out.
"I wasn't going to miss this game," said Hart, who has had 69 carries for 442 yards and two touchdowns in two career games against MSU. "I didn't care how hurt I was."
Clearly, Michigan, unranked for the first time since 1998 and 2-2 entering the Michigan State game, is a different team when Hart is healthy. The Wolverines were 1-2 without him.
"Hart is the heart of our team," Carr said. "We kept trying to take him out of there and he kept going back in. If you measure our football team, Hart is a guy his teammates love, because when he's in there on passing downs, he's blocking people 60-70 pounds bigger.
"He's got a great instinct. He's just such a fighter. I did not expect him to play or certainly run the football as many times as he did."
Offensive right guard Matt Lentz said it is difficult to explain what Hart brings to the offense.
"He's a little firecracker from Syracuse, what more can you say?" Lentz said.
Last Monday, with Michigan reeling from its Big Ten-opening loss at Wisconsin, fifth-year senior tight end Tim Massaquoi said the Wolverines needed a spark.
He was definitive and specific. It was Hart's presence on the field the Wolverines needed.
"I told you, No. 20 (Hart) is definitely that spark we needed," Massaquoi said.
"He helps us out in a way, that when we get our running game going, we can hit on all cylinders. We've got other guys who step in and do a good job, but we get Mike Hart in there, it's just a whole different game."
Mike just has something special about him that he brings.
"Hart has been described over and over again as "special" by his coaches and teammates. Carr said it again Saturday.
"We're not a one-man team by any stretch of the imagination, but he's special," Carr said.
But what exactly does that mean?
"It's just his personal ambition and drive," Massaquoi said. "That's just his drive to keep on going, to keep on playing.
"When he's getting tackled, he can make a play and get off the tackle, and he's gone. That's something not to many people have in this country."
You can reach Angelique S. Chengelis at angelique.chengelis@detnews.com.
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