2003: Mike Hart Committed to Michigan.
I generally like your posts, but I think this one is a partial miss.
Michigan's offensive line performance was spotty in Carr's last few years. (Some people, not necessarily you, cite Jake Long and do some odd extrapolation across the other positions.) There's an excellent discussion of this on, of all places, MGoBlog back in 2008:
https://mgoblog.com/content/jake-long-little-miracle
Call me crazy, but I thought Toussaint was pretty damn good before his foot exploded.
Yeah I think if Fitz had played in the 90s he would be remembered a little better.
Two engineering students were walking across campus when one said, "Where did you get such a great bike?" The second engineer replied, "Well, I was walking alone yesterday minding my own business when a beautiful woman rode up on this bike. She threw the bike to the ground, took off all her clothes and said, "Take what you want." "The second engineer nodded approvingly, "Good choice; the clothes probably wouldn't have fit."
I think Karen is about to have the best RB season we've seen since Hart, and ceartainly we've got the best duo we've had in forever.
I'm excited for Karen. Also for Karan, but even more so for Karen.
We have a woman RB named “Karen”?
Who said anything about a woman....?
Something Shirley seems off about this
Is Karen the woman from the story above?
Yes and no. I mean Karan is due for a big year. But at the same time, he’s probably going to split a lot of carries with Evans again.
if you look at last year, Higdon averaged over 6 ypc. He was a VERY productive back (Hart’s career high was 5.2 ypc for example) but didn’t have the volume of carries to match his numbers.
So it’s all dependent on how you look at it
I remember listening to a Michigan preview show on 1270 at the time (before 97.1, I want to say,) and that's when I first remember hearing about Hart. Max Martin was the bigger recruit, but their insider kept saying Hart is turning all kinds of heads in camp. One of those out of nowhere hyped up players that actually lived up to the offseason hype. Great college RB.
Man could we use a Jake Long right about now too though. It was like an easy 5 yards running behind him.
Think about this, Max Martin wasn't getting playing time here...so he transferred to Alabama. Lol. How times have changed.
Michigan's mediocre running back performances post-Hart correlate with the OL being sub-standard.
Were they mediocre though? I mean let’s be honest. Most of Mike Hart’s success was due to being a high carry volume back. His single season high for YPC was 5.2. His career YPC was 5.0.
Not saying that’s bad by any means, but there have been a number of backs after Hart at Michigan that have surpassed that total. Higdon almost surpassed Hart’s single season best by a whole yard per carry last year.
I'd love very it if he coached Michigan running backs, but I just don't see Jay Harbaugh leaving or being pushed out from that position.
Why would you love it if he came here?
I liked when he played here and he’s a legend here. But at the same time, what has he really shown as a coach or a recruiter that says he will be a good hire here? Jay Harbaugh has shown to be a very good recruiter and his positions (both TEs and RBs) have been very productive under his tutelage.
Is it the lack of a great running back or is it a lack of a great O Line? I feel like some of Michigan great back is in the 90s-00 wasn’t that great, they just played behind great o lines
Tyrone Wheatley, Anthony Thomas, and Chris Perry were pretty talented backs in their own right with each going on to some moderate success in the NFL. Michigan's strength running the football was rooted into strong offensive line play, but they definitely produced some pretty good running backs in that timeframe as well.
I've been watching Michigan football for close to 30 years now and the last good runningback I remember was Perry in 2003. Fitz could ball and had a good year in 2011. Fitz had Denard though to take the heat off of him. I never saw the hype with Hart. Yes he indeed made me jump off my couch a few times against ND but against the bucs and in the bowl games he always seemed to not do much. Against the good defenses, he sulked away. Really tarnished his memory for me. He was however great in the Florida game. Wish he could've had that swag the times he faced the bucs, huskers and trojans. Michigan will have the best backs in the country again. Be patient. They have a pretty good one-two punch right now and might have just had the next great one commit here a few days back. The future is bright boys.
I'm with you with regards to not buying into the Mike Hart hype. For me Mike Hart is the poster child for the malaise that Michigan had fallen into during the late-Carr era. The fact that a player of his limited skill set was able to hang onto the starting spot almost exclusively for four years without any other tailbacks on the roster challenging him says more about Carr's recruiting and player development at that time than Hart's ability.