Hart won't shut up -- or be shut down
ANN ARBOR -- If everything goes according to plan, then Michigan running back Mike Hart will not only finish his college career as the top back in Wolverine history, but also as one of the season's top collegiate ballcarriers.
It's also a guarantee that the 5-foot-9, 196-pounder from Syracuse, N.Y., will be one of the biggest rhetoricians in a college jersey for the fourth consecutive season.
"He talks all the time," Wolverine safety Jamar Adams said of Mike Hart. "We can't get through a practice without him starting something with his mouth.
"He's the only guy I know who makes up his own nickname. I mean, what kind of player makes up his own nickname?"
As elusive as water
And what would that pet name be?
"H2O, because he says he runs like water, and can slip through any crack," Adams says with a hearty laugh.
"It's just Mike being Mike to get himself, and his teammates, amped up."
Mike Hart is coming off a 2006 season in which he carried the football 318 times for 14 touchdowns and averages of 120.2 yards per game and 4.9 yards with each carry.
He enters the impending season with 750 total attempts and 3,679 yards to stand within sniffing distance of all-time Michigan leader Anthony Thomas, who had 924 carries and 4,472 yards from 1997-00.
Mike Hart also will come equipped with a barrage of barbs and a full arsenal of one-liners reserved for any and all opposing defensive players around him.
"I just talk a lot," Mike Hart said. "I don't know why. It's how I've been since I was little. It's just who I am."
For the record, Mike Hart has never been penalized for his verbal assaults against enemy defenders.
Never an offensive word
"I'm never going to be a disrespectful-type person, or say any bad comments, any kind of racist comments or anything like that. That's not me at all," Mike Hart said.
"When I go out there, I just talk. I play football. I try to keep it clean, and I'm never going to disrespect somebody for who they are or what they do through the things I say.
"But that doesn't mean I don't rile some guys up," Mike Hart said with a wink and sly smile.
Quarterback Chad Henne argues that Mike Hart's loose lips are all part of his competitive package.
"Yeah, Mike loves to talk, and it can get monotonous at times," Henne said. "But Mike is a better person than a player. He just has so much emotion and enthusiasm.
"He's got a lot to say on the field, but you also wouldn't want anyone else behind you in the backfield. I mean, the way he reads defenses, makes his cuts and brings our offense together, .... But it's so funny, because with every play he's always talking to somebody on the defense. He's always trying to egg them on, because he just wants to compete."
Perhaps the most annoying part for defensive players regarding Mike Hart's constant chatter is the fact the guy can back it up with his play.
In other words, Mike Hart can not only talk the talk, he also can walk the walk.
"I've never heard anybody talk more than Mike," All-American tackle Jake Long said. "He makes a good play, and he either gets up and laughs at a defensive player, or he says something to them.
"But it's all just good-natured, playing football talk, and he backs it all up, too. Once he touches the ball, you know he's not going to go backwards. He's always going to get a yard. He's always going to come to work everyday with a pail, and put his shoulders down and run."
See more
at www.mlive.com
| 
