Another blow to the Buckeyes rivals coaching staff
It has been an offseason of change for Ohio State football’s main rival Michigan, and the movement continued Friday afternoon.
It was reported the Wolverines running back coach, [autotag]Mike Hart[/autotag], would not return in the same role in the 2024 season. The former Michigan player, who never defeated the Buckeyes, had been on the staff for the last three years.
Blake Corum burst onto the scene under his watch as one of the better backs in the country while backup Donovan Edwards flashed his potential as well under Hart’s direction. With Corum off to the NFL and Edwards returning, the depth at the position will not be nearly as good as it has been the last few seasons.
Mike Hart will not return to Michigan as running backs coach next season https://t.co/HiBEZIDlU5
— Detroit News Sports (@detnews_sports) March 8, 2024
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Mike Hart, Michigan’s running backs coach for the last three seasons, including the last two as run-game coordinator, will not be returning to the Wolverines’ staff this season under first-year head coach Sherrone Moore, two sources confirmed to The Detroit News.
Hart, whose contract with Michigan expired on Jan. 10, declined comment when reached by The Detroit News on Friday. He has not been connected to any recent openings on college football or NFL staffs.
Hart had been apart from the program since the national championship win on a leave of absence. Michigan’s running backs thrived once Hart took the reins, with Hassan Haskins, Blake Corum, and Donovan Edwards all having starring roles.
With Hart gone, now Moore will need to look for a replacement on the offensive side of the ball, where there had been little coaching attrition.
The all-time rushing leader for the maize and blue, Hart coached at Eastern Michigan, Syracuse, and Indiana before returning to Ann Arbor. He was the interim coach for the second half of Week 2 in the 2023 season against UNLV.
Over the last two seasons the Michigan Wolverines offense has relied heavily on their running backs.
Last season alone, 41 touchdowns came on the ground and 18 of these were scored by Blake Corum.
Mike Hart has himself a very talented running backs room with the best duo in the country in Blake Corum and Donovan Edwards.
Lets’s take a look at both.
Photo by: Isaiah Hole
Last season, Blake Corum had a Heisman finalist resume before going down in the Illinois game in Week 12. The unanimous All-American could have easily entered into the 2023 NFL draft but decided to come back for his senior season and try to help the Wolverines reach their ultimate goal — a national championship. Corum averaged 121.9 yards per game a year ago and almost six yards per carry. The 5-foot-8 running back has a very high football IQ and quick footwork that makes even the best linebackers miss.
Off the field, Corum is an exceptional leader which was exemplified this offseason when he was named one of the six team captains.
Photo: Isaiah Hole
Donovan Edwards enters this season as the No. 44 ranked player on PFF Top 50 NFL draft board. Edwards plans to enter the NFL draft following this season and will look to boost his draft stock with a big year — both on the ground as a receiver.
Last season, Edwards rushed for 1,016 yards and seven touchdowns. But what makes Edwards special is his ability to catch the ball out of the backfield. Despite having some injury issues, Edwards had 200 receiving yards and two touchdowns a year ago. He’s also not afraid to air it out — notably Edwards threw a 75 yard touchdown pass to Roman Wilson in the 2021 Big Ten Championship game.
The biggest nightmare for opposing coaches this season could be seeing Corum and Edwards line up in the backfield at the same time. Offensive coordinator Sherrone Moore will have plenty of options to keep it on the ground with his runnings backs or to go through the air. The duo and the rest of the Wolverines will take the field this Saturday against East Carolina at Noon.
Follow @amerbektas_ on X, formerly known as Twitter, for all things Michigan this upcoming season.
What we didn’t know was who will be replacing him during that three game stretch. We do now, and it’s quite the odd way of doing things. The Wolverines’ official “X” account, the app formerly known as Twitter, announced that multiple of their assistants will share the duties.
Defensive coordinator, [autotag]Jesse Minter, [/autotag] will take the first game against East Carolina while special teams coach, [autotag]Jay Harbaugh[/autotag] and running backs coach [autotag]Mike Hart,[/autotag] will each have a half as the head coach while facing UNLV. Offensive coordinator, [autotag]Sherrone Moore,[/autotag] will round out the weird coaching carrousel against Bowling Green.
Honestly, given how odd that their head coach is, it makes total sense that the Wolverines would do this. To me it just doesn’t make any sense. They won’t be challenged at all thanks to their ongoing scheduling of cupcake non-conference games, but this is just a little on the strange side of things.
Typically, one coach takes on the responsibilities while the head coach isn’t available, but not Michigan. TTUN always has to make it different and here it is again, trying to reinvent the wheel when there is no need for it.
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Former Michigan left tackle Taylor Lewan and former Nebraska linebacker Will Compton took their “Bussin’ with the Boys” podcast on the road to Ohio State where they sat down with newly-minted offensive coordinator and continuing wide receivers coach Brian Hartline.
As usual, the duo wandered off topic, noting there’s another coach Hart in the Big Ten, Michigan running backs coach Mike Hart. After Hartline acknowledged that simple fact, the duo asked Hartline if he could beat Hart in a fight, to which he replied, yes, he could take any offensive coordinator-type in a fight.
Watch the clip below.
Is there any OC in the country that could stand 10 toes down to @brianhartline ?
Hartline does have bragging rights as a player vs. Hart, winning head-to-head every year he was a Buckeye wide receiver, whereas Hart lost every contest as a student-athlete. Hartline as a coach is 3-2 vs. Michigan, but is 2-2 as an on-field coach. Hart is 2-0 as a coach at Michigan vs. Ohio State.
Kid looks like he’s going to be really good. #GoBlue
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Michigan football wrapped up its spring on Saturday after the Maize team took down the Blue squad during the Wolverines’ annual spring game.
There were several key players that didn’t play on Saturday, two of which were Blake Corum and Donovan Edwards. There is an ongoing battle going on in Ann Arbor about which player will step up and take the No. 3 running back job.
It was Kalel Mullings (Blue) and Leon Franklin (Maize) who gained the starts for both teams. Maize couldn’t get much going on the ground, the team gained just 46 yards rushing, but Blue was really good running the ball on Saturday rushing for 180 yards. Blue received a ton of productivity from both Mullings and freshman Benjamin Hall.
Mike Hart coached Maize, and his team won, so after the game, he was the coach who did the talking during the press conference. He told the media he is more confident at this time this year than he was last year with the running back room. Hart believes the team is extremely deep and a lot of guys could get the job done.
“Yeah, I think we’re really deep,” said Hart. You know, definitely feel a lot better this time of year than I did last year. You know, we got a lot of depth, the guys are gonna compete and that’ll just gonna go into fall camp but definitely feel really good about running back from right now the depth that we have in the guys can play. Again, I think we could show up today and play a game right now with the guys we have. And that’s without Blake and Donovan. So those are two of the best players on the team, two of the best players in the country. So I think we’re in a really good situation. In the running back room.”
CJ Stokes, last season’s No. 3 running back for most of the season, didn’t play on Saturday. Mullings received the start and played well, but the star of the running back show was Hall. He averaged over seven yards a carry on Saturday, gained 96 yards and scored once on the ground. Coach Hart joked and said Hall should’ve scored more but between falling and tripping he only got one touchdown. He went on to say how mature the true freshman is and went on about his body frame.
“Well, I told him today he should of had two touchdowns but he fell twice,” said Hart. “He stepped out of bounds once and tripped on the other one, but I just think that his maturity is it’s pretty — it’s amazing. I mean you wouldn’t guess he’s 18 years old just turned 18 a few weeks ago. Yeah, it’s like he’s been here a long time. He works hard. He studies, he understands the offense. He’s just getting better and better every day. He’s just built like a grown man. I mean, he’s 225 pounds. And you know, his legs are huge. He runs hard. So excited about his future here.”
So who does Hall compare to? He has the size of a bowling ball but has cutting ability and speed to go along with it. The first person to come to Hart’s mind was Hassan Haskins. Haskins always had the ability to carry piles and gain more yardage than he probably should have — something we saw from Hall on Saturday. Coach Hart also brought up his former teammate, and five-star prospect, Kevin Grady.
“He’s Hassan like, he’s hard to tackle,” Hart said. “He’s hard to bring down. But his legs are just so thick. I mean, you look at him waist down. I mean, he’s, he’s a big guy. So you know, I would probably compare him to the guys we’ve had here to Hassan. Go back to Kevin Grady, if you want to back in the day. It’s how Grady was built that way back in 2005 2006 for those young reporters out there.”
Time will tell who primarily backs up Corum and Edwards this season, but if Saturday told anything — Hall will be right there.
Really good stuff from one of the best at #Michigan! #GoBlue
PARADISE VALLEY, Ariz. — As Michigan football prepared to take on Ohio State in the final game of the regular season, the prevailing thought was that without Blake Corum, the offense would struggle.
Well, there’s a reason you play the games.
After missing several games with a hand injury, running back Donovan Edwards took the mantle and ran with it. And as far as the Buckeyes are concerned, he still may be running.
But what was the confidence the staff had that he could come in and replace a Heisman Trophy candidate and thrive?
We spoke to Mike Hart at the Vrbo Fiesta Bowl media day and when it came to Edwards going from a complementary player to the No. 1 running back, he had the full confidence of the coaches.
“I think really at the end of the day like he’s always been that way,” Hart told WolverinesWire. “He was the No. 1 guy in high school. He knows how to carry the ball. He knows how to run the ball. It was just he waiting for opportunity. So he’s taking advantage of his opportunity, which we love. He’s running downhill; he’s running hard. He’s gotten better and takes everyday serious, comes up shows up to work every day. And he’s just doing a great job.”
Still, was it a challenge for him personally to become the bell cow for the offense? Not really, Hart says.
Edwards didn’t actually have limited production. We’ve seen him make big plays all year. But he’s among the nation’s top RB in terms of yards per carry, averaging 7.45 every time he gets the ball, despite averaging 11-plus carries a game.
The second-year back out of West Bloomfield knew he could do it, it was just a matter of him getting more opportunities.
“Donovan is not one that’s shy on confidence,” Hart said. “He believes in his ability. We believe in his ability. And there’s just literally a lot of times it’s just you have to give him the opportunity to do those things. And so he’s been able to show up and do the right things. And just I mean, he’s doing a great job.”
How Kalel Mullings has fared at running back
Photo: Isaiah Hole
The other prevailing thought was that behind Edwards would be freshman C.J. Stokes, but it turns out another was ready to step up: converted linebacker Kalel Mullings.
Mullings earned his opportunity to play running back in spring ball, but with Nikhai Hill-Green unable to play this year, he was more needed at LB. Once Corum went down, it was a ‘break glass in case of fire’ scenario, and he’s thrived on the offensive side of the ball, scoring two touchdowns in the Big Ten Championship game and having a big pass play to tight end Luke Schoonmaker against Ohio State.
Hart said it was just a matter of time before he came over to the offensive side again, despite being back on defense for much of the season.
“It’s one of those things where we started this last spring with coach Harbaugh,” Hart said. “We knew where you see deficiencies sometimes you make adjustments and so he’s been learning the position since last spring. So it wasn’t just like a one-week transition. It’s something that he’s been doing all year, during fall camp we went rotated every other day pretty much, George (Helow)? With him between running back and linebacker and he’s a smart kid. So just kudos to him to be able to handle the defense and the offense and knowing what he’s doing between those things.
“So nothing new, something we expected, something we knew we would get to at some point during the season. So I mean, it’s really just coach Harbaugh getting those things done and allowing us to work together on offense and defense.”
Mullings’ sample size is limited, but Michigan has experience converting linebackers to running backs and vice versa.
After arriving as a linebacker in his freshman season, Hassan Haskins switched back to offense — where he was originally recruited — and became a Michigan legend after an incredible senior season capped by a five-touchdown performance against Ohio State.
Hart said that’s an unusual scenario because usually running backs can play linebacker, but not the other way around.
“I mean normally, when you’re not good enough at running back you move to linebacker!” Hart said. “You’re gonna be a little stiffer right, George? But no, honestly, I’ve really never had a linebacker come back over. So I think most running backs can play linebacker, not every linebacker can play running back. But Kalel is a guy who’s athletic, has great hands, great feet. And he’s kind of like the exception to the rule of linebacker coming over and playing running back when normally you do it the other way around.”
Michigan football absolutely eviscerated Penn State on Saturday, winning 41-17 in a game that, honestly, wasn’t even that close.
The Wolverines never punted while accumulating 412 yards rushing, the first time the maize and blue have topped the 400-yard mark since the 78-0 win at Rutgers in 2016.
Naturally, the contingent in Ann Arbor was exuberant following the win. No one could be happier than running backs coach Mike Hart, who returned to the sideline after collapsing due to an apparent seizure in the first quarter of the Indiana game. Considering his unit was the top dog on the field, he had plenty of reasons to celebrate.
Immediately, he was surrounded by concerned staff and players, who were doing everything they could until he was stabilized enough to be carted off the field. As he was taken off, he gave a thumbs-up to those who could see in the stadium.
On Monday morning, Michigan football shared a quote from Hart, who said he’s back in Ann Arbor, he’s feeling better, and he’s working toward rejoining the team.
Hart is in his second season coaching at his alma mater, having come from Indiana, where he was the assistant head coach under Tom Allen. Saturday’s game was supposed to be something of a homecoming for Hart, given that he spent four years in Bloomington.
Michigan assistant coach Mike Hart is in stable condition
Michigan running backs coach Mike Hart is in stable condition in a Bloomington, Indiana, hospital after suffering a medical episode on the sidelines during Saturday’s game with the Hoosiers.
Wolverines coach Jim Harbaugh addressed his assistant’s condition after the 31-10 win over Indiana.
“Mike had a medical emergency during the game,” Jim Harbaugh said. “He’s in stable condition. He’s going to stay overnight here in Bloomington for continued observation.
“Mike’s a strong guy — just abundant prayers going his way. It can really put things in perspective.”
