Michigan's tailback a guy of heart

There's a Heisman Trophy out there with Mike Hart's name on it.

Seriously. It has been that way for 58 years. That's because the Michigan senior tailback's given first name is Leon.

And while Leon "Michael" Hart is unrelated to the Notre Dame two-way lineman who captured the 1949 Heisman, there's a certain throwback nature to the modern-day Hart's play that wakes up the echoes.

"The best in the country. He's a warrior," Illinois coach Ron Zook said. "I heard Coach (Lloyd) Carr saying some things about him. I've got an awful, awful lot of respect for Coach Carr … and he just doesn't hand out compliments like I heard him talk about with Mike Hart."

Indeed, at the Big Ten's preseason confab in Chicago, Carr bragged for an entire minute straight on his senior. That might have been a record for the taciturn Michigan boss.

"He's the kind of guy, probably from the first time he played in a game, you just sensed a guy that loves to win," Carr concluded. "He's got wonderful leadership skills. He's been a real dream to coach."

Though he stands just 5-feet-9, Hart has been nothing short of a workhorse since assuming the starting tailback job four games into his true freshman year in Ann Arbor.

His 200 carries this season, which include a 44-rush effort against Penn State last month, are 21 more than any other runner. The nation's only 1,000-yard rusher (he owns 1,078 yards and 12 TDs through seven games) also plays when hurt.

The latest example of his fortitude figures to come Saturday night at Illinois, when No. 24 Michigan shows up in Champaign for a national ABC-TV event with Big Ten title ramifications.

Hart injured his right ankle last week against Purdue, and his status for Saturday is officially questionable -- especially because he spent the second half of that game in street clothes. But his teammates figure he will be more like an exclamation point.

"Mike is an extreme competitor," said Michigan senior safety Jamar Adams. "Always expect Mike on the field. It's going to take a hurricane to stop him."

Even Carr senses that Hart won't be held back, regardless of whether East Central Illinois gets hit with the first tropical storm in meteorological annals.

"My experience is what happens on one Saturday can change dramatically toward the end of next week," Carr said Tuesday.

But if Hart can't play for some reason, Illinois would continue its run as the Big Ten's luckiest team -- at least as it pertains to dealing with the guy who's on pace to become the league's No. 3 all-time rusher.

The Illini have done an unbelievable job stopping Hart the last two years … because Michigan hasn't been on their schedule.

That has been a much-needed respite because during Hart's freshman year he tore up the Memorial Stadium turf for 234 yards and a touchdown. That 40-carry effort came in just his third career start.

"I got 1 tackle on him," said Illinois senior safety Kevin Mitchell, chuckling as if he felt lucky to accomplish that.

Thirty-three games later, Hart returns to Champaign with that 234-yard performance still standing as the best single-game showing of his career.

If Hart approaches that number once or twice more before the regular season ends, he could become a viable alternate in the wide-open Heisman race.

Mitchell doesn't want to see that happen at Illinois' expense, but he understands how it could occur.

"He's a hard-nosed runner, man, tough to bring down," Mitchell said. "I watched highlights of him against Eastern (Michigan), when he was about to go down and he rolled and stayed up and scored.

"That play in general tells you what kind of runner he is. You've got to gang tackle a guy like that, and it's going to be tough.

"At the same time, that's the type of challenges you want, especially on national television."