Not to be overly and unnecessarily optimistic about this game, but I'd prefer they hold Mike Hart out until it becmes absolutely clear that they need him. Given Illinois' performance last week, as well as ours, I'm not quite as nervous about this game as I once was. I'd hate to see him come back too early and exacerbate the injury.
Now watch, the punishment for my hubris in suggesting that we might not need him for the game will be Illinois coming out totally fired up and having us down three scores by the middle of the second quarter. Dammit.
It's like Christmas, but the football kind.
Can we maybe put an "effing" between the two hearts on the t-shirt?
To compare and contrast, Brandon Minor left the locker room on crutches with a boot on his foot and got into a car to be driven back to Schembechler Hall. Hart was (as pictured) walking without assistance. A person close to the team with whom I spoke after the game on Saturday said that it was, at that time, not clear whether or not Hart would play but that (and this is no big secret) if anyone could recover from such an injury, it is Hart. He is "one tough kid."
er, uh, maybe between the "I" and the first heart. Want to emphasize the love, not the hate.
Yes! I think we will need everyone available vs. Illinois. Somehow I see Henne playing a subpar game and without Hart we might be in trouble.
I give this news a cautiously optimistic "whew!" and wipe of my brow.
Go Superman!.
I just get visions of a long Carlos Brown TD when Hart is getting a breather after continuously pounding Illini.
We'll be fired up -- PSU 06 kinda fired up. Do you think the Illinois crowd will be as hostile as that crowd ?
Don't let them run. Let Juice or whoever beat him with his arms. And Warren.. please TACKLE Arrelious Benn. Half-hearted tackles won't cut it. Wrap him up.
Illinois will be the game we'll recover their on-side kick.
Thank GOD !!!!!
I don't think that I am over-stating this... Mike Hart is the best & most important football player at Michigan in 50 years. More important than Anthony Carter. More important than Rick Leach. More important than Charles Woodson or Desmond Howard. Losing him would be a disaster.
I think the Illinois crowd will be more subdued than if they had won on Saturday. They'll be more fired up than usual, since they're cheering a team with a pulse for the first time in 5 years, but it won't be the same as if they were undefeated in conference play with a shot (distant though it would have been) at the BCS title game.
No one was more important than "Charles Woodson...praised be his name".
BROTHER MIKE,BE HEALED!!
@EEKS,
I dunno if they can be more fired up than the PSU crowd last year. They were pretty impressive. That game was so much fun. Their level of intensity made everything that came after it even more enjoyable. From the beginning when some kid screamed out "MAGGLIO HOMERED! TIGERS WIN! WORLD SERIES!" and the Michigan students went with the "OOOO EEEE OOOO MAAAAGLIO!" chant, which made the PSU fans be like "uh, wtf". Mocking their Zombie Nation cheer with the generic "OLE! OLE! OLE! OLE!" to actually jacking their Zombie Nation and twisting it into "WE OWN PENN STATE" (real original, I know), to spontaneous choruses of The Victors on the way out of the stadium, and of course "It's great! To be! A Michigan Wolverine!"
I hope Illinois is that fired up this week.
Hart is a pussy.
Mike Hart would've hit that walk-off homer too if he weren't busy punishing PSU.
PSU's crowd at the game itself was awesome. Loud as mo f'n hell. Tailgating was kind of bllllllllllllaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh.
... and working on the cure for cancer on the sideline...
Yeah, the tailgating sucked big time. I think it was our location, we were between a couple of buildings and it acted like a wind tunnel. It was terrible. That and tailgating from 10am to 7pm is WAY TOO MUCH tailgating. At about 5:00 I was starting to feel like the game was never going to get there. After going to that game it made me glad we don't do night games. Apparently there was a major problem in some big field everybody tailgated in when the port-a-potties started overflowing. Gross.
Mike has that "mmmm...Vicodin..." look in his eyes.
I hope Mighty Mike isn't a "Iowa or OSU 2005" level of "GO." He was a shell of himself in both of those games. Mikey needs his ankles really feelin' good so he can do them jukey moves.
@ Gnarls -
yes, holding Hart out would be very arrogant. We are not out of the woods by any means. On offense, the Illini are athletic and run hard. Tackling has NEVER been a strength for us, and Illinois will be looking to exploit that.
On defense, their LB corps of Wilson and Leman is solid, their safteys hit harder than anyone in the B10, and Vaunte Davis is a great CB.
We'll win if we play up to our potential. If we keep Hart on the sidelines, and hide all our "good plays, so we can use them later," then we'll very likely lose.
I really can't see them holding him out of this game. They've looked passed opponents before, but I doubt they'll do so this week on the road against a team that was on a roll until last week. He'll start, they'll look at how he does for a quarter or so, and then go from there.
Having sat at the Purdue game just 13 rows behind the Michigan bench, I had no doubt upon leaving that Hart was fine, and that if it was a close game, he'd have tried to get back in. While he was in sweats and out of uniform, he was STANDING -- not sitting -- on the sideline starting midway through the 3rd quarter, and equally important, in a good mood and bullshitting with his teammates. If the dude was really hurt, he wouldn't be walking up and down the sideline. Seeemed to be walking a bit gingerly on the ankle, but nothing too serious.
Hart damn well better not tweak it. In fact, he should be in a freaking wheelchair all week as far as I'm concerned.
As a lifelong Illini fan and someone who has seen multiple Illinois and Michigan games this year: If Henne is anywhere close to remotely competent on Saturday night, the Wolverines could roll out a double amputee at running back and still win the game by two touchdowns. Just don't throw at Vontae Davis. Any eligible receiver not covered by (with?) VD should have a huge afternoon.
http://www.the-ozone.net/
footbal...higanmonday.htm
The Michigan Monday guy seems to have a mancrush on Donovan Warren. I thought our excitement might have been due to our collective maize-blue glasses but coming from a Buckeye, Warren is probably good :-)
I don't think we can talk about sitting Hart out if he can go - at least not until we build a lead. I am concerned about how our defense will look. This is an entirely different spread attack than Purdue's - it's the kind we struggle against.
I liked Carr's comments on Michigan Replay:
1. "Defending their spread option is assignment defense. Everyone has to be disciplined and maitain their assignments." Right on the money, sir!
2. "We're going to need to score some points in that game." That means you, Debord! Put the non-scoring offense on the shelf, again.
I think Michigan is a better team than Illinois "IF" we have a non-gimpy Mike Hart.
GO BLUE!
(ah, shit. I'm all emotionally invested again.)
No one was more important that Charles Woodson? I agree he was important, but really most notably only the NC year. Whereas Mike Hart has been a key player since his freshman year, and he's actually stayed 4 years.
Huh? Woodson was a first-team All-American in 1996 and went both ways, playing a lot of WR.
Without CW, we would have lost at least two games in 1997. Without CW, Lloyd Carr might have been fired after the '96 season. Yeah, I think he's pretty important.
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