There is plenty of buzz surrounding the Michigan Wolverines' football hire of Mike Hart to serve as running backs coach, and it's easy to see why. He is the school's all-time leading rusher and epitomized what it means to be a Michigan Man during his time in Ann Arbor (2004-07), leading the Maize and Blue to a Big Ten title as a freshman in 2004 and the verge of the national championship in 2006.
Hart's running style wasn't necessarily flashy, but at 5-9, 202, he consistently found a way to get the job done by grinding out tough yards with a pedal to the metal, hardworking mentality.
RELATED: Analysis: What Michigan Is Getting In Running Backs Coach Mike Hart
RELATED: ITF EXTRA: Serious Defensive Assistant Target Emerging?
What Hart accomplished during his days at Michigan shouldn't be why fans are excited about the hire though. It should be about what he's done as a coach during his short coaching tenure.
Hart has coached running backs at Eastern Michigan (2012-13), Western Michigan (2014-15), Syracuse (2016) and Indiana (2017-20), and has produced outstanding rushers who posted impressive statistics at three of his four stops (Ypsilanti, Kalamazoo and Bloomington).
Hart's career began with a bang with the Eastern Michigan Eagles. He helped guide Bronson Hill to a 905-yard, 6.5-yard per carry campaign in 2012, with his 6.5 yards per touch checking in as the third highest total in the MAC.
Hill did all of this without ever having carried the ball prior to 2012. It was much of the same in Hart's second go-round in Ypsilanti in 2013, with Hill racking up 1,101 yards on 5.6 yards per attempt and earning third-team All-MAC honors as a result.
Hart then carried his early-career success over to Western Michigan in a big way. In 2014, Bronco rusher Jarvion Franklin racked up 1,551 yards and 24 touchdowns as a freshman.
Franklin's 24 rushing scores were the fourth most in college football that year and eight more than any other player in the MAC, while his 1,551 yards checked in second in the conference.
He took home the MAC's Offensive Player of the Year Award and earned Freshman All-American honors as a result. Hart molded yet another youngster into an excellent running back the following year, this time in the form of redshirt freshman Jamauri Bogan.
Despite Franklin's presence in 2015, Bogan ran for 1,051 yards and 16 touchdowns, while averaging 6.5 yards per carry. His 6.5 yards per touch and 16 scores were both the second most in the conference, while his 1,051 yards checked in fourth.
Bogan won the MAC's Freshman of the Year Award at season's end (despite being a redshirt freshman). It's also worth noting Franklin racked up 735 yards and five touchdowns in 2015 as a sophomore, while LeVante Bellamy — as a freshman — chipped in 493 yards on 6.4 yards per carry.
The Broncos averaged 5.0 yards per carry as a team in 2015, which was tied for the 23rd best mark nationally.
The 2016 campaign was Hart's lone year at Syracuse. Dontae Strickland concluded as the Orange's leading rusher, but only tallied 566 yards and four touchdowns on 3.5 yards per carry.
It's also worth noting, however, that Syracuse's 43.5 passing attempts per game that year were the sixth most in the nation. Hart headed to Indiana following his one year with the Orange, where he did arguably the best work of his coaching career each of the last four years.
Hoosier running back Morgan Ellison rushed for a respectable 704 yards and six touchdowns in Hart's debut campaign in Bloomington in 2017, before Stevie Scott emerged the following season in a big way, continuing Hart's brilliant work with young running backs.
As an unheralded three-star recruit out of high school, Scott took the Big Ten by storm in 2018, racking up 1,137 yards and 10 touchdowns. His 10 scores were tied for the fourth most in the conference and his 1,137 yards checked in fifth.
Scott followed up his excellent freshman campaign by rushing for 845 yards and 10 touchdowns in 2019 as a sophomore, with the 6-2, 231-pounder earning second-team All-Big Ten recognition in the process.
Sampson James also chipped in 275 yards as a freshman in 2019. As a junior during this past year's shortened season, Scott tallied 561 yards and 10 more scores, with the latter checking in as the second most in the Big Ten and the former fourth.
He also earned second-team All-Big Ten honors once again. It's worth noting that every leading rusher Hart has mentored — Hill, Franklin, Bogan, Strickland, Ellison and Scott — were all rated as three-star recruits (or lower) out of high school.
The potential talent pool Hart will have to work with next year at Michigan will be significantly higher than anything he's had in the past. Zach Charbonnet, Blake Corum and incoming freshman Donovan Edwards were all rated as top-105 players nationally out of high school, while Hassan Haskins' 997 career yards are the most of any Wolverine rusher on the roster.
---
• Talk about this article inside The Fort
• Watch our videos and subscribe to our YouTube channel
• Listen and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes
• Learn more about our print and digital publication, The Wolverine
• Sign up for our daily newsletter and breaking news alerts
• Follow us on Twitter: @TheWolverineMag, @Balas_Wolverine, @EJHolland_TW, @AustinFox42, @JB_ Wolverine, Clayton Sayfie and @DrewCHallett
• Like us on Facebook
