Carr, Hart Fire Back at Harbaugh

You knew Lloyd Carr wasn’t happy about Stanford head coach Jim Harbaugh’s comments about Michigan’s practices concerning student-athletes. Carr made that clear to Jim Carty during his Carr’s Wash for Mott Children’s Hospital. What we didn’t know is exactly what Carr said on the matter. The specifics don’t matter now as Carr unloaded on Jimmy this morning. Check it out, as reported by Mark Schlabach of ESPN.com:

On Wednesday morning, Carr called Harbaugh’s comments “elitist” and “arrogant.”

“Do I think they’re elitist? Yeah,” Carr said, during an interview at the Big Ten Conference Kickoff. “Arrogant? Yes. Self-serving? Yes.”

Coach Carr lashing out at Harbaugh is one thing, but the most vocal blasts came from Mike Hart, who must’ve got the Burton tower clearance from Schembechler Hall to fire away:

“That’s a guy I have no respect for,” Hart said. “You graduate from the University of Michigan, and you’re going to talk about your school like that, a great university like we have? To say that we’re not true student-athletes? I don’t know if maybe he wants to coach here and he’s mad because he didn’t get a job.”

Hart also questioned Harbaugh’s decision to accept Michigan transfer Jason Forcier, the Wolverines’ backup quarterback last season. Forcier left after starter Chad Henne returned for his senior season, and highly regarded freshman Ryan Mallett enrolled early.

“He says we don’t have great student-athletes, but he just accepted one of our transfers,” Hart said. “What kind of sense does that make? Obviously, he wants guys like us at his school. I don’t know how he can say that. He’s not a Michigan man. I wish he’d never played here.”

Over the line! It takes some balls for Mike Hart to permanently revoke Harbaugh’s status as a ‘Michigan Man’. That’s a big statement to make and from where I sit, over the line. Mark it zero.

We’ve all got a lot of respect for Hart as a person and certainly as a player. From what I’ve seen of Jamie Morris I think there are a lot of admirable similarities between he and Hart. A veteran like Morris calling out Harbaugh (which he did, on WTKA after the comments appeared in the press) is one thing, a current player doing it is another.

20 Comments

  • Anonymous

    No, I disagree with you re Hart/Harbaugh. As a former Michigan football player myself I can tell you that Harbaugh deserved the choice words that Hart had for him. Hart has earned a level of respect in Schembechler Hall that the vast majority of former players have never and never will attain. If there is a current Michigan player who is not out of place calling out Harbaugh’s Benedict Arnold-esque comments, it is Mike Hart. You are wrong, Hart was not over the line.

  • UM CAUP '91

    I second the above post. As a Michigan alumnus and former member of the track team, I wholeheartedly endorse the “excomminucation” of Jim Harbaugh. Everyone makes decisions in life. Harbaugh decided to divorce himself from the Michgan family when he threw our school under the bus to make himself and his current employer look better.
    AND HARBAUGH’S COMMENTS WERE FACTUALLY INACCURATE!
    One last point: that asshole would’ve NEVER made those comments if Bo were still alive. Harbaugh is a traitor and a jerk.

  • Keegan

    In my opinion, Hart has earned the right to do what he wants when he wants due to his performance on and off of the field and how he carries himself as person. If Harbaugh’s going to throw stones he better be prepared for someone to give back to him in a less than cordial fashion.

  • kboan

    Couldn’t agree more with the above comments. If there’s one current player who speaks for the U of M Athletic Department, it has to be Mike Hart. He has maintained a posture that all Wolverines can allude to with pride. He is one of the biggest Michigan fans I have ever met. He has become one of our best recruiters. I don’t think Hart excommunicated Harbaugh. Rather, Harbaugh jumped ship, and Hart merely pointed it out. I call no foul.

  • Don

    Add me to those who thinks that Hart’s comments were totally justified.

    Harbaugh’s comments have to go down in college football history as some of the most mysteriously inexplicable and self-destructive words ever uttered by a graduate of any school. What he hoped to gain, regardless whether he believes what he said or not, is a question for for the ages. If nothing else, he has provided the Webster’s-quality example of bridge-burning.

    I’ve hated USC ever since I was a kid, and I’ve never once rooted for them in any game in 45 years of watching college football. I will make an exception this fall when they play Stanford.

  • guthrie

    I’m with all of the above. If you want to make inflammatory statements, you better be ready for the consequences. Hart is perfectly entitled to his opinion and it is one that is apparently shared by many alums, including his own teammates.

  • mvictors

    Sheesh – M Fans 6, MVictors 0. My nerves are shot. Listen, I do have a problem with Harbaugh saying what he said….And as someone posted on this site a few weeks ago it makes you wonder if the only guy that needed to be steered into the ‘special’ classes was young Jimmy Harbaugh.

    My issue is with Hart. I don’t mind that he feels this way and appreciate how passionate he is about it, but why is a 20 yr old the guy that needs to be the voice of this and the focus of attention? Why can’t we let people like Jamie Morris, Lloyd Carr, etc. spew the venom?

  • Jonsi

    Remember, he is a 21 year old guy in an emotional environment where reporters are baiting! Also, remember that humans aren’t infallible. Have you ever said something you would rephrase differently in front of a group of friends or peers? Harbaugh is a different entity than Hart. He is in a different position. His words should be scrutinized. But too swiftly we scrutinize the words of student athletes. I question how tactful we all could be if a reporter was trying to get answers out of us off the cuff. It’s not like he had a prepared speech. He was being candid. Big whoop.

  • m@

    I don’t think Hart intends to be the focus of attention; that’s the media’s doing.

    Furthermore, he has every right to criticize Harbaugh, because Harbaugh directed his comments at a populace to which Mike Hart belongs: the student-athlete.

    It’s like someone ripping on my family and saying I don’t have the right to speak up simply because I’m under the age of 30. No way man; you mess with my fam fam and I’ll come with teeth bared. :)

  • sjblue

    Hart represents the university and is an amazing student athelete. I think he embodies a true michigan man. If he is not allowed to voice his thoughts, then I am not sure who is. Michigan in general is always accused of being passive and not firing back. I am glad to see Hart, Carr and others fight back and not take the proverbial “high road”.

    Additionally Hart represents today’s football players and he was offended directly and can imagine all other players on the team feeling the same way. So he is defending his teammates with those comments. His main point is to point out, that teammates dont do what Harbaugh did and as such does he still belong in the same family? No, is Hart’s opinion and he resonates others on the team. And they, more than us, have a right to decide who deserves to be part of the family or not. As an alumni and an engineering graduate, I have always looked at student athletes with pride as they are doing something that is difficult to do, a full time job and going to school.

    Harbaugh is a douche bag and he deserves all he is getting. I doubt he will last at Stanford, as I am sure these antics are not really appreciated by the Stanford trustees, afterall the last thing they want is a douche bag coming and ruining a legacy setup by the likes of Bill Walsh.

  • RDS

    Everyone above who was praising Hart and shelling Harbaugh must have a short memory. Hart is too volatile and should be kept on a short leash by Carr. Have we forgotten the embarrassing comments he made after Ohio State ate his lunch last year? The kid shoots his mouth off and is part of the reason why UM has gone 0-6 in bowl games and Ohio State games over the past three seasons.

    With Harbaugh, obviously what he said was the product of his rectum and not his brain. There’s a difference between propping oneself up and selling one’s alma mater down the river. But Hart is most definitely out of line. I appreciate his fire, and he obviously loves his school and his team, but he needs to learn that being a Michigan Man means taking the high road no matter what.

  • anonymous

    #11, this is #1… you said

    “The kid shoots his mouth off and is part of the reason why UM has gone 0-6 in bowl games and Ohio State games over the past three seasons.”

    How in the hell is Hart part of the reason we’ve gone 0-6 the last three years? I don’t mean offense or rudeness when I say that is the most thoughtless statement I’ve read in a comment section in some time. Hart is one of the best leaders to ever wear the winged helmet. Carr seriously considered allowing him to be voted captain as a junior (3rd year), I’m not sure if that has ever happened, but it certainly hasn’t happened on Carr’s watch. If that isn’t a testimony to what Hart has meant to this program I’m not sure what could be. Hart IS Michigan, through and through. I literally know, I was a senior when Hart was a freshman. He was more reserved and timid then than he is now, but he practiced and played with a passion few ever have. I would only compare him to Chris Perry in that regard.

    And MVictors, I completely understand what you are saying as well, but Harbaugh’s comments while not directly leveled at Hart and the players, definitely stung every one of them. When I read those comments a few months ago my stomach twisted in disgust. I think in retrospect Hart, while visceral in his response, actually had much harsher words for Benedict Harbaugh.

    Harbaugh played for Michigan when I was in nursery school, and I’ve never met the man. So I obviously don’t really know him, and can’t speak to what kind of man he is behind closed doors. But, he indicted the coaches, players, former players, former coaches, and administration in a way no Michigan Man or Woman ever should. It was a stark and perverted betrayal. And I can also tell you that when I was with the program I never heard of a single case where the coaches or team advisors were steering kids to easier majors. Sure, some kids were only there for football, but that was on their own volition, it was NEVER encouraged. Carr and the staff took pride in the players that excelled in the classroom, and I promise he placed more emphasis on it than any other coach in the Big 10.

  • kboan

    RDS,

    “after Ohio State ate his lunch last year?” Did you see the game? Hart had an excellent performance. The defense gave up two ridiculous runs and the officials gave OSU a second shot with a fresh set of downs on a terrible roughing the passer call late in the fourth. Hart, however, cannot be faulted in any way for his performance in that game.

    And I was not embarrassed in any way by the comments of Mike Hart following the contest. As many others have said, Mike Hart is the rightful spokesman for the U of M football team. I have said it before, and I stand by it: Harbaugh conceded that he was no longer a Michigan Man by publicly making the statements that he made. It was then that he forfeited his place among the Maize and Blue. Hart merely pointed this out, and, as the spokesman for the team, expressed how the words of Harbaugh were received by the student athletes being criticized by the paid coach of another program. You can’t fault the kid for that.

  • Jonsi

    I imagine Harbaugh’s words have been discussed at length amongst the players over Mrs. Fields cookies in the union, and I’m guessing he’s not speaking his own opinion, but the opinion of most of his teammates. I’d be VERY offended as a player because a coach of another program is saying “these kids aren’t good enough to be at that university and the few that are, are encouraged to take fluff classes and won’t be able to get a job afterwards.” That’s pretty harsh. I’d be pissed as hell too. I wouldn’t have any respect for a coach who called out his alma matter like that. And was it what Harbaugh learned in classes that got him a head coaching job at Stanford?!? Or was it the skills and knowledge he learned playing football?

    Let’s not kid ourselves that football players are admitted for their athletic abilities, just as some musicians may be for musical abilities. Those musicians may suck at math or would surely fail at engineering, as an example (hypothetical of course), whereas a physics student may struggle with English. These young men are WORKING FULLTIME JOBS playing football, and learning valuable skills not taught in the classroom. I’d employ a football player with a degree in general studies from Michigan than a history major from State who didn’t play ball, and I would do it because I ran track, and I learned as much doing that and traveling than I did in the classroom.

  • ted

    Mike Hart definitely crossed the line in his statements which were very poor in correctness also. He is a KID, calling out a GROWN MAN. He is a michigan running back who hasn’t won a big game in is life calling out a 15 year NFL veteran, All American, Pro Bowl, ect ect. He hasnt paid his dues yet, and who really on this earth can say they have NO respect for another person that they have never met, it just doesn’t make sense. Harbaugh has done more for UM than Hart has at this point so is it really that logical then for Hart to say Harbaugh isn’t a Michigan Man?

    Hart also said questions the acceptance of Jason Forcier–He says we don’t have great student-athletes, but he just accepted one of our transfers,”– well if you paid attention mike he never says anything, ANYTHING about the quality of the student Athletes, he just says admissions should hold it self to a higher standard for such a good school. I know of players who chose their majors and then were forced to change them because of there difficulty or amount of reading recquired.

    On a side note maybe the length of time it took Hart and Carr to muster up a response to this is a reflection of what harbaugh is saying…haha (harbaugh’s comments were in may/june)

    Carr says that the comments were elitist. Well hmm lets see isnt the very nature of elitism to think/say that you are better than others at a certain thing? Then Stanford, the Ivies, and other great schools are all Elitist by nature, because they operate on the basis that they acept the best student in the world, and deny ones that aren’t good enough for them.

    Harbaugh even says what a great school UM is, I dont get why everyone is saying what a total benedict arnold move this is. He even roots for UM when they play. He could have gotten the point across without mentioning UM but it has been blown way out of proportion.

    By the way im not a UM fan or a stanford fan, just a football fan… michigan will never win the big one with carr the zombie as its head coach, and nice work against USC last year!

  • Keith Shields

    This debate is settled. Harbaugh wins. Mike Hart doesn’t deserve to be questioning Harbaugh’s credentials as a “Michigan Man”. When Harbaugh runs his mouth he backs it up – as the QB at UM, he guaranteed a win over OSU and delivered. He also won a Fiesta bowl and led a Michigan team that finished #2 in the nation. As the coach at Stanford, he verbally sparred with Pete Carroll and then beat him in arguably the greatest upset in the history of college football. He also pulled off an upset of Cal (Stanford’s biggest rival) with an outmatched squad. Hey Mike Hart – Jim Harbaugh won a game over his archrival! Imagine that…beating your archrival. It’s not something you know much about. Nor is winning a bowl game for that matter. It’s OK Mike – keep taunting Michigan State…they’re real relevant. Until you have the stones to call out one of the big boys (like Harbaugh does), and then back up your words (like Harbaugh does), just keep your mouth shut and admire Jim Harbaugh like you should.