Mike Hart reacts to becoming first African American head coach at Michigan

Michigan running back coach Mike Hart coached the second half of Saturday’s game versus UNLV filling in for the suspended Jim Harbaugh. By doing so, Hart became the first African American head coach in the history of the program.

“It’s a great honor,” Hart said after the game. “I had a chance to play for Tony Dungy. I had a chance to play for Jim Caldwell. My first coaching job was with Ron English at Eastern Michigan. We have an athletic director in Warde Manual who’s African American. (We’ve) had a close relationship since he’s been here. So I’ve just had a lot of great coaches who are African Americans I’ve had the chance to look up to and just really let me know that it can happen. It’s a possibility.”

Hart played his college football for the Wolverines, where he earned a spot on the All-Big Ten first team three times and won the 2004 Big Ten Freshman of the Year award. He finished his career with 5,040 yards rushing and 41 touchdowns.

After his college career wrapped up, Hart was drafted by the Indianapolis Colts. He spent three seasons with the team playing for two head coaches in Tony Dungy and Jim Caldwell.

He then worked for Ron English at Eastern Michigan for three seasons before going to Western Michigan, Syracuse, Indiana and then finally back to his alma mater at Michigan.

“Hopefully we see more African American coaches in college football,” Hart said. “We need more. Hopefully, I’ll be one of those one day. I will be one of those one day. It’s really just a great honor being that this is my university. I played here. This place changed my life. To have that opportunity to always say I was the first African American head coach here is huge.”

The Wolverines won Saturday’s game quite easily as they pulled out a 35-7 victory. JJ McCarthy was 22 of 25 for 278 yards and two touchdowns while Blake Corum had 80 yards on the ground and three scores.

“J.J.’s a phenomenal player. No. 1, just the way he prepares for games. He know’s everything that’s going on. He knows where the ball needs to be and he controls the offense,” Hart said on the CBS broadcast after the game. “So when you can do that as a quarterback, you’ve got the athletic ability, arm that he has, sky’s the limit for J.J.”