A SORROWFUL SOCCER WEEKEND
The Michigan women's soccer team lost to Wisconsin,
while the men's team fell to Michigan State in overtime.
PAGE 9B
SHARAD MATTU:
Steve Breaston
struggles after
great first year.
PAGE 4B
The SportsWednesday Column
SPORTS
October 20, 2004
1B
Mcign 0,dwBade
Michigan 30,
------------------------
Ground
control
Hart crucial to
future 'M'
success
BOB HUNT
Unleashed
CHAMPAIGN - Most run-
ning backs are commended
for breaking tackles. But Mike
Hart goes beyond breaking tackles.
Mike Hart breaks piles.
As Michigan earned possession,
trailing by one in the third quarter,
Hart took the ball and looked like he
was going to be taken down in the
backfield. With two Fighting Illini
defenders after him, Hart pushed
through the heap and broke free. A
few yards later, he was met by another
group. He got through them, too.
All of a sudden, what was supposed
to be a two-yard loss became an eight-
yard gain. What's truly amazing,
though, is that these occurrences have
become routine. On a day when the
Michigan passing game was subpar,
the 5-foot-9 true freshman carried the
offense. He juked by and bowled over
defenders all day, carrying the ball
40 times for 239 yards. He broke the
Michigan freshman running record
which he set - last week.
"He wants the football," Michigan
coach Lloyd Carr said. "It's an amaz-
ing thing."
At this time last year, Hart was the
king of the central New York high
school football world. He broke the
national high school record for touch-
downs, but competed in the Empire
State's smallest division. Because of
his lack of height and prep competi-
tion, many critics outside the program
thought that he was going to redshirt.
But Hart has become a corner-
stone of the Michigan offense, and
his importance will only continue to
increase during the regular season's
final four games. The Wolverines face
two road games that will decide the
fate of their season in West Lafay-
ette and Columbus. Against Purdue,
the Wolverines are going to have to
keep quarterback Kyle Orton and his
offense off the field. Against Ohio
State, they are going to have to wear
down the Buckeye defense.
That is something that Chad Henne,
Braylon Edwards and the rest of the
Michigan passing attack will be unable
to do. While Henne has made incred-
ible strides and should receive praise
for how he has stepped into the starting
role, he cannot be expected to carry
the team. As a freshman quarterback,
he can't be expected to be consistent
every week while he's developing. One
can figure that if the Wolverines find
themselves up a touchdown next Sat-
urday with six minutes to go, that there
will be no hesitation as to who will be
getting the ball.
While Hart is still developing as a
running back, he has shown over the
past few weeks that he and the line
can control the ball and the offense. In
fact, during the first four games of the
Big Ten season, Hart has run for 155
yards more than Chris Perry did dur-
ing the same stretch last year against
the same four teams. And Perry was a
senior and Heisman Trophy finalist.
On Saturday, Henne's timing was off
See HUNT, Page 4B
JEFF LEHNERT/Daily
Mike Hart, above, ran for 234 yards on 40 carries, while second-half interceptions by Marlin Jackson, bottom left, and Scott McClntock, bottom right, fueled Michigan's comeback.
Defense keys comeback
By Sharad Mattu
Daily Sports Editor
CHAMPAIGN - With wind gusts of
up to 35 mph wreaking havoc on Michi-
gan's passing attack, Illinois had plenty of
reasons to dream of an upset at halftime
on Saturday. It had intercepted a pair of
passes and scored 17 points on its last three
possessions of the first half to take a 17-10
lead into the locker room.
But in the second half, the Wolverines
did what they've always done, whether it
was a century ago or a week and a half
ago against Minnesota. With a persistent
running attack that wore down the Fight-
ing Illini and a stifling defense that forced
three interceptions and two punts in the
second half, Michigan pulled away from
Illinois to win 30-19.
"I'm very pleased with our team in
the second half after getting down, mak-
ing so many mistakes and not tackling
particularly well," Michigan coach Lloyd
Carr said. "The good news for us in the
second half was we came out and got an
early turnover, then got the lead, which is
exactly what you want to do on the road."
The Wolverines' ground game was
led by Mike Hart, who - at 5-foot-9 and
194 pounds - is making the premise that
he's too small for Big Ten football more
and more laughable each week. After set-
ting a Michigan freshman record against
the Golden Gophers with 160 yards, Hart
ran 40 times - fourth-most in Michigan
history - and amassed 234 yards, which
puts him in a tie for the program's seventh-
highest rushing total. He had four runs
between 25 and 32 yards and ran for a four-
yard touchdown in the fourth quarter.
"We started getting to the outside a
little bit more," said Hart of Michigan's
halftime adjustments. "They were play-
ing really tight since we had been trying
to run the ball inside a lot, so we opened
it up in the second half and tried to get to
the corners."
Michigan's defense also stepped up. It
won the turnover battle for the first time in
three games.
If the momentum wasn't in Illinois'
favor at halftime, it definitely was when
Michigan failed to convert on fourth down
to open the third quarter. But three plays
later, linebacker Scott McClintock inter-
cepted a pass from quarterback Jon Beutjer
to give Michigan the ball at the 6-yard line.
Two plays later, the Wolverines scored.
After Michigan scored touchdowns on
its next two drives to take a 30-17 lead,
Illinois marched down field to the 30-yard
line and appeared to be in position to score.
But on third down, Beutjer dared to throw
at cornerback Marlin Jackson and paid the
price, as the captain's interception basi-
cally put the game away with just over five
minutes left in the game.
Illinois drove down the field one more
time with two minutes left, but McClintock
registered his second interception of the
game, this time in the endzone.
Penalty shot gives
Blue boost in win
0 MENS BASKETBALL
Cagers ready to
meet expectations
By Ryan Sosin
Daily Sports Writer
Thirteen minutes into the second
period of Saturday's 5-2 win over St.
Lawrence, Yost ti
Ice Arena erupted
in anticipation for
what it was about u w Mst4
to see. Everyone 1CG 4
in the arena knew
what was about to happen - except
senior winger Jason Ryznar.
After jumping out of the penalty box,
Despite being up 2-1, No. 3 Michi-
gan needed to build up a lead to protect
against its chronic inconsistency. As the
Yost crowd began to simmer over, Ryznar
took off from center ice on the first penal-
ty shot of his life. He juked slightly to the
left before ripping a shot under St. Law-
rence goalie Mike McKenna's blocker,
sending Yost into another frenzy.
"Ryznar's penalty shot was - that
was a real one on one - that was huge."
Michigan coach Red Berenson said. "I
thought it was the turning point in the
game. He went in and beat the goalie
By Brian Schick
Daily Sports Editor
If expectations for the Michigan bas-
ketball team reached a fever pitch last sea-
son, the sky seems to be the limit for this
year's team. In the season after having the
ban on playing postseason games lifted,
Michigan just missed making the NCAA
Tournament last year. But the Wolverines
made the most of the postseason oppor-
tunity by winning the NIT and raising a
new banner in Crisler Arena.
so we're going to do whatever we can to
make the NCAA Tournament."
One of the most important steps in
taking the next step towards making the
NCAA Tournament is improving the
team's consistency, particularly on the
road. After a win against Purdue at home
last season, the Wolverines went on the
road to Minneapolis and lost to a winless
Minnesota team. Coach Tommy Amaker
feels that in order to be successful this sea-
son, lapses like that cannot take place..
"If we can be consistent and we can get
w