CFP Notebook: A Michigan coach’s Husky connections, UW players honor family with their clothing

HOUSTON – Kalen DeBoer’s old table still sits in Mike Hart’s house.

But that’s just the beginning.

Hart – Michigan’s run game coordinator and running backs coach – has countless connections to UW’s players and coaches, who occupied the opposite sideline Monday night. The former Wolverine running back played at Michigan with Husky tight ends coach (and former quarterback) Nick Sheridan, a man he calls “one of my best friends.” From 2011 to 2013, Hart coached the running backs at Eastern Michigan, directly preceding then-offensive coordinator Kalen DeBoer and offensive line coach Ryan Grubb (who were hired in 2014).

Hart later spent four seasons at Indiana – where he reunited with Sheridan (who shared a staff from 2017 to 2020) and DeBoer (the Hoosiers’ offensive coordinator in 2019), and met then-linebackers coach and special teams coordinator William Inge.

“They’re just good people,” Hart said Saturday, two days prior to the national championship game between UW and Michigan. “Ryan Grubb – really, really good person. William Inge – great linebacker coach, great human. It doesn’t surprise me they’re having the success they are, because of the type of people they are and the way they care about their players, having worked with most of them.”

But those connections transcend shared coaching staffs.

Or the fact that, when DeBoer was hired as Fresno State’s head coach in 2020, he sold Hart his kitchen table.

“Even my youngest daughter’s name is Kalen. Not after him, though,” Hart clarified. “But we didn’t know if we were having a boy or girl. … My wife wanted a name that went both ways, and I said Kalen. She said, ‘There’s no boys named Kalen,’ and I had to show her a picture of DeBoer. And then he ended up coming to Indiana, so it was pretty funny.

“The receivers coach, (JaMarcus) Shephard, we coached against each other forever. He was at Purdue for a while. I know him really well. Their (graduate assistant), Shaq Vann, I recruited to Eastern Michigan. So I just know a lot of them, and we’re really good friends. We don’t just know each other; we really enjoy being around each other. We always talk. I wouldn’t be happier playing anybody else than these guys in the national championship.”

And still, the connections don’t stop there.

Because for three seasons at Indiana, Hart watched current Huskies quarterback Michael Penix Jr. overcome adversity.

“You knew right away his freshman year when he got there how special he was, and the way he threw the ball and the way he moved and how cerebral he was,” Hart said. “He understands football. He understands the game. I’m really, really happy for him. (After) two ACLs, shoulder surgeries and injuries, to come back and play the way he’s played and leading the team the way he’s leading it, it’s not a surprise at all.”

Oh, and as for the aforementioned kitchen table?

“I don’t know how much (my wife) paid,” Hart said with a smile. “I hope he gave me a deal on it.”

Morgan’s CFP fingerprints

The two squads that met inside NRG Stadium on Monday were assembled, in part, by the same man:

UW general manager Courtney Morgan.

Morgan – a Michigan offensive lineman from 1999 to 2003 – served as the director of player personnel at his alma mater in 2021, spearheading the Wolverines’ recruiting class. He came to UW with DeBoer in 2022 and has overseen the Huskies’ recruiting operations in the two seasons since, recently being promoted from director of player personnel to general manager.

And though Morgan bleeds blue, there was little question who he was rooting for.

“That guy pulls it all together,” DeBoer said on last month’s early signing day. “He’s got a staff that works tirelessly. You trust your whole staff, but Courtney is the evaluator pulling the coaches and the prospects all together. He does a phenomenal job. I can’t say enough about him. He’s a pleasure to work with every day. He’s a relationship builder with the prospects as well as managing his own staff.”

Intentional clothing choices

UW linebacker Carson Bruener showed up to Monday’s game in the white jersey his father, former Husky tight end Mark Bruener, wore when he logged a touchdown in Washington’s 34-14 Rose Bowl win over Michigan that cemented the program’s most recent national title in 1991.

Meanwhile, wide receiver Jalen McMillan went through early warmups in a black T-shirt featuring a photo of Herle Gene McMillan – his grandfather and best friend – who died of cancer at age 68 in 2022.

The common theme: fashion and family.

Washington’s next wave

Though the 2023-24 season technically had not ended, Washington’s next wave of incoming players attended Monday’s game in uniforms (but no pads) along the sideline.

That group included both transfers (Mississippi State quarterback Will Rogers, Vanderbilt linebacker Ethan Barr, San Diego State offensive tackle Drew Azzopardi, Fresno State tight end Tre Watson and Montana State defensive lineman Sebastian Valdez) and early enrollee freshmen (quarterback Dermaricus Davis, wide receiver Jason Robinson, tight end Decker DeGraaf, offensive lineman Paki Finau, safety Peyton Waters and linebacker Khmori House).

Extra points

• Former UW defensive lineman Steve Emtman, who finished fourth in the Heisman Trophy voting and led the Huskies to their last national title in 1991, walked out for the coin toss Monday as an honorary captain.

• Oregon coach Dan Lanning made the national championship game as an analyst. The Ducks’ skipper, who is 0-3 in two seasons against UW, attended the game as part of ESPN’s crew.

• There was significant rain and wind in Houston on Monday evening, so much so that Sports Illustrated’s Richard Johnson reported that stray raindrops were leaking through the roof of NRG Stadium and into Michigan’s end zone. The game was played despite an ongoing tornado watch as well.