Long, Hart, and Crable Named Captains

The 2007 Michigan football team will have a trio of captains the Athletic Department announced today. There wasn't much of a surprise with Long, Hart, and Crable earning the honors. Long was the offensive captain last year and becomes only the 11th repeat captain in the history of the Wolverine football program, so Jake earning the title again wasn't much of a shock. Crable makes sense on the defensive side of the ball, he is a senior linebacker and is going to have to be the leader of an inexperienced defense. Crable has the game and he isn't one to shy away from the microphone, he looked at ease talking and joking around with reporters, teammates, and even coach Carr at the team's media day. The only other player who even had a shot on defense would have been senior Jamar Adams, but if he was named a captain it would have been considered an upset. Mike Hart has been acting like a captain since his sophomore season, heck he was almost named captain last year, and we all know Mike loves to chat with anyone who will listen.

All of this was to be expected, the only real question was whether or not Lloyd Carr would have four captains, which would only have been the second time in history that a Michigan team would have had four captains, the first being in 2000 when Steve Hutchinson, Anthony Thomas, James Whitley, and Eric Wilson shared the captain duties. The player left out is senior quarterback Chad Henne. During media day Chad was asked about the possibility of one of the seniors being left out of the captaincy (Henne, Hart, and Long) Henne said that it didn't matter who was named captain, that while it would be an honor to have that title that all three will act like captains and lead this team.

Henne not being named a captain has bucked a trend of sorts being the first senior quarterback since Brian Griese to not hold the title, John Navarre and Tom Brady were both elected captains. Some fans have said that they don't see Chad as a vocal leader, and admittedly Chad sad that he has worked on being more vocal in practice, but that might be easier said than done with Hart doing most of the talking. That being said this season and all the expectations rest on the broad shoulders of #7. We can say that Hart is the one who makes the Michigan offense go, which is probably true, but if Hart were to go down with an injury Minor could fill the hole. If Henne goes down so does Michigan's national championship hopes. Yes, Ryan Mallet would take over. Yes, he might end up being the best quarterback to ever play at Michigan, but he would not be able to lead this team to an undefeated season.

Chad will be the leader of this offense, the leader of this team. He will be because he is the quarterback which basically comes with a sense of captaincy with the position. Chad won't have the title of captain but he will do more leading than Hart and Long combined when the game is on the line. Picture Camp Randell Stadium in Wisconsin rockin', Michigan is down by 4 with two minutes left in the game, the season is on the line, who are the players going to be looking at in that huddle? Will it be the offensive linemen? The running back? Hardly. They will all, including that linemen and running back, be looking at the quarterback to lead them down the field. And Chad will do it. He'll do it because he has to, because he came back to win that Big Ten title, to beat Ohio State, to play for the National Championship. He may not be a vocal leader, he may not have "team captain" following his name, but his play will do all the leading this team needs.

Pick out the leader

Tony Bolton-WCBN Sports Director