So Hart made this guarantee -- No Help from Bret "The Hitman" Hart required

Just some snippets from people, Notre Dame and otherwise, about the Mike Hart "guarantee" of a win given last Saturday. By the way, Hart wasn't made available to the media during Michigan's media availability Monday.

• "He's trying to get his team ready for this game. I wouldn't say anything myself but I'm not guaranteeing anything for this game." -- Notre Dame nose tackle Pat Kuntz
• "I love my school, but Mike (Hart) can stay stand up there by himself on that limb. I'm going to back away from that boy and say I hope we win and I hope we can turn some things around and start playing better." -- Indianapolis Colts defensive back and former Michigan player Marlin Jackson
• "It doesn't matter. He is the captain of their team and he's trying to do what he feels they need. I'm not there. I just know when I was a captain what I did and what our guys do here and I can't speak for anything else." -- Notre Dame defensive coordinator and former Michigan safety Corwin Brown
• "I just found out today. I had no idea. That's our captain so if he made that guarantee everyone will fight their hardest to back them up. We'll give our all to back him up." -- Michigan wide receiver Adrian Arrington (said on Monday)
• "I think he was trying to motivate his team. I wouldn't fault him for that. It won't make a difference in the game." -- Notre Dame fifth-year senior tight end John Carlson.
• "Will we bring it up to the team and say, hey, he guaranteed a win? Yeah, we'll say that because anyone would. But in reality, I think Mike Hart is trying to be a leader. I think that's what he is trying to do. So I think Mike Hart is doing what any leader of a team would be saying.  Now obviously, now, he's going to get the ball because they are going to give him an opportunity to back that up. And our job, doesn't make any difference what he said or what we say. It's when they give him the ball, can we stop them? So that's what we're going to try to have to do." -- Notre Dame head coach Charlie Weis
• "I prefer not to ever hear that comment coming out of my team. I prefer not to hear that. But that doesn't mean he's wrong saying that, you know, to try and fire up his team. Every team has its own personality. I prefer that to stay in the locker room. If somebody wants to say that in our place, I'd prefer if they did that in a setting right here for me." -- More from Weis

Don't forget our prediction contest, which is your form of a guarantee on what will happen. Pick the correct score and be the first to do so and win a prize. E-mail your guesses to mrothstein@jg.net.   

-By Michael Rothstein of The Journal Gazette (with help from Justin A. Cohn of The Journal Gazette)