Drake Nugent has taken over for Michigan football at center

Michigan football seemed to have a battle for the starting center job, however, it seems that transfer Drake Nugent has taken it over. 

One of the underrated aspects of this Michigan football team is how much the Wolverines cleaned up in the transfer portal, especially when it comes to the offensive line.

LaDarius Henderson is competing to be the starting left tackle right now with Karsen Barnhart. Myles Hinton, who came over from Stanford is competing at the right tackle spot with Trente Jones and it sounds like all those guys will alternate starts during the first few weeks.

Yet, it doesn’t sound like that’s going to happen at center.

Drake Nugent has taken over the starting center job

At one time, Jim Harbaugh said Michigan football had two All-Big Ten caliber centers and two starters in Nugent and Greg Crippen. And that’s still true because Crippen is absolutely good enough to start.

But Drake Nugent has been dominant in fall camp and he’s a guy that’s rising as the season draws near. Here’s what Kris Jenkins said about a guy he battles regularly in practice.

"“He’s a dawg,” Jenkins said. “He came in from day one … I like him. He’s a dawg. From day one, he came in here one of the hardest workers I’ve ever seen. He’s a complete freak of an athlete. He’s done stuff that had me and coach Herb [Ben Herbert] mouth agape. He’s the type of dude who wills it, trains to finish, definitely a huge football IQ guy. Basically, just his work ethic is unbelievable. From day one he walked in here and he got everybody’s respect quick”"

Chris Balas of The Wolverine reported that according to some sources who have observed practice, Nugent could be the best offensive lineman on the team, which is saying something when you have guys like Zak Zinter and Trevor Keegan coming back as multi-year starters.

For Michigan football, that’s really promising. The Wolverines knocked it out of the park with Olu Oluwatimi last offseason and it sounds like Drake Nugent could be in the same league in terms of the kind of player the Wolverines are getting.