'Pressure is a privilege': Higher stakes are 'refreshing' for Michigan center Drake Nugent

Michigan Wolverines football struck gold with Virginia transfer Olusegun Oluwatimi at center last season. He won the Rimington (best center nationally) and Outland (top interior lineman) trophies and led Michigan’s offensive line to the Joe Moore Award. To help replace him, the Wolverines brought in graduate Drake Nugent, a Stanford transfer who needed to change things up as much as Michigan wanted a center with experience to compete for the starting job.

“It was kind of refreshing,” Nugent said of coming to Michigan. “At Stanford, we didn’t win very many games there. I love those guys there. I was captain last year, which was great, but I just feel like personally I needed a change to almost spark my love for football again. Not to say I didn’t love it last year, but to give me that no excuse, come in with competition, I’ve gotta be on my stuff every day. Whereas Stanford, you can give yourself that excuse. I’d like to say I didn’t, but it’s there.”

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A two-time All-Pac-12 honorable mention (2021-22), Nugent doesn’t seem like someone who makes excuses when it comes to hard work. He’s been described as an “angry pit bull” who goes as hard as possible in workouts, to the point that, per senior right guard Zak Zinter, his heart rate monitor is in the red. Nugent is undersized at 6-foot-2, 301 pounds (he was listed at 6-1 at Stanford last season) but makes up for it with his tenacity.

“Obviously, being undersized gives me a little edge,” Nugent said. “Any undersized guy probably has a little extra something to them. I try to embody that as well as I can.”

He’s also embracing the high expectations that come with being at Michigan, which has won 25 of its last 28 games and is favored to win a third straight Big Ten championship. Head coach Jim Harbaugh and the Wolverines have been up front about their goals — to beat their rivals, win the Big Ten and be crowned national champions — and Nugent, who started 24 games at Stanford, is all about it.

“Of course it brings pressure,” Nugent said of the Michigan coach’s approach. “And it’s not just Harbaugh — it’s the whole community, it’s the fan base. Everyone expects to win games, and that’s also a good thing.

“I’ve always said, ‘Pressure is a privilege. When people are expecting things of you, it’s a good thing that they’re expecting good things of you. Who wants people to expect bad things of them? You would never want that. It’s a privilege to come into a place that’s already expecting to win a lot of games — and I can see myself adding to that.”

Nugent has acclimated well, even though he missed spring practices with an injury. He said he picked up the play book “pretty quickly,” noting that the terminology was similar at Stanford — under former Harbaugh assistant David Shaw — to what Michigan uses.

“There are some small things — we do a lot more motions than we did at Stanford, but call-wise on the O-line, it’s basically the same, with that West Coast O-line terminology,” Nugent explained. “It was a little different because we signal our plays in sometimes. We still huddle, but Stanford huddled every play, and sometimes you’d go to the line with three plays, kills, different looks. Here, it’s a lot more, hey, if we’re gonna kill a play or check a play, we’ll look to the sideline. Just the order of operation is a little bit different, but the plays themselves I picked up pretty well.”

He’s in competition and considered the favorite for Michigan’s starting center job with junior Greg Crippen, though both players said Tuesday that they haven’t been informed of who will start the opener against East Carolina.

“In lots of ways — really, every way,” Nugent said of how he and Crippen have pushed each other. “Coming in, I knew there was competition, and that’s something I’ve had to carry over, especially being out in spring ball. It was tough to go through those four weeks and not contribute anything to the team and wonder, ‘What’s it going to be like in fall camp?’ Or, ‘What do the guys think of me?’ Stuff like that.”

Nugent said he never fully lost the aforementioned “spark” or his love for football, but getting back out there in Michigan’s fall camp was a breath of fresh air.

“Being on the field again was like, this is awesome. I was able to truly love it again, where I’m at,” Nugent said.

How Olu Oluwatimi helped Michigan land Drake Nugent

Nugent visited Michigan last December, while the Wolverines were preparing for the CFP semifinal game against TCU. His conversations with Oluwatimi during that time helped cement his decision to come to Ann Arbor.

“Obviously, that played a big role,” Nugent said of watching Oluwatimi’s year with Michigan. “And I knew who Olu was throughout last year, and all the guys in the room here. Just seeing what he was able to do obviously played a big role.

“And when I came on my visit in December during bowl prep, I was able to talk to him. He had a rolled ankle and he wasn’t practicing the day I came, so it was nice to be able to talk to him on the side, ask questions about the offense and stuff like that and how similar or different Stanford was. But that definitely played a huge role. Obviously, there are big shoes to fill there, and I’ll do the best I can.”