Prior to this season, fifth-year senior center Patrick Kugler had only started one game in his Michigan career.
Some even thought freshman Cesar Ruiz would be the man for the job heading into the year, but Kugler beat him out and hasn't shown any signs of looking back.
It helps that he has someone like senior left tackle Mason Cole — who played center all of last season — to lean on.
“I’ll bounce ideas off of him,” Kugler said. “I also talk about technique with him, and we watch a lot of extra film together.”
With players transferring more and more nowadays after their redshirt junior seasons, Kugler admitted that he thought about not returning for his fifth year.
“It was definitely talked about,” he admitted. “But I wanted to establish a legacy here and help lead the team this year.”
He has done a solid job of commanding the offense so far, and explained that he and redshirt junior quarterback Wilton Speight often have to work together to make the offense run smoothly.
“We definitely work in a tandem,” Kugler said. “We have to establish who the MIKE linebacker is on pretty much every play, and we help with protections. If one of us doesn’t know something, we have to communicate it with each other and to everyone else.
“Wilton is just such a poised leader. Nothing fazes him — after a big play, he’s not super high or super low. In the huddle, he has a command that you want to follow.”
Jim Harbaugh also recently insinuated that nothing fazes him anymore, except he used a different phrase to describe it — burnt wood.
“Yeah, I heard him say that,” Kugler laughed. “What he meant by that was nothing gets to him. I didn’t take it as a bad thing."
Although Michigan’s offense struggled at times against Cincinnati on Saturday, Kugler said it’s on the verge of breaking out.
“We have to start scoring in the red zone,” he explained. “We’ve gotten there and just haven’t been able to finish. If we eliminate the small mistakes, we’ll have something special.”
One player who is already having a ‘special’ offensive season is fifth-year senior running back Ty Isaac.
“He’s a hard runner,” Kugler exclaimed. “Even if there isn’t a hole, he’ll make a hole and get those three or four yards.”
Finally, after Ohio State’s loss to Oklahoma on Saturday night, Kugler admitted that he noticed Michigan jumped the Buckeyes in the polls.
“It’s a good feeling,” he said. “But nothing matters until we play them. Hopefully we’re undefeated and they’re 10-1 — but we’ll worry about that when the time comes.”
---
• Talk about this article inside The Fort
• Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes
• Learn more about our print and digital publication, The Wolverine
• Follow us on Twitter: @TheWolverineMag, @BSB_Wolverine, @JB_ Wolverine, @AustinFox42, @AndrewVcourt and @Balas_Wolverine
• Like us on Facebook
