portal 2022

Michigan has landed its second transfer of the day, and its second Stanford OL transfer in as many days:

Nugent was a Who Dat prospect back in the class of 2019, outside the top 1000 in the composite, hailing from Littleton, CO. He committed to Stanford and then spent his first two seasons on the bench, receiving a formal redshirt in 2019 and then getting the COVID-shirt in 2020. Nugent ascended to the starting job in 2021 and has now completed his second season as the starting C for the Cardinal. Though PFF's OL grades have *flaws*, they are unequivocal about Nugent being a very good football player: he was given a 77.5 grade last season (25th among centers nationally) and 80.2 this year (8th among centers nationally). Crucially, both the pass block and run block grades were excellent for Nugent this past season, and Nugent's 80.2 PFF grade was just a smidge lower than Oluwatimi's 80.8. 

In bringing in Nugent, you have to think Michigan is expecting him to be the starter at C. They won't coronate him publicly and of course the existing options on the depth chart will get their shot, but Nugent's track record of success suggests that he will be the favorite to start at center for Michigan in 2023. The question then turns to what will happen to Michigan's young centers, Greg Crippen and Raheem Anderson. You have to assume one will stay to duke it out with Nugent and then possibly get the job in 2024, but the likelihood that both stay after signing Nugent does not appear to be high to your author. The other takeaway is that it feels like Michigan will be expecting at least one of the guards (likely Zinter) to be off to the NFL. 

Here's some footage of Stanford's OL from 2021, with both Nugent at C and Hinton at RT: 

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