After spending four seasons at Stanford, center Drake Nugent joined Michigan in 2023. In one year with the program, he did something most athletes don’t in their collegiate careers: win a College Football National Championship.
Following the victory, head coach Jim Harbaugh left to take the Los Angeles Chargers’ job, and Nugent declared for the 2024 NFL Draft. But at the Combine, he spoke about Michigan promoting former OC Sherrone Moore to the lead role and what fans can expect next season.
Drake Nugent Praises New Michigan HC Sherrone Moore at NFL Combine
Moore actually had a bit of a trial run as Michigan’s head coach last season when he acted in the role with Harbaugh serving a four-game suspension. The Wolverines went 4-0, including wins over Penn State and rival Ohio State, maintaining the program’s undefeated run to the national title. Now, he’ll be Michigan’s first permanent Black football head coach in school history.
“I have been preparing my entire coaching career for this opportunity and I can’t think of a better place to be head coach than at the University of Michigan,” Moore said in a statement. “Our standards will not change.”
Fresh off coaching stops at Central Michigan and Louisville, Michigan hired Moore as its tight ends coach in 2018. He was named the offensive line coach and co-offensive coordinator in 2021, coaching his unit to back-to-back Joe Moore Awards as the top OL in the country.
Then, in 2023, he dropped the “co” label, serving as the Wolverines’ sole offensive play-caller en route to the ultimate trophy.
At the Combine, Nugent lauded his former coach’s approach to coaching the offensive line.
“From an Xs and Os standpoint, I think Coach Moore did a great job,” he said. “He was the OC, too, so he kind of knew what we were going to call and stuff. But I think he did a great job of giving us the reason why we’re running certain things, certain looks, why we’re doing certain drills to prepare ourselves in the week for the game.”
“It was like giving us the tools and insight why he’s calling certain things,” Nugent continued. “And I feel like he almost turned us into offensive coordinators ourselves, in a sense, just because of how he approached each meeting and coached us up during those meetings.”
Nugent went on to say Moore “earned his stripes” with the team, and “everyone kind of knew” he would be the next head coach.
Yet, what endeared Moore the most to Nugent was the trust he built in the locker room and with the players he was responsible for.
“Especially for me going in there, like I was a new guy around the offense, especially at center. I’m making a lot of the calls. But he still trusted me a lot to make the right ones. He kind of gave me the ability to kind of direct that line a lot, which I loved.”
“I think it’s just all built on trust, and the guys that love him to death, they all trust him. They trust his play-calling, even all of our trick plays. At times during the game, he would just throw out trick plays vs. Purdue and Indiana, and we’re already up big. It’s just creating moments like that where guys are into it and loving the game and playing for the guy they love.”
KEEP READING: 2024 Big Ten Transfer Portal Rankings
According to Nugent, the Wolverines are in great hands. And if Moore can pick up where Harbaugh left off, Michigan won’t have to worry about the head coach position for years to come.
Miss any action from the top college QB Rankings during the 2023 football season? Want to track all the movement with the college football transfer portal? College Football Network has you covered with that and more!