2016 Season Countdown: #33 Patrick Kugler

2016 Season Countdown: #33 Patrick Kugler


August 10, 2016

Patrick Kugler (image via Bleacher Report)

Name: Patrick Kugler
Height: 6’5″
Weight: 303 lbs.
High school: Wexford (PA) North Allegheny
Position: Center
Class: Redshirt junior
Jersey number: #57
Last year: I ranked Kugler #29 and said he would be the backup center (LINK). He played in three games as a backup.

Entering his redshirt sophomore season last year, Kugler was suddenly thrust into a key backup role when Jack Miller ended his career prematurely. Luckily, Graham Glasgow stayed healthy and played well, so Kugler was not called upon in key situations to play on the offensive line. A frustrating shoulder injury has kept Kugler from adding strength and weight at times, and that lack of strength has been apparent over the past couple years when we have had a chance to see him. Along with too many mental mistakes, Kugler got pushed around quite a bit and struggled at the point of attack.

Seemingly to avoid putting Kugler on the field, the coaching staff has displaced junior left tackle Mason Cole to put him at center this year. Cole is already a two-year starter and will start somewhere this year, most likely at center. The coaching staff has kept alive the idea that Kugler could still win the spot, but it would take significant improvement over what we saw from him in the spring. I expect that Cole will keep the center spot, but left tackle Grant Newsome is the shakiest spot on the offensive line going into this season. If Newsome really struggles, it wouldn’t be out of the question to see Cole move back to left tackle with Kugler stepping in at center. The other problem is that Michigan doesn’t have anyone behind Kugler. Freshmen Ben Bredeson and Michael Onwenu talked about potentially playing center in college, but a true freshman center would be . . . less than ideal.

Prediction: Backup center





20 comments

  1. Comments: 6285
    Joined: 8/11/2015
    Lanknows
    Aug 10, 2016 at 12:17 PM

    There’s a lot of circumstantial evidence that Kugler can’t be relied upon. The move of Cole is one, the recruitment of Raulerson is another, the fact that the staff went with a true freshman as a 6th OLmen is another. None of this is definitive, but none of it portends well for Kugler either. I think the opinions of him (much like Isaac) are still inflated based on his recruiting profile. Sometimes that’s valid – the talent is just taking a bit to come through. Most times it’s not.

    Then again, there was a very similar situation with Jack Miller and he turned out to be serviceable by his senior year. So we’ll see.

    If Mason Cole does get hurt, I’m not entirely convinced that Kugler would be the guy they go to over a multi-game stretch. Hopefully we don’t have to find out, because as Thunder points out there aren’t a lot of appealing options.

    If you assume that Kugler isn’t ready to be a starter, then I think you can make a pretty strong case that Mason Cole is the guy that this team would miss most if he was hurt – or #1 in the countdown.

  2. Comments: 1364
    Joined: 8/11/2015
    WindyCityBlue
    Aug 10, 2016 at 2:12 PM

    Time for Drevno to show what he can do. Unless guys like Kugler, Dawson, JBB and Newsome (maybe even Bredeson) can be brought up to something resembling game readiness, our OL situation is very precarious. We were fortunate last year in that none of our starters lost a game to injury, but that luck may not hold. More than anything else, a serious injury to one of our OL starters could really damage our chances for a big season, unless at least one if the backups becomes significantly more playable than they’ve shown so far. As things stand now, there’s likely to be some serious panic if one of our starters goes down, but assuming that Cole does well at C, I think he’d be the last guy they’d move around in that case. An inexperienced and non-capable center can blow your whole offense up.

  3. Comments: 262
    Joined: 8/12/2015
    Painter Smurf
    Aug 10, 2016 at 5:03 PM

    Kugler has struggled in the 3 or 4 spring games he has participated in. This last one was his best though. He is perfectly respectable as a #2 guy, but fans still thinking he is pushing Cole just because he was a 4* in HS are off base. He may have played under Hoke as a subpar C a la Jack Miller, but Drevno wants his studs at C. It is also telling that Kugler was never considered at G the last few years, despite lots of guys getting shots there.

    • Comments: 1364
      Joined: 8/11/2015
      WindyCityBlue
      Aug 10, 2016 at 7:17 PM

      Well, if by “perfectly respectable as a #2 guy” you mean someone who can come in deep in the 4th quarter of a 42-7 game and not get beat on every play, yeah, probably. But if you mean someone who could fill in for the starter and do a serviceable, if not great, job against a quality team when it mattered, not so sure about that.

      Not sure how we ended up in such a shaky situation at center, but make your sacrifices to the football gods for Cole’s good health.

      • Comments: 262
        Joined: 8/12/2015
        Painter Smurf
        Aug 10, 2016 at 10:05 PM

        Just saying he is a decent backup who can fill in without getting abused. Cole, who is a future NFL player, backed up by Kugler is not a “shaky situation” at C in my opinion. That is better situation than most years.

        • Comments: 1863
          Joined: 1/19/2016
          je93
          Aug 10, 2016 at 10:09 PM

          “Better than most years,” especially recently

      • Comments: 6285
        Joined: 8/11/2015
        Lanknows
        Aug 10, 2016 at 11:22 PM

        We got there by not recruiting enough players, horrible coaching (Funk/Borges), and bad talent identification.

        Drevno has earned our faith, but the question remains how quickly he can fix things. OL in a power scheme generally take time.

        • Comments: 1364
          Joined: 8/11/2015
          WindyCityBlue
          Aug 11, 2016 at 7:00 AM

          Losing 4 guys (Samuelson, Fox, Bosch and LTT) from the 2013 class is killing us right now. Those guys would be fourth year players this season, and at least a couple would probably be either starters or quality backups. As it stands, that’s a huge roster hole, with no good way to patch it in the short term.

          • Comments: 3844
            Joined: 7/13/2015
            Aug 11, 2016 at 7:04 AM

            Bosch was already spot starting as a true freshman, and Logan Tuley-Tillman probably would be our starting LT. I also really liked Fox, but knee injuries can be devastating for guys who are 300+ pounds. Yeah, that class really hurt us, but it’s one where the universe kind of just screwed us over. I think we recruited good players, but injuries and poor decisions bit them.

            • Comments: 262
              Joined: 8/12/2015
              Painter Smurf
              Aug 11, 2016 at 8:31 AM

              Fox was one I liked as well. His DL film in HS as impressive for such a big guy. Too bad about his injuries.

          • Comments: 6285
            Joined: 8/11/2015
            Lanknows
            Aug 11, 2016 at 2:58 PM

            It is. They should have recruited 5 or 6 (as I said at the time) because OL is just a tough place to project people in power-rushing offenses.

            Bosch was a casualty of the Harbaugh transition it seemed like.

            Bottomline is that attrition happens and you have to plan for that.

  4. Comments: 33
    AA7596
    Aug 11, 2016 at 12:58 AM

    The fact that Newsome is locked in at LT tells you everything you need to know about Kugler. It’s really Newsome vs. Kugler for the 5th spot (despite playing different positions), and it isn’t even a contest despite Kugler being 2 years older, Newsome having had a rough spring game and Cole being forced to move over all this.

    It’ll be interesting to see what happens with Kugler and Dawson going forward. It’s pretty imperative for the program that at least one of them shows something as a reserve this year, given the roster situation for 2017. Dawson seems likelier, since at least he hasn’t had the injury issues.

    • Comments: 1364
      Joined: 8/11/2015
      WindyCityBlue
      Aug 11, 2016 at 6:55 AM

      If Kugler and Dawson looked like at least somewhat playable reserves in the event of injury, I’d feel much better about our Oline situation. That would at least give us some insulation from disaster. Not sure how much elevation they’re going to get in the next 3 weeks, but hopefully as the season goes on, we’ll start to see some development from them.

    • Comments: 6285
      Joined: 8/11/2015
      Lanknows
      Aug 11, 2016 at 2:59 PM

      Why is it Newsome vs Kugler and not Newsome vs Dawson, JBB (or any of the RS frosh)?
      I don’t see what Kugler has done to earn this distinction, particularly since it seems like Cole’s skills fit better at OC than OT.

  5. Comments: 24
    Joined: 12/28/2015
    mich_alumni
    Aug 11, 2016 at 2:24 AM

    I would think Kugler would be the first in if any OL goes down. This would probably involve Mason Cole switching positions. The other alternative here would be Bredeson would be first in (and who really wants to count on a true freshman starter). Dawson, JBB just seem like they are not yet ready. I guess Runyan and Ulizio may also compete for that next lineman in, but I think any type of (non-Cole) injury probably would involve a position switch for Cole and shifting around the line.

    • Comments: 262
      Joined: 8/12/2015
      Painter Smurf
      Aug 11, 2016 at 8:30 AM

      Guessing they will not want to shift Cole around once he is the established C. One thing no one talks about is the fact that Braden played at LT the entire spring scrimmage. And he looked OK there – at least as good as Newsome. So if Runyan or Bredeson looks ready to step in, they have an option of sliding Big Ben out should Newsome not progress.

      • Comments: 1364
        Joined: 8/11/2015
        WindyCityBlue
        Aug 11, 2016 at 9:33 AM

        Agreed..If Cole is getting the job done at center, he’ll likely stay there. Unless Kugler shows a very surprising amount of development, moving Cole back to tackle would be an absolute last resort. If we got to that point, it would only be if we lost both starting tackles to injury, in which case we’d be pretty well screwed anyway. Deck chairs on the Titanic at that point, and hope our defense can score a lot.

      • Comments: 6285
        Joined: 8/11/2015
        Lanknows
        Aug 11, 2016 at 3:01 PM

        That’s an excellent point.

        I think the only way Kugler plays is if Cole gets hurt. Anyone else an it’ll be Dawson or a freshman.

  6. Comments: 24
    Joined: 12/28/2015
    mich_alumni
    Aug 11, 2016 at 11:40 PM

    The biggest problem I think would be if Newsome goes down… I don’t think they have another viable LT prospect behind him. The only person with experience there is Cole. I think at that point moving Cole would be reasonable and bringing in Kugler as the C.

    • Comments: 3844
      Joined: 7/13/2015
      Aug 12, 2016 at 11:58 AM

      Yep. Left tackle is perhaps the biggest void on the team right now, if you assume Cole is going to remain at center. It’s very disappointing how that position has panned out. That being said, I think Cole or Magnuson could bump to left tackle if necessary.

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