Drake Johnathon Nugent (born February 9, 2001) is an American professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

center Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentrici ...

for the

San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners and nicknamed the Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member ...

of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

(NFL). He played

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

for the

Stanford Cardinal The Stanford Cardinal are the college athletics in the United States, athletic teams that represent Stanford University. Stanford's program has won 138 National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA team championships, the List of NCAA schools ...

and

Michigan Wolverines The Michigan Wolverines comprise 29 varsity sports teams at the University of Michigan. These teams compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA's NCAA Division I, Division I and in the Big Ten Conference in all sports except wo ...

. Nugent was a first-team All-Big Ten selection, winning a

national championship A national championship(s) is the top achievement for any sport or competition, contest within a league of a particular nation or nation state. The title is usually awarded by contests, ranking systems, stature, ability, etc. This determines the be ...

with Michigan in 2023.

Early life

Nugent grew up in

Lone Tree, Colorado The City of Lone Tree is a home rule municipality located in northern Douglas County, Colorado, United States. The population was 14,253 at the 2020 census, and was estimated to be 14,061 in 2024. Lone Tree is a part of the Denver metropol ...

, and attended

Highlands Ranch High School Highlands Ranch High School, commonly referred to as Ranch or HRHS, is a public high school in Highlands Ranch, Colorado. It is part of the Douglas County School District. History Highlands Ranch opened in 1987 as the third high school in the ...

. He played high school football on both offense and defense and was selected as an All-Colorado player in 2017 and 2018.

College career

Stanford

Nugent played college football for Stanford from 2019 to 2022. He started 24 consecutive games at center for the

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

and

2022 Stanford Cardinal football team The 2022 Stanford Cardinal football team represented Stanford University in the Pac-12 Conference during the 2022 NCAA Division I FBS football season. Led by twelfth-year head coach David Shaw, the Cardinal was 3–9 (1–8 in Pac-12, eleventh ...

s. He was also selected twice as a Pac-12 Academic Honor Roll player in 2021 and 2022.

Michigan

In December 2022, Nugent entered the

NCAA transfer portal The NCAA transfer portal is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) application, database, and compliance tool created to manage and facilitate the process for student athletes seeking to transfer between member institutions. It is i ...

and accepted an offer from the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

. In 2023, following his transfer, Nugent started all 15 games at center for Michigan’s national championship team. Nugent was voted First-team All-Big Ten and was a

Rimington Trophy The Dave Rimington Trophy is awarded to the player considered to be the best center in college football. Dave Rimington was a center who played at the University of Nebraska from 1979 to 1982. A member of the National College Football Awards ...

finalist.

Professional career

On April 27, 2024, Nugent signed with the

as an

undrafted free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player or manager who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under a contract at present ...

. He was waived on August 27, and re-signed to the practice squad. He signed a reserve/future contract on January 6, 2025.

References

External links

San Francisco 49ers bio

Stanford Cardinal bio

Michigan Wolverines bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nugent, Drake 2001 births Living people American football centers Michigan Wolverines football players Stanford Cardinal football players Sportspeople from Highlands Ranch, Colorado Players of American football from Colorado San Francisco 49ers players