The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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84 ■ THE WOLVERINE 2018 FOOTBALL PREVIEW The praise meant a lot to the sophomore. "It's great. It just shows my hard work is paying off, shows I'm doing the right thing," Ruiz said. "The guys he developed were the guys I looked up to when I was in high school. Coach Warinner believes in me and all of us, and I'll do whatever he tells me to do. "Coach Warinner taught us a lot. He's all about making us better, all about us and the players. You could see us improving imme- diately when he got here. Coach Warinner is a great coach." While impressed with Ruiz's steps, Warin- ner also understands his sophomore is still a work in progress. Ruiz recognizes it, too, which is another of his strengths. "Last year I was a freshman, young and still had a lot of things to learn," he said. "If I play this year like I did last year, I'm not really helping the team. I need to make sure I'm improving from what I was last year. "One thing I can take from last year is to change my mistakes and make it better this year. That's true for all of us across the board, overall. Nobody's perfect, and you can't be perfect. All you can really do is try to be as close to perfect as possible." His relationship with Warinner, mean- while, continues to grow. "There's no apology necessary," Ruiz said with a grin when asked if he'd forgiven Warinner for his time at Ohio State. "He's here now." A Helping Hand Warinner isn't the only one helping Ruiz reach his potential. Bredeson, the rock at left guard, is now a grizzled veteran, and he's familiar with the responsibilities. Last year's fifth-year senior starter, Pat Kugler, took it upon himself to show Ruiz the ropes, and that continued even when Ruiz changed positions to line up where he was needed. "Even when I moved to guard, I never stopped snapping," Ruiz said. "I always knew how to snap. I've been doing it my whole life. I think I was really born to play center; it's something that just comes natural to me. "It was different not having the ball in my hand. I didn't feel out of place or anything; it's just that center is pretty natural to me. I never played any other position growing up as a kid. That was the only thing I played." He credits Kugler, though, for teaching him how to be a college center. There was a lot to learn going from high school to the Big Ten — new calls, how to recognize defenses — and Kugler did his part to help groom his future replacement. "Sometimes he'd call me and just make sure I knew everything," Ruiz said. "When I first got here, he told me to just call him if I Ruiz was considered a four-star recruit and the No. 1 center in the nation by all the major re- cruiting services coming out of Bradenton (Fla.) IMG Academy. PHOTO BY PER KJELDSEN