Jurgens Feeling at Home at Guard and at Wake Forest in Sixth Season
8/28/2023 8:00:00 AM | Football
“When coach Clawson announced the captains two years ago was one of the biggest moments of my time at Wake Forest,” - Michael Jurgens
An impressive mid-summer camp performance by Michael Jurgens led to a scholarship offer just as he was about to start a camp the next day at a neighboring school, where the offensive line coach didn't even remember his name.
An impromptu official visit was scheduled for the next day, and Jurgens and his father made their way back to Winston-Salem for the full in-depth visit including meetings with the academics and the strength staff. Jugens spent the night with Wake Forest offensive linemen Jake Benzinger and Nate Gilliam, sleeping in wide receiver Alex Bachman's room after dinner at Village Tavern. An 8 a.m. meeting at the business school was set for the next morning, but Jurgens forgot to set an alarm. Gilliam thought Benzinger would ensure he awoke, and vice-versa. The meeting started with just Wake Forest offensive line coach Nick Tabacca and Jurgens' father Jay present.
"I was dead asleep," Jurgens said. "Someone had to physically come to the room to wake me up and it's a story Tabacca still tells on recruiting visits to this day."
"Luckily, it was to the point in the recruiting process where I wasn't trying to sell myself to Wake Forest, but instead the staff is trying to sell Wake Forest to me to get me to commit."
After the meeting and breakfast, Jurgens met with Wake Forest coach Dave Clawson to talk about the opportunities in Winston-Salem and two days later he gave his pledge to the Demon Deacons.
"If you'd asked me then, I would have said I was looking for a good Power-5 school with great academics," Jurgens said. "I was also looking for that general eight-hour window drive from home.
"Being around Jake and Nate, who ended up being two of my best friends here, being from a small town, they make it feel small here when you're here on a visit and you can build those relationships."
While Tabacca and Clawson found a lot of diamonds in the rough early on the offensive line, Jurgens was a top-1,000 nationally rated recruit with more than two dozen offers. The 2018 class that he was a part of was the first who committed to Clawson and the Demon Deacons as they came off a winning season. The Deacs were just 3-9 in Clawson's first two years at the helm, but started the current seven-season bowl appearance streak in 2016 with a Military Bowl victory over Temple.
On his way back home from the Wake Forest official visit, Jurgens told his Damascus (Maryland) High School coach that it went exceedingly well, but was cautioned that a couple years' success in Winston-Salem could lead the coaching staff to search for purportedly bigger jobs.
"It feels different," Jurgens said he told his coach. "It feels genuine. It feels like they are here to build something. And that's been the case. Aside from the change at receivers coach, the offensive staff has been exactly the same all six of my years here, and coach (Kevin) Higgins is still here too.
"If I'd landed at any other school I visited, I'd be on my third-or-fourth offensive line coach at this point. Wake Forest seemed different. It didn't seem like a stepping stone for coach Tabacca, (offensive coordinator) coach (Warren) Ruggiero or coach Clawson. It seemed like they were here for the long haul."
After suffering through a bout of sickness early in his high school junior season, Jurgens was playing both offensive and defensive line at a paltry 235 pounds when Tabacca first visited him.
"Why did you send me to see this kid?" Tabacca asked the staffer who recommended Jurgens. "He's never going to be able to play in the ACC."
As it turned out, Jurgens adding weight and then playing lacrosse effectively at that weight in the spring of 2017 started turning heads. He daily ingested 3,500-5,000 calories, including a pair of weight-gaining shakes that he and his father researched.
"I was playing at 270 and coaches seeing me move around playing lacrosse so well at that weight really helped my recruiting," Jurgens said. "It started to pick up steam at the end. But then I visited here and loved it. They offered and I committed.
"Looking back, I didn't realize what a big decision it would be about where I would be spending my next six years. It really couldn't have gone better. It's been really special. I definitely made a great choice."
Having redshirted as a freshman in 2018 and not having the COVID-19 impacted season of 2020 count against his eligibility means Jurgens is back in 2023 for his sixth year at Wake Forest. He's just the second Demon Deacon to be a three-time team captain in the Clawson era.
"When coach Clawson announced the captains two years ago was one of the biggest moments of my time at Wake Forest," Jugens explained. "I wasn't really expecting to be a captain. That's something the team votes on, so that was really special to know people voted for me. That's one of my favorite moments."
Jurgens has played in 49 games entering the 2023 season, starting in 34. He's earned All-ACC recognition, as well as being named to the Rimington Trophy Watch List and a semifinalist for the William V. Campbell Trophy.
As an early enrollee, Jurgens sped through his development on the field and in the classroom. He graduated in just three-and-a-half years and then became just the third Wake Forest Football player admitted to the Master of Business Administration program. He finished that off in May, and is now working on the Project Management program.
"It's not easy," Jurgens said of balancing his time between football and the academic rigors at Wake Forest. "If you're passionate about anything and have a structure, it's doable. I have less free time because of football, but if anything, it helps me academically. It adds structure. In the first two years you have all these tutors and mandatory study hall. It teaches you to do things the right way, set up a routine and stick to it.
"It's less free time, but I think playing football, especially in coach Clawson's program, just retrains your mind and reprograms you to get a routine, do things the right way and stay on target. If you're a high performer, you want to stay busy. I'd rather do that than sit around and do nothing."
Returning to the offensive line for the 2023 meant a change of positioning for Jurgens, as he transitioned in the spring from center to left guard.
"It's been good for me, personally, leadership and development wise," he said. "It's been an opportunity for me to get a new perspective on playing offensive line. I'm using different techniques that I wouldn't have used as much at center. From a leadership perspective it's been great, because Luke (Petitbon) is an incredible player. It's been fun to be here with him as he takes over at center, finds his voice and learns."
While he's still likely to move back to center if Petitbon should happen to miss any time in the 2023 season, Jurgens said each position on the offensive line has its own different nuances. It's not nearly as identical as casual fans would likely believe.
"I know to many people, we're just standing around and pushing people," he jokes. "At center, you don't have the neutral zone, so everyone is right on you and everything happens instantly. It's about leveraging and getting in the right position. As a guard, you have an additional 18-to-24 inches that you have to deal with. Those three-techniques are better athletes, or at least different kinds of athletes.
"It's also a different perspective. At center, you get the whole picture. At guard it's hard to see the other side of the line. It's developing different cues and different communication. For me the hardest thing about the switch is when we have someone looping around a defensive lineman. We have specific calls for each position, and I made the center call every single time. I made the guard call for the first time today, so I'm getting on the right track."
While on paper it would seem the Deacs are having to replace three offensive linemen from the 2022 season, Clawson doesn't view it that was and believes the offense will continue to churn out the yards and score a ton of points this season.
"My expectations are high," Clawson said. "The key to our success here is that we've made players better. Right now on paper, you don't have the numbers of starters returning, but if you look at production you have four of your top five receivers back. We have our top running back back.
"We really have two-and-a-half offensive line starters back with Michael Jurgens, DeVonte Gordon and Spencer Clapp, who started at the end of the year and was rotating with Je'Vionte' Nash. Clapp played a lot last year and was playing really well, so we look at it like we have two open starting jobs there."
Jurgens was reunited with Benzinger earlier this year, who returned to Wake Forest as an offensive analyst in the spring.
"The coaching stability leads to a culture stability as well," Jurgens said. "Coach Tabacca has been here 10 years and he's always going to recruit the same type of players, who's personality and work ethic will fit into our room. I don't think people understand just how much time we spend together, not just as a team, but as an offensive line. It's an unique position group.
"When players who have been in the room want to come back and coach in the room, you know you have something special."
Although he entered the 2022 campaign believing it would be his last, the opportunities for development both on and off the field at Wake Forest were too great to pass up for Jurgens.
"Obviously I want to play professionally," Jurgens said. "Hopefully everybody on the team would say that. That's one of the main reasons for coming back, is to put myself in a better position for that.
"I also wanted to expand my experiences in the real world. I feel like I'm in position and have the relationships, along with the bandwidth to know what I need to do personally each day to get myself better and prepare myself for the upcoming season and life in general. Coming back has been a great opportunity to improve those things."
Jurgens believes he has been given so much during his time at Wake Forest that he wanted one final opportunity to give back.
"As unpredictable as it's been, the last six years have been incredible," he said. "I wouldn't change any of it. The life I had before with my high school coaches, hometown and my family was so special, but then to transition to a place like this with the stability and opportunities I've had here has just been unreal. Not many people get the opportunities I've had. I'm so grateful.
"It became something that was hard to leave. I had more I wanted to give back to the coaches and the program."
An impromptu official visit was scheduled for the next day, and Jurgens and his father made their way back to Winston-Salem for the full in-depth visit including meetings with the academics and the strength staff. Jugens spent the night with Wake Forest offensive linemen Jake Benzinger and Nate Gilliam, sleeping in wide receiver Alex Bachman's room after dinner at Village Tavern. An 8 a.m. meeting at the business school was set for the next morning, but Jurgens forgot to set an alarm. Gilliam thought Benzinger would ensure he awoke, and vice-versa. The meeting started with just Wake Forest offensive line coach Nick Tabacca and Jurgens' father Jay present.
"I was dead asleep," Jurgens said. "Someone had to physically come to the room to wake me up and it's a story Tabacca still tells on recruiting visits to this day."
"Luckily, it was to the point in the recruiting process where I wasn't trying to sell myself to Wake Forest, but instead the staff is trying to sell Wake Forest to me to get me to commit."
After the meeting and breakfast, Jurgens met with Wake Forest coach Dave Clawson to talk about the opportunities in Winston-Salem and two days later he gave his pledge to the Demon Deacons.
"If you'd asked me then, I would have said I was looking for a good Power-5 school with great academics," Jurgens said. "I was also looking for that general eight-hour window drive from home.
"Being around Jake and Nate, who ended up being two of my best friends here, being from a small town, they make it feel small here when you're here on a visit and you can build those relationships."
While Tabacca and Clawson found a lot of diamonds in the rough early on the offensive line, Jurgens was a top-1,000 nationally rated recruit with more than two dozen offers. The 2018 class that he was a part of was the first who committed to Clawson and the Demon Deacons as they came off a winning season. The Deacs were just 3-9 in Clawson's first two years at the helm, but started the current seven-season bowl appearance streak in 2016 with a Military Bowl victory over Temple.
On his way back home from the Wake Forest official visit, Jurgens told his Damascus (Maryland) High School coach that it went exceedingly well, but was cautioned that a couple years' success in Winston-Salem could lead the coaching staff to search for purportedly bigger jobs.
"It feels different," Jurgens said he told his coach. "It feels genuine. It feels like they are here to build something. And that's been the case. Aside from the change at receivers coach, the offensive staff has been exactly the same all six of my years here, and coach (Kevin) Higgins is still here too.
"If I'd landed at any other school I visited, I'd be on my third-or-fourth offensive line coach at this point. Wake Forest seemed different. It didn't seem like a stepping stone for coach Tabacca, (offensive coordinator) coach (Warren) Ruggiero or coach Clawson. It seemed like they were here for the long haul."
After suffering through a bout of sickness early in his high school junior season, Jurgens was playing both offensive and defensive line at a paltry 235 pounds when Tabacca first visited him.
"Why did you send me to see this kid?" Tabacca asked the staffer who recommended Jurgens. "He's never going to be able to play in the ACC."
As it turned out, Jurgens adding weight and then playing lacrosse effectively at that weight in the spring of 2017 started turning heads. He daily ingested 3,500-5,000 calories, including a pair of weight-gaining shakes that he and his father researched.
"I was playing at 270 and coaches seeing me move around playing lacrosse so well at that weight really helped my recruiting," Jurgens said. "It started to pick up steam at the end. But then I visited here and loved it. They offered and I committed.
"Looking back, I didn't realize what a big decision it would be about where I would be spending my next six years. It really couldn't have gone better. It's been really special. I definitely made a great choice."
Having redshirted as a freshman in 2018 and not having the COVID-19 impacted season of 2020 count against his eligibility means Jurgens is back in 2023 for his sixth year at Wake Forest. He's just the second Demon Deacon to be a three-time team captain in the Clawson era.
"When coach Clawson announced the captains two years ago was one of the biggest moments of my time at Wake Forest," Jugens explained. "I wasn't really expecting to be a captain. That's something the team votes on, so that was really special to know people voted for me. That's one of my favorite moments."
Jurgens has played in 49 games entering the 2023 season, starting in 34. He's earned All-ACC recognition, as well as being named to the Rimington Trophy Watch List and a semifinalist for the William V. Campbell Trophy.
As an early enrollee, Jurgens sped through his development on the field and in the classroom. He graduated in just three-and-a-half years and then became just the third Wake Forest Football player admitted to the Master of Business Administration program. He finished that off in May, and is now working on the Project Management program.
"It's not easy," Jurgens said of balancing his time between football and the academic rigors at Wake Forest. "If you're passionate about anything and have a structure, it's doable. I have less free time because of football, but if anything, it helps me academically. It adds structure. In the first two years you have all these tutors and mandatory study hall. It teaches you to do things the right way, set up a routine and stick to it.
"It's less free time, but I think playing football, especially in coach Clawson's program, just retrains your mind and reprograms you to get a routine, do things the right way and stay on target. If you're a high performer, you want to stay busy. I'd rather do that than sit around and do nothing."
Returning to the offensive line for the 2023 meant a change of positioning for Jurgens, as he transitioned in the spring from center to left guard.
"It's been good for me, personally, leadership and development wise," he said. "It's been an opportunity for me to get a new perspective on playing offensive line. I'm using different techniques that I wouldn't have used as much at center. From a leadership perspective it's been great, because Luke (Petitbon) is an incredible player. It's been fun to be here with him as he takes over at center, finds his voice and learns."
While he's still likely to move back to center if Petitbon should happen to miss any time in the 2023 season, Jurgens said each position on the offensive line has its own different nuances. It's not nearly as identical as casual fans would likely believe.
"I know to many people, we're just standing around and pushing people," he jokes. "At center, you don't have the neutral zone, so everyone is right on you and everything happens instantly. It's about leveraging and getting in the right position. As a guard, you have an additional 18-to-24 inches that you have to deal with. Those three-techniques are better athletes, or at least different kinds of athletes.
"It's also a different perspective. At center, you get the whole picture. At guard it's hard to see the other side of the line. It's developing different cues and different communication. For me the hardest thing about the switch is when we have someone looping around a defensive lineman. We have specific calls for each position, and I made the center call every single time. I made the guard call for the first time today, so I'm getting on the right track."
While on paper it would seem the Deacs are having to replace three offensive linemen from the 2022 season, Clawson doesn't view it that was and believes the offense will continue to churn out the yards and score a ton of points this season.
"My expectations are high," Clawson said. "The key to our success here is that we've made players better. Right now on paper, you don't have the numbers of starters returning, but if you look at production you have four of your top five receivers back. We have our top running back back.
"We really have two-and-a-half offensive line starters back with Michael Jurgens, DeVonte Gordon and Spencer Clapp, who started at the end of the year and was rotating with Je'Vionte' Nash. Clapp played a lot last year and was playing really well, so we look at it like we have two open starting jobs there."
Jurgens was reunited with Benzinger earlier this year, who returned to Wake Forest as an offensive analyst in the spring.
"The coaching stability leads to a culture stability as well," Jurgens said. "Coach Tabacca has been here 10 years and he's always going to recruit the same type of players, who's personality and work ethic will fit into our room. I don't think people understand just how much time we spend together, not just as a team, but as an offensive line. It's an unique position group.
"When players who have been in the room want to come back and coach in the room, you know you have something special."
Although he entered the 2022 campaign believing it would be his last, the opportunities for development both on and off the field at Wake Forest were too great to pass up for Jurgens.
"Obviously I want to play professionally," Jurgens said. "Hopefully everybody on the team would say that. That's one of the main reasons for coming back, is to put myself in a better position for that.
"I also wanted to expand my experiences in the real world. I feel like I'm in position and have the relationships, along with the bandwidth to know what I need to do personally each day to get myself better and prepare myself for the upcoming season and life in general. Coming back has been a great opportunity to improve those things."
Jurgens believes he has been given so much during his time at Wake Forest that he wanted one final opportunity to give back.
"As unpredictable as it's been, the last six years have been incredible," he said. "I wouldn't change any of it. The life I had before with my high school coaches, hometown and my family was so special, but then to transition to a place like this with the stability and opportunities I've had here has just been unreal. Not many people get the opportunities I've had. I'm so grateful.
"It became something that was hard to leave. I had more I wanted to give back to the coaches and the program."
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