Four Michigan Football Players Make The Outland Trophy Watch List

There were four interior linemen from Michigan who made the preseason watch list to hoist the Outland Trophy at season's end.

Four Michigan Wolverines made the preseason watch list for the Outland Trophy. The trophy goes to the best interior linemen -- it can go to either offensive or defensive linemen. 

The watch list represents the top 91-returning interior players from a season ago. Michigan has the most players represented on the watch list with four. 

Offensive linemen Zak Zinter, Trevor Keegan, and Drake Nugent represent the offensive side of the ball. Defensive lineman Kris Jenkins also made the watch list on the defensive side. 

Both Zinter and Keegan are back on the offensive line after winning back-to-back Joe Moore Awards for having the nation's best offensive line.

Here is more about Zak Zinter via the press release:

• Part of two Joe Moore Award-winning offensive lines (2021-22), the first back-to-back winners in award's history

• 2022 CSC Academic All-American• Two-time All-Big Ten (consensus first team, 2022; second team, 2021)

• Blocked for consecutive 1,000-yard backs in Hassan Haskins (2021) and (2022) with a second back reaching 900-plus yards in both seasons

• 33 career games played with 31 starts; all but one at right guard

Trevor Keegan:

• Part of two Joe Moore Award-winning offensive lines (2021-22), the first back-to-back winners in the award's history

• Two-time All-Big Ten (first team, coaches; second team, media, 2022; honorable mention, 2021)

• Blocked for consecutive 1,000-yard backs in Hassan Haskins (2021) and (2022) with a second back reaching 900-plus yards in both seasons

• 30 career games played with 23 starts at left guard

Nugent will battle to be the starting center for Michigan after playing four seasons for Stanford. He was one of the best run-blocking centers in the country last season. 

• Readying for his first season as a Wolverine after earning four letters at Stanford, where he was a captain

• Two-time All-Pac 12 honorable mention

• Charged with just four sacks across 2021 and 2022 seasons combined (993 pass-blocking snaps)

• Watch List member of both Outland and Rimington Trophies (2022)

• 27 career games played with 24 starts at center

Kris Jenkins returned to Michigan for his senior season. He led the defensive line room last year in tackles and Jenkins is getting first-round hype heading into the 2024 NFL draft.

• All-Big Ten (honorable mention, 2022)

• 29 career games played with 18 starts along the defensive line

• Produced 76 tackles (37 solo) with 4.0 for loss and 2.0 sacks across his career

• Responsible for multiple stops in all 14 contests last season, including four-plus tackles in four of the final five weeks

• Set a career high with seven stops against Georgia in the 2021 CFP Semifinal game

Last season, Olu Oluwatimi won the award and he was the first Michigan player to ever win the Outland Trophy.