Cesar Ruiz goes from a guy without a plan to promising Michigan center

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Michigan freshman center Cesar Ruiz is loving life right now.

(Melanie Maxwell | MLive)

CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy -- Cesar Ruiz stood on the beach of Lake Albano with an oar in one hand and a dream in the other.

The 6-foot-4, 336-pounder was hard to miss in Castel Gandolfo on Tuesday. Harder to miss when he donned a child-sized life jacket, boarded a public kayak and (with a push from teammate Maurice Hurst) dipped himself into the water of a volcanic crater nestled beneath the pope's summer residence in central Italy.

This was not part of the plan five years ago.

Actually, nothing was part of the plan five years ago.

"I never thought five years ago I'd even be in college," Ruiz remarked Tuesday in Italy. "This is just surreal."

Ruiz is a New Jersey native. He spent the early portion of his high school days at Camden High School in his hometown.

Italy's a long way away from Camden. And in some corners, a college education is a long way away from Camden as well.

A promising offensive lineman in those days, Ruiz wasn't sure where his life would take him. Certainly not to Rome. Certainly not to Michigan. Maybe not to college at all. If football wasn't going to work out, he's not sure where he'd have ended up.

"I just didn't know, really," he said. "Honestly, I just wasn't sure what I was going to do with my life."

Fast forward to today and Ruiz has a plan. A good plan.

He's currently living it out inside Italy's capital city, pinching himself every chance he gets.

Football did work out for Ruiz, of course. He elevated himself to one of the country's most coveted junior offensive lineman as a junior at Camden and then blew up to the nation's top-ranked center after a year at IMG Academy in Florida.

He's been at Michigan now for roughly four months. And he's nowhere near the kid who wasn't sure where life would take him five years ago.

Ruiz has been one of Michigan's most impressive freshmen so far during spring drills. He'll conclude Michigan's 15-practice run later this week with his teammates in Rome.

Freshmen offensive linemen don't often crack the starting lineup. But every coach inside Michigan's program is confident that Ruiz has the ability to be a player for the Wolverines in 2017, whether it be as a starter or a key reserve. He's talented. He's smart. His football-IQ is where it needs to be.

"I've enjoyed all of this, I've had my ups and downs in spring but I feel like I caught onto a lot of things pretty quickly," Ruiz said. "I had to adjust to playing against (Bryan) Mone and big Mo Hurst right away. Those guys make me better every day."

In Michigan's spring game earlier this month, Ruiz got plenty of work with Michigan's second offensive line at center. He was just one part of what turned into an impressive day from Michigan's young front five and an overall highlight for sure.

He looked confident on the field, especially in the run game. Ruiz showed good feet for a player his size, routinely scraping down onto linebackers to give his back more room inside the tackle box. He also showed his power at the point of attack, paving the way for an untouched score by Karan Higdon early in the game.

Often times, pass blocking is the more difficult task for young linemen. But Ruiz actually entered Michigan fully confident in his abilities to anchor a line inside in protection due to the advanced training he received at IMG.

He was concerned early about whether or not he'd be able to hold his own immediately in the ground game. But as one practice turned into two, three, four, five and so on, he found himself in a place where things began to slow down.

In fact, he's performed better than he thought he would this spring overall.

"I'm still not as strong as I could or should be yet, so I'm still working at that, working to play against guys on this level or even higher," he says. "I've studied the film a lot with Mason (Cole) and (fellow center) Patrick Kugler to learn all the calls. Overall, this spring, I've learned a lot.

"I always understood gap schemes and zone blocking, but those guys have helped me understand it more and it's been a pretty smooth spring so far."

Ruiz credits his basic knowledge of how things operate on the college level to his time at IMG.

He doesn't believe he'd have been able to graduate early if he hadn't made the choice to move to Bradenton, Florida for his final year of football. And he doesn't believe he'd have become so comfortable with different run schemes if he hadn't played in that environment.

But he did.

And this spring, he's been a huge silver lining inside for the Wolverines.

Ruiz has primarily spent his time playing center, though he has repped some at guard -- just in case. Michigan offensive line coaches Tim Drevno and Greg Frey -- who are both very encouraged by the overall play of everyone up front this spring -- are still in the process of hammering down a top five.

And, right now, Ruiz has no preference. He's a natural center, but he says he'll slide over and play guard if the team needs him to. Especially if it means he gets a chance to play.

Football and life are coming together for Cesar Ruiz.

And he couldn't be happier.

"It's all been great," he says. "Having the chance to compete and have older guys want to help you, that's great to have that. And it's really good to be surrounded by people who wants to be as good as you do.

"We all have the same goal. We want to be a great team. It's all love here."

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