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36 GOLD AND BLACK ILLUSTRATED W hen Jason King arrived at Purdue, he didn't know anything about football. According to Robert Kugler, at least. King doesn't say it quite that bluntly, but he is honest that the system Pulaski Academy ran was a bit unorthodox. In that it never punted, never kicked off deep and left King not really understanding how a "real" offense worked. Kugler didn't hesitate to pull his teammate aside. Even if Kugler may have come to the Boilermakers as a tight end, may not have switched to the offen- sive line until King's arrival, may not even have been a starter and may have only been a year older. None of that mattered. Robert Kugler grew up a coach's kid, but in the midst of bouncing between seven states from when he was born until he graduated high school in Pennsylvania, he'd grown into more than that. His intense desire to do things right the first time and every time, his ridiculous competitiveness, his sincere willingness to help, his pas- sion for the game — they'd mod- eled him into a consummate leader. So Kugler had no choice, really, to see King, hear his plight and get to work. "I knew that he was going to be someone that I trusted and some- one I wanted to work with when I first got here," King said. "He was just a redshirt freshman, but still, at that age for him, before he was ever even on the field, he sat me down and taught me all the time. He went through my playbook with me, would be out on the field with me, like genuinely trying to make me a better player. Because his whole thing is he wants to make everyone a better player because, in the end, it makes our team better. "To this day, he's still who I sit down with. I try to work with the younger guys like he did with me. But he was a great peer-teacher. He really helped all he could. He still gets us all together. "He's the leader that he's hyped up to be." AYE AYE CAPTAIN Robert Kugler admits to being a shy kid. But that tendency had to be shed quickly for him to make friends over and over. With each new city in his dad's coaching journey, Kugler morphed into an engaging person- ality with a sarcastic sense of hu- mor that attracted people quickly. He realized he could use that at- tention in a positive way. "I've always wanted to be a lead- er, wherever I am," Kugler said. "That's something I take pride in, helping develop guys." He actually was able to stay in some spots for more extended pe- riods of time — Texas for eight years, Michigan for five — but it was when he landed in Buffalo, N.Y., for high school that he really seized the opportunity. By the time he was a junior — his third year there — he was voted a captain. He wasn't able to spend his senior year at that school because dad Sean got an opportunity to coach with the Pittsburgh Steelers, so Kugler had to hop to another city for his final year of high school. But his role already had been en- grained. So soon after his arrival in West Lafayette, Kugler set a goal to be- come a captain again. There were older players ahead of him, of course. But Kugler knew even if he couldn't be a captain in name early on, he could be one in deed. So, as he could, he tutored fel- low offensive linemen. Sean Kugler was an offensive line coach, so even though Robert played tight end in high school, he'd grown up being taught techniques — he had to block as a tight end obviously — and watching film to be able to di- agnose defenses. As a redshirt freshman, Kugler moved in the starting lineup as a guard for the final seven games, his first year at the position. That laid groundwork for a bigger move. "When I was a right guard my redshirt freshman year, I definitely wasn't out there yelling at anybody. I was worried more about just do- ing the right thing, not being late to stuff," he said. "That's the best way to do it. When you first get there, just do everything right. From there, it just goes on." The switch to center the next year gave Kugler the opening to be a team-wide leader if nothing else because of the importance of the position. He was responsible for identify- ing blitzes, calling protections and getting the rest of the line in order. So he'd gather his O-line together for extra film to make sure they all