BRISTOL, Conn. – University of Michigan center Olusegun “Olu” Oluwatimi was named as the recipient of a pair of national awards during The Home Depot College Football Awards held Thursday night (Dec. 8) on ESPN, winning the 77th Outland Trophy and the 23rd Rimington Trophy. Oluwatimi becomes the first Wolverine to win the Outland Trophy, which is presented annually to the nation’s best college interior lineman on offense or defense. He is the third U-M player to win the Rimington Trophy as the nation’s best center, joining David Molk (2011) and David Baas (2004).
The Greater Omaha Sports Committee sponsors the Outland Trophy. The All-America Committee of the Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) votes on the Outland Trophy award, and selected Oluwatimi ahead of Pitt’s Calijah Kancy and fellow Big Ten offensive lineman Peter Skoronski from Northwestern. Oluwatimi was Michigan’s first finalist for the award since Jake Long in 2007.
Later in the award show, Oluwatimi was chosen as the recipient of the Rimington Trophy, earning the honor as college football’s top center ahead of USC’s Brett Neilon and Minnesota’s John Michael Schmitz. Oluwatimi was a finalist for the award last season at the University of Virginia.
Last weekend, Oluwatimi helped Michigan reach the 13-0 mark with a 43-22 win over Purdue in the Big Ten Championship Game. The Wolverines out-rushed the Boilermakers, 225-90, to secure the winningest single season in school history. Oluwatimi has started all 13 games at center this fall and earned All-Big Ten first team honors after transferring from the University of Virginia.
Oluwatimi has led a Michigan offensive line that ranks among the best in the nation and was named earlier this week as a finalist for the Joe Moore Award. The Wolverines’ center has anchored a unit that lists sixth nationally in rushing offense and is seventh in scoring at 40.1 points per game. The balanced offensive attack churns out 243.0 yards per contest on the ground and 210.5 yards through the air, all while yielding just 13 sacks and 56 total tackles for loss in 895 snaps. U-M is 11th in the NCAA in sacks allowed (1.0 avg.) and 22nd in tackles for loss allowed (4.33 avg.) while rushing the ball for over 200 yards in nine of the 13 games.
Oluwatimi will be officially presented with the Outland Trophy at the Greater Omaha Sports Commission’s award banquet on Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2023, in Omaha, Nebraska. He will be awarded the Rimington Trophy at the presentation banquet held on Saturday, Jan. 14, in Lincoln, Nebraska.
TRIO NAMED WALTER CAMP ALL-AMERICANS: Three members of the Michigan Football program were selected to the prestigious Walter Camp Football Foundation All-American Team during ESPN’s College Football Awards Show. Oluwatimi and junior running back Blake Corum were named to the WCFF’s first-team All-American squad while senior kicker Jake Moody was voted to a second-team All-American.
