The award is handed out to the nation’s best center in college football.
NEW YORK – Florida offensive lineman Kingsley Eguakun was placed on the Rimington Trophy Watchlist Friday afternoon.
The award is handed out to the nation’s best center in college football. The award is handed out to the nation’s best center in college football. This year, the Trophy committee worked with Pro Football Focus (PFF) to narrow down its list to the top 40 centers. PFF grades every player on every play of every game on how well they execute their given assignment. That play-by-play grading allowed the Trophy committee to create a watchlist based both on nominations from the schools and data provided by PFF. Once the season begins, schools will be able to nominate their centers for late addition based on in-season merit.
Last season, Eguakun started all 13 games at center and helped the offense average 5.5 yards per carry, which ranked fourth in program history and sixth in the FBS. Florida’s 17 sacks allowed in 2022 tied for the 27th-fewest in the Power Five and fourth in the SEC. The Jacksonville, Fla. native has never allowed a sack in 40 games played and has only allowed three QB hits in 26 straight starts at center, according to PFF.
Florida has produced one winner of the award in Maurkice Pouncey in 2009 as Mike Degory was a finalist in 2005.
Dave Rimington, the award’s namesake, was a consensus first-team All-America center at the University of Nebraska in 1981 and 1982, during which time he became the John Outland Trophy’s only two-time winner as the nation’s finest college interior lineman.
2023 Florida Football Watch List
Award
Player
Maxwell Award
Ricky Pearsall
Ray Guy Award
Jeremy Crawshaw
Wuerffel Trophy
Derek Wingo
Paul Hornung Award
Trevor Etienne
Rimington Trophy
Kingsley Eguakun
