Florida Gators OL Kingsley Eguakun Placed on Rimington Trophy Watch List
Photo: Kingsley Eguakun; Credit: Alex Shepherd
After earning his stripes as the team's starting center last year, Gators offensive lineman Kingsley Eguakun was placed on the Remington Trophy Watch List on Friday, an award given to the nation's top center in college football.
Eguakun started all 13 games last year at center, an offensive line that allowed just 14 sacks last year. That was tied for the seventh-lowest in the FBS and second in the SEC.
Eguakun becomes the third Florida player listed on a watch list this summer, including quarterback Anthony Richardson (Maxwell Award) and running back Nay'Quan Wright (Doak Walker Award).
"Selection the to watchlist was from the awards committee working with Pro Football Focus (PFF) to narrow down its list of the top-40 centers," Florida said in its release.
"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."
The Gators produced one winner of the award, Maurkice Pouncey in 2009. Mike Degory was a finalist in 2005.
Eguakun was praised earlier this week at SEC Media Days by fellow OL and teammate left tackle Richard Gouraige, when asked about the "beasts" of summer workouts thus far.
"Shoutout to Kingsley Eguakun, man. The center. 65 if you guys don’t know. He’s going to turn heads this year," said Gouraige. "He’s an animal. He’s the hardest worker I’ve seen thus far. I love him. That’s my little brother.”
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