Kingsley Eguakun named to the Rimington Award Watch List
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — 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. 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.
The Gators have produced one winner of the award in Maurkice Pouncey in 2009. Mike Degory was a finalist for the award 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.
Kingsley Eguakun
Eguakun is the most veteran lineman returning to the Gators in 2023. Having started the last 26 games, he leads on and off the field. Eguakun was one of three players that accompanied Billy Napier to SEC Media Days in Nashville.
“You’ve got a lot on the plate when it comes to the center position. Mike declaration is calling the front, we’ve got a lot of motion, boxes, changes. He’ll be nothing but better, just no different than any other position. The more you stack those reps with all the different variables that come at that position, you have no choice but to get better,” offensive line coach Rob Sale said of Eguakun. “There’s technique things obviously we talk about as our evaluation on a player that he has to clean up and move forward to get where he wants to get.
Gators on preseason watch lists
2023 Florida Football Watch List
AwardPlayerMaxwell AwardRicky PearsallRay Guy AwardJeremy CrawshawWuerffel TrophyDerek WingoPaul Hornung AwardTrevor EtienneRimington TrophyKingsley Eguakun
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