Tag: Olu Oluwatimi

WATCH: Get a first look at Mike Morris getting practice in with the Seattle Seahwaks

Cool to see him in an NFL uniform!

Two Michigan football players were selected by the Seattle Seahawks in the April 2023 NFL draft.

Seattle selected both Olu Oluwatimi and Mike Morris in the fifth round of the draft, and both were chosen three picks apart.

The official Seattle Seahawks Twitter account tweeted out a group photo of all of their draft picks. All nine members are shown in their Seahawks’ uniform with the numbers they will be wearing this season. Morris is pictured wearing No. 94 and Oluwatimi is pictured wearing jersey No. 51.

You can see all of Seattle’s rookie draft picks below in their uniform.

A little later, the Seahawks tweeted out some videos of their draft picks working out. Seattle tweeted out a first-look video of Mike Morris doing a drill with the caption ‘Bring the force always’.

You can see the video below.

Morris started 16 games during his tenure in Ann Arbor, was a Second-Team All-American in 2022, and won the Smith-Brown Big Ten Defensive Lineman of the Year in 2022.

Olu Oluwatimi, a transfer from Virginia, won the Rimington Award and Outland Trophy in 2022. He was a consensus All-American and helped Michigan win the Joe Moore Award in his lone season with the Wolverines.

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ESPN has Michigan football player as one of the steals of 2023 NFL draft

Should have gone several rounds higher! #GoBlue

When you’re the engine of the best offensive line in the country in college football, then you’re likely to hear your name called early in the NFL draft. Yet, the two outgoing Michigan football offensive linemen, both had to wait until day three of the 2023 NFL draft, oddly enough.

ESPN’s Chris Low isn’t having it when it comes to one of those two Wolverine offensive linemen.

In a roundtable discussing how certain teams and players fared in this past weekend’s grand offseason event, various writers asked themselves who the biggest steal of the 2023 NFL draft was, and Low waxed poetic about Michigan center Olu Oluwatimi, the winner of last year’s Rimington and Outland trophies.

Centers are typically drafted lower than they should be, but seeing Michigan‘s Olusegun Oluwatimi slip to the fifth round was surprising — but great news for the Seahawks that they could wait that long to get their center of the future. The 6-3, 310-pound Oluwatimi will play 10 years in the NFL and be a fixture in the middle of that Seattle offensive line. He played on college football’s best offensive line last season and won the Outland Trophy as the top interior lineman in college football and the Rimington Award as the top center. He has played in three different systems (Air Force, Virginia and Michigan) and will develop rapidly into a top-tier NFL center.

Oluwatimi was selected No. 154 overall in the fifth-round. While that does seem low, there were multiple seven-round mock drafts circulating in the days leading up to the draft that didn’t even have him selected at all. Whether that was because the writers putting together the mock draft had forgotten about him or legitimately didn’t believe he was good enough to make the cut is unknown.

It’s a good thing he did get selected and Low is likely right that he’ll have a long, productive NFL career. But it’s still a shame that he’s being spoken of as a high-value player for the Seahawks, and less because of him being able to cash in on his own ability and going higher in the draft.

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Where every Michigan football draftee ranked coming out of high school

Development-U!!!! #GoBlue

Michigan football had the second-most players (9) drafted in the 2023 NFL draft. Alabama and Georgia had 10 each.

The Wolverines had four players go during the first two days of the draft, and the maize and blue even had a kicker drafted in the third round. Jake Moody was the first kicker to get drafted in the first three rounds since 2016.

Not every Michigan player drafted this year was a star coming out of high school. Some were lower-rated players that got a great education and the coaching staff helped mold them into a star in college and an NFL player now.

We are going to go back in memory lane and show you where every player was ranked at coming out of high school before their Michigan career began. For this exercise, we are going to use the 247Sports composite rankings.

Michigan football center Olu Oluwatimi selected in 2023 NFL draft

He deserved to go way higher. #GoBlue

Victor ‘Olu’ Oluwatimi didn’t have a long Michigan football career, but he had a memorable one.

Formerly a center at Virginia, Oluwatimi transferred to the Wolverines before the 2022 season, replacing Andrew Vastardis as the man in the middle of the offensive line. Considering that line won the Joe Moore Award, Oluwatimi had a task ahead of him.

However, he excelled on every front, becoming a team captain (he was promoted from reserve captain) and winning both the Rimington Trophy, given to the best center in the country, and the Outland Trophy, awarded to the best lineman in the country. He was Michigan’s first Outland Trophy-winner in school history.

While he wasn’t selected as high as he likely hoped in the 2023 NFL draft, he is getting his shot at the next level. Oluwatimi was picked at No. 154 by the Seattle Seahawks in the fifth round. He joins Mike Morris (selected No. 151 in this year’s draft) and Bryan Mone in Seattle.

Michigan will have a task to replace Oluwatimi this season, given how dominant he was. The Wolverines brought in Stanford center Drake Nugent to compete with incumbents Raheem Anderson and Greg Crippen for the position.

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Three Wolverines make PFF best 101 players in 2022 list

And two of these three are coming back in 2023! #GoBlue

Michigan football came close, once again, to the pinnacle of college football in 2022, having won the Big Ten Conference and advancing to the College Football Playoff semifinal. The Wolverines, though the favorite in the Vrbo Fiesta Bowl, lost, 51-45, to TCU, which was blown out by Georgia in the national championship game.

To rise so high, the maize and blue had a number of top players in the country, at least according to PFF. PFF put together a list of the top 101 players in the 2022 season, and the Wolverines had three players on the list.

The good news for the maize and blue? Two of the three are coming back in 2023. Here are the three who made the cut.

Georgia vs. TCU: Top NFL draft prospects to watch during National Championship game

We’re looking at the top NFL Draft prospects for the Philadelphia Eagles to watch in the Georgia-TCU National Championship game

The Eagles are 13-3 and looking to wrap up the division and home-field advantage in the NFC with a win this weekend over the Giants.

The game has playoff and NFL draft implications, as Philadelphia owns New Orleans’s 2023 first-round pick after a draft night trade in 2022 that landed the Saints Chris Olave and the Birds Jordan Davis.

Even with the NFC playoffs here, it’s never too early for a look ahead to April’s draft, and the College Football Playoffs offer the perfect scouting opportunity.

With kickoff a little over 24 hours away, here are the top draft prospects to watch when Georgia and TCU meet.

Michigan vs. TCU: Top NFL draft prospects to watch during the Fiesta Bowl

With the Eagles set to have two first-round picks, we’re previewing the top NFL Draft prospects to watch in the Fiesta Bowl matchup between Michigan and TCU

The Eagles are 13-2 and looking to wrap up the division and home-field advantage in the NFC with a win this weekend over the Saints.

The game has playoff and NFL draft implications, as Philadelphia owns New Orleans’s 2023 first-round pick after a draft night trade in 2022 that landed the Saints Chris Olave and the Birds Jordan Davis.

Even with the NFC playoffs approaching, it’s never too early for a look ahead to April’s draft, and the College Football Playoffs offer the perfect scouting opportunity.

Two New Year’s Eve contests will feature the No. 4 Ohio State Buckeyes meeting the No. 1 Georgia Bulldogs in the Peach Bowl and the No. 3 TCU Horned Frogs battling the No. 2 Michigan Wolverines in the Fiesta Bowl.

With kickoff a little over 24 hours away, here are the top draft prospects to watch when Michigan and TCU meet.

Every Michigan football player to earn All-American honors in 2022

So, so deserving!

The final All-American team came out on Wednesday afternoon and Michigan running back Blake Corum became a unanimous All-American in 2022.

Corum was voted first-team by all five organizations: the Associated Press, the American Football Coaches Association, the Football Writers Association of America, the Walter Camp Football Foundation and the Sporting News.

Michigan center Olu Oluwatimi not only won the Rimington Trophy and the Outland Trophy, but he also was a consensus All-American. The former Virginia center was a first-team All-American for four of the five organizations. He was on the second-team for Associated Press.

Jake ‘Money’ Moody was another consensus All-American. To be labeled as consensus All-American, a player must make at least three of the five All-American teams. Moody was on three of them.

Mike Morris was the fourth and final Michigan player to be named an All-American in 2022.

Here is where the four Wolverines were listed on all five All-American teams.

Michigan football center wins prestigious award

Well deserved! #GoBlue

Olu Oluwatimi came to Michigan this past offseason as a highly decorated graduate transfer.

Oluwatimi not only had the most snaps of any ACC center last season, but he was also a finalist for the Rimington Trophy, but ultimately lost out to Tyler Linderbaum of Iowa.

But, 2022 is a new year and Olu Oluwatimi isn’t just a finalist any longer: he is the winner.

During the ESPN College Football Award show, it was announced that Michigan’s starting center, Olu Oluwaitimi, is the 2022 Rimington Trophy winner for being the nation’s best center.

Oluwatimi beat out USC center Brett Neilon and Minnesota’s John Michael Schmitz for this prestigious award.

Oluwatimi helped anchor the Wolverines’ third-ranked rushing offense that mustered 3,159 yards on the ground this season. Michigan averaged 243 yards on the ground in 2022.

The Wolverines will take on TCU on Dec. 31 in the College Football Playoff.

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USA TODAY Sports names two Michigan football players on All-America team

Both should be All-Americans at season end!

We are three days away from Week 0 of college football, which kicks off on Saturday, Aug. 27. But we are still 10 days away from watching the Michigan Wolverines run out of the tunnel on Sept. 3 against their first opponent, Colorado State.

With college football approaching in days, media outlets have been releasing their All-Conference teams, conference predictions, and All-American teams.

On Wednesday, USA TODAY Sports released its college football All-America team.

Paul Myerberg, the author of the article, named two Michigan football players as All-Americans.

Olu Oluwatimi, the graduate transfer from Virginia, drew first-team honors. Myerberg wrote a brief segment on the sixth-year player.

Oluwatimi transferred in from Virginia to give Michigan another piece to defend its Big Ten crown. Johnson will transition from the interior to tackle and not miss a beat.

Oluwatimi was a Rimington Trophy finalist in 2021 and while Andrew Vastardis was a very good center for the Wolverines, the maize and blue should have an upgrade at center this season. With the addition of Oluwatimi, there are plenty of reasons to believe that Michigan could repeat for the Joe Moore Award for having the nation’s best offensive line.

The second Wolverine that was named as an All-American by USA TODAY Sports, was Jake Moody. Myerberg named Moody as Second-Team All-American.

In 2021 Moody was a consensus All-American, won the Lou Graza Award for being the best kicker in the country, and was named the Big Ten Kicker of the Year. Moody became the first Michigan kicker to win the Bakken-Anderson Big Ten Kicker of the Year and the Lou Groza Award.

During the 2021 season, Moody hit 23-of-25 field goals, and set the program record with 56 PATs made.

If both of these players have the seasons that are projected, we should see both Moody and Oluwaimi as All-Americans when the season ends.

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