BYU Football Countdown: Player 83 – Iron Man
By Adam Gibby
In 83 days BYU Football will begin the regular season against Utah.
Today feels like a slow day. Yesterday felt like we were getting close to the BYU Football because we hit the 12 week mark. Today though for some reason feels like the game is an eternity away.
It is odd how certain numbers do that. For example, if I try to sell you something for $2.08 you are actually a lot less likely to buy it than if I originally tried to sell the same product to you for $2.49. It has been proven that certain numbers trigger something in our heads to make something is either good or bad, even if a different number that is “worse” would make one feel the opposite effect.
Either way, for some reason, 83 days feels like a really long time from now.
As we continue our BYU Football Top 100 countdown we hit another odd player that can’t quite have his own page due to a lack of stats.
Similar to when we covered Gordon Gravelle at No. 92, today we feature a lineman that although he has no stats to back up his case, his impact and importance landed him on the list as the 83rd best player to ever wear a BYU uniform.
Tejan Koroma – Center – 2014-2017
There are only a handful of BYU Football players ever that can claim to have started in week one of their freshman season and play in every single game until the last game of the season their senior year. Tejan Koroma is one of them.
Sure a punter or kicker may do it, or even a defensive back that is really just there for speed, but for a center to do that, it is truly incredible. Center is perhaps the most underrated position in college football. While most lineman have a specific area to cover while blocking, and quite often know who they will be blocking, centers have to be able to adjust to getting hit from both sides, holding down the anchor of the line and snapping the ball.
Think about it, if a center gets pushed to a side, not only does that open up the middle for rushers, but it gives a very direct short line to the quarterback as opposed to most rushes that come from the outside and require an extra five to eight yards of running to get to the quarterback.
While at BYU, Koroma accomplished the following:
- Started in all 51 games played as a four year starter
- Freshman All-American (2014)
- Named to the Pro Football Focus All-America Second Team (2017)
- Consistently graded as BYU’s top offensive lineman
- Three-time Remington Trophy watch list honoree
- Three-time Phil Steele All-Independent Team
- Pro Football Focus graded as one of the top four centers in college football (2016)
- Received The Iron Man Award, Offensive Player of the Year Award, and Captains Award at annual team banquet (2018)
Granted, to win the offensive player of the year award after the 2017 season probably wasn’t the hardest thing to do in the world, but for a center to win that award as well as the Captains Award shows how good and how much of an impact he made to be given those awards.
If you go back and watch highlights of Koroma, you will notice that very rarely does he make a mistake with either snapping the ball, missing his block, or not finishing the play, which linemen are notoriously famous for across college football.
Perhaps the most impressive aspect of Koroma was that he always overcame the odds. Standing at only 6’0″ Koroma had no business being a starting center in division one, and yet he was the strongest player on the team and managed to start all 51 games of his career. That is why, he is called BYU’s Iron Man.
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Come back tomorrow for Player No. 82 and if you have missed any of our other articles check them out below!