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BYU Football Countdown: Player 58 – Outland Trophy

By Adam Gibby

PROVO, UT - SEPTEMBER 12: Fred Warner #4 of the Brigham Young Cougars signals to the crowd as he and his team take the field before their game against the Boise State Broncos at LaVell Edwards Stadium on September 12, 2015 in Provo, Utah. (Photo by Gene Sweeney Jr/Getty Images)
PROVO, UT - SEPTEMBER 12: Fred Warner #4 of the Brigham Young Cougars signals to the crowd as he and his team take the field before their game against the Boise State Broncos at LaVell Edwards Stadium on September 12, 2015 in Provo, Utah. (Photo by Gene Sweeney Jr/Getty Images) /
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EAST LANSING, MI – OCTOBER 08: Michigan State Spartans defense stops Brigham Young Cougars on the one yard line during the second quarter of the game at Spartan Stadium on October 8, 2016 in East Lansing, Michigan. (Photo by Leon Halip/Getty Images)
EAST LANSING, MI – OCTOBER 08: Michigan State Spartans defense stops Brigham Young Cougars on the one yard line during the second quarter of the game at Spartan Stadium on October 8, 2016 in East Lansing, Michigan. (Photo by Leon Halip/Getty Images) /

BYU Football begins the 2019 season in just 58 days.

Yesterday I was in getting my haircut and found myself waiting for thirty five minutes in the lobby. On the big screen was ESPNU which was showing the Women’s Bowling National Championships. It was at this moment that I realized how awful July is for live sports.

Yes, I know Wimbledon and the Women’s World Cup is going on right now, but quite honestly for the WWC it sort of feels like BYU playing an FCS school every game where it is more of a surprise if the women’s team loses than exciting if they win. Wimbledon is fun… once you get to the semifinals where it will be some kind of combination of Federer, Nadal, Djokovic and some other random top ten player.

So as I was watching Stephen F. Austin win their second National Championship for the second time in five years, I realized that I need July to go by really quickly.

Today’s player in the Countdown features the final lineman in the countdown. Linemen are really tough to grade because unless they don’t do what they are supposed to, they go unnoticed with zero stats and no mentions during the game.

No. 58 Mohammed Elewonibi – Lineman – 1988-1989

Mohammed Elewonibi has a story similar, but not as cool as Ezekiel Ansah. Elewonibi grew up Nigeria before moving to British Columbia when he was 12 years old. In high school he never played football but a friend got him interested when he would play with him between soccer practices.

He began his college career at Snow College, where he first started to play football. He then transferred to BYU to finish his final two seasons of his college career. He won the Outland Trophy during his senior season which was the only season that he started the entire year. For those who don’t know the Outland Trophy is the Heisman trophy of  linemen, except every team has at least eight interior linemen instead of just one quarterback, making it perhaps the most difficult and prestigious award one can earn in college football.

Also, as a side note, the same year that Elewonibi won the Outland Trophy, Ty Detmer won the Heisman making BYU the winners of two of the most prestigious awards given out to players in all of college football.

Originally I was going to place Elewonibi as a top twenty player of all time at BYU for that accomplishment alone, but if you’ve read any of the other players in the countdown, you know that only playing one or two seasons really hurts a players ranking. The impact/statistical rankings don’t care if Elewonibi never played before playing at Snow College before coming to BYU, they only care about the DNP ranking of only being a starter for one year of eligibility at BYU and only playing in one other.

But because he was so good, Elewonibi will be the highest ranked player in the Top 100 who only started for one season while at BYU.

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