Urban Meyer has said multiple times Pat Elflein is the best center in college football. On Thursday, the Ohio State captain received a trophy to prove that.
Elflein is the 2016 recipient of the Rimington Trophy as the nation's most outstanding center, announced just before the start of the Home Depot College Football Awards Show on ESPN. The Rimington Trophy Committee selected Elflein over other finalists Ethan Pocic of LSU and West Virginia's Tyler Orlosky.
“I am incredibly grateful to the representatives of the Rimington Trophy and to those who selected me to win this award,” Elflein said. “I am truly honored and proud to win this award and to be able accept it here in Atlanta with my family.”
Elflein is the first Buckeye to win a national award since 2008, when Malcolm Jenkins won the Jim Thorpe Award.
The Big Ten's Rimington-Pace Offensive Lineman of the Year, the fifth-year senior has started 41 games for the Buckeyes and was one of two returning starters on up front for Meyer's team, along with Billy Price. Elflein led a group that paved the way for the Big Ten's best rushing attack and most potent offense, which averages 258.3 yards per game on the ground and 42.7 points per contest.
“I can't give an adjective to over emphasize his value to our program, and I've done this 29 years,” Meyer said ahead of Elflein's last home game, a 30-27 double overtime win over Michigan. “He's as good a player, person, leader as I've ever been around.”
Ohio State's 3,100 rushing yards are the most in the Big Ten by a wide margin and 10th-most in all of college football even though the Buckeyes did not make it to the Big Ten Championship Game. Elflein is a crucial reason for that.
Elflein is also a finalist for the Outland Trophy as the nation's most outstanding interior lineman, set to be announced later Thursday. He is the second Buckeye to win the Rimington Trophy, joining LeCharles Bentley, who won it in 2001.
