This has been unforgettable year for Michigan star Olusegun Oluwatimi, with numerous highs but one devastating low

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – In one year, Olusegun Oluwatimi has experienced the full array of what life can offer.

After three seasons of starting at center for Virginia, Oluwatimi brought his economics degree to Michigan. Oluwatimi became the first player in the Wolverines’ storied history to win the Outland Trophy, given to the best interior lineman in college football. He won the Rimington Award, given to the best center. He anchored the offensive line that repeated as winners of the Joe Moore Award, signifying the nation’s best. He won the Big Ten Sportsmanship Award. He helped lead No. 2 Michigan to the College Football Playoff semifinal against No. 3 TCU in Saturday’s Fiesta Bowl.

And none of those achievements can begin to compensate for the loss Oluwatimi suffered last month with the murder of his former teammates, Virginia players Lavel Davis Jr., Devin Chandler and D’Sean Perry.

“It stings, just knowing they’re no longer with us,” Oluwatimi said this week. “Those are guys I grinded with for a couple of years. They were my brothers. The week that it happened, and the week after, when all my former teammates at Virginia had to go to three funerals, that was tough. That’s a lot of grieving, a lot of mourning. You never want to see your family, your brothers, go through that. It was hard. It still is hard.”

They may no longer have been teammates but the friendship endured.

“Whenever you have a thought of memories that you had with them, time you spent with them, you realize, wow, they’re no longer here,” Oluwatimi said. “You can no longer text them something funny or send them something funny off of social media. That is hard. I wouldn’t say it was day-to-day, or even weekly, but if I see something on IG or Twitter that I was, ‘Oh, this is something like he was,’ I’d send it to them. The same thing they would do to me.

“I remember when I ended up transferring to Michigan, D’Sean and Lavel hit me up. They were happy I made the move, just happy for me and excited to see what was next.”

Oluwatimi did not miss a practice session or a meeting after the death of his friends. It wasn’t an old-school, rub-some-dirt-on-it response. Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh gave Oluwatimi full discretion to do what he needed to do to mourn.

“All we did was say, hey, man, we’re going to be there for you, whatever you need,” offensive line coach Sherrone Moore said. “Whatever time you need, whatever conversations you need, whatever love you need, we’re here for you. That was the biggest thing with that. Just being there for him.

“And he’s just such a strong man, such a strong guy, that you’d walk into the room and you wouldn’t even think that had happened. He’s just trying to make sure he holds it in [so that] his teammates don’t get distracted.”

Football became Oluwatimi’s outlet, the four hours a day when he could think about something else. It says something about Oluwatimi that he fit so seamlessly into his new team. It’s not possible for the 6-foot-3, 307-pound Oluwatimi, who is from Upper Marlboro, Md., to slip into a room unnoticed. He is, as the old joke goes, a building with feet.

“If you work hard and you’re not fake, you remain who you are, then guys in the locker room will always accept you,” Oluwatimi said. “At the end of the day in the locker room, there are so many different personalities, so many different backgrounds, so many different cultures. Football players are always chill, laid back. We always get each other.”

There is one characteristic of the Michigan locker room that continues to stand out to Oluwatimi.

“What people expect of themselves,” he said. “The percentage of this roster that expects to play on Sundays is probably the highest of any locker room I’ve been in. It’s good to be around people of excellence with like-minded goals.”

Michigan quarterback J.J. McCarthy said it took Oluwatimi one practice to present his football credentials. “I’ve never seen it before,” McCarthy said. “I saw someone stick Mazi and keep him in place. Yeah, I’ve never seen that.”

Mazi Smith is the Wolverines’ 6-3, 337-pound defensive tackle and a team captain.

“As soon as we got out there, man, I started to figure that iron is going to sharpen iron,” Smith said. “I like formidable opponents. When he got there, it made me more excited to go out to practice.”

Oluwatimi is strong, quick and durable. He has loved the transition into a run-first offense. Since coming to Michigan, Oluwatimi said, he has been able to lower his pad level, become more flexible, faster at pulling and reaching the “second level” – that’s downfield to the rest of us – to block. TCU inside linebacker Johnny Hodges noticed.

“I’m glad we have a nose guard,” Hodges said, smiling. “That’s what I see from him. A bunch of teams they play don’t have a nose guard, so he can climb up to the second level pretty fast. Yeah, he’s just a great player. You can tell he’s played a lot of football.”

The Fiesta Bowl will be Oluwatimi’s 46^th consecutive start. It takes place on the last day of a year that Oluwatimi will never forget, for all the highs and one devastating low.