Miami’s Mauigoa is Outland Trophy National Player of the Week

Miami’s Mauigoa is Outland Trophy National Player of the Week

 

DALLAS (FWAA) – Miami averaged 6.8 yards per play while rolling up 385 yards of total offense Saturday led by an offensive line featuring Francis Mauigoa. In their 38-10 win over Syracuse, the Hurricanes’ right tackle controlled his side of the line and even scored a rare touchdown as Miami cruised to the win. For his work Mauigoa earned the Outland Trophy National Player of the Week honor for games during the weekend of Nov. 8, as selected by the Football Writers Association of America.

This is the third season for the FWAA to select an Outland Trophy National Player of the Week as part of the NCFAA’s weekly national honors from 12 awards. The recipient of the 2025 Outland Trophy will be announced on The Home Depot College Football Awards, live on ESPN on Dec. 12. The official presentation to the winner will be made at the Outland Trophy Awards Dinner sponsored by Werner Enterprises and produced by the Greater Omaha Sports Committee in Omaha, Neb., on Jan. 21, 2026.

This is the final week of the 2025 season for the FWAA to name this weekly winner. Maiugoa is the second Miami lineman to receive the weekly honor following Anez Cooper, the Hurricanes’ current guard who was the second-ever awardee in the second week of the 2023 season. Miami has a noted Outland Trophy past with two former winners, offensive tackle Bryant McKinnie (2001) and defensive tackle Russell Maryland (1990), and three former finalists. Its most recent of either is center Brett Romberg, a finalist in 2002.

The 6-6, 335-pound lineman from Ili’ili, American Samoa who prepped at the well-known IMG Academy in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., helped Miami quarterback Carson Beck hit on 18 of 24 passes for 247 and a touchdown and also caught a touchdown pass. Mauigoa anchored the line as Miami (7-2, 3-2 ACC) converted all four of its trips into the red zone and stormed ahead for 124 rushing yards on 32 carries.

In what will surely be a season highlight for the team, Mauigoa scored on a designed backward pass, catching the ball behind the line of scrimmage and finishing off a 3-yard rushing touchdown in the fourth quarter.

“We got down to the four-yard line, and Coop (Anez Cooper) started yelling at the sidelines that we needed to run the play, the touchdown, with Sisi (Francis),” Beck said following the game. “We called it. Everybody’s like, ‘Oh my gosh, like, Sisi is about to score!’ I look, they’re in the perfect coverage, perfect defense for us to actually let it hit. And I’m at the line. I’m like, just give him a catchable football. Make sure he catches it. I probably lofted it a little bit too much, but, man, I was so happy for him.”

“It is a play we’ve been practicing for more than two, three years now,” Mauigoa said. “Finally got the opportunity to run it. It was a good touchdown, but I was a little mad about it, because I wanted to run over somebody.”

Mauigoa was a member of the FWAA’s Freshman All-America Team following the 2023 season. Last season he was a 13-game starter at right tackle of the offensive line that helped pave the way for the FBS’s top offense in both points per game (43.9) and yards per game (537.2), earning All-ACC second team accolades. He started at right tackle in the 2024 Pop-Tarts Bowl win against Iowa State as the Hurricanes totaled a season-high 308 rushing yards.

Miami closes its regular-season home schedule Saturday facing NC State. Kickoff is at 3:30 p.m. ET on ESPN.

The Outland Trophy winner is chosen from finalists who are a part of the annual FWAA All-America Team. The FWAA All-America Committee, after voting input from the entire membership, selects a 26-man first team and eventually three Outland finalists. Committee members, then by individual ballot, select the winner. Only interior linemen on offense or defense are eligible for the award; ends are not eligible.

The Outland Trophy, celebrating 80 years since its founding, is the third-oldest major college football award. Created in 1946 when Dr. John Outland presented the FWAA with a financial contribution to initiate the award, the Outland Trophy has been given to the best interior lineman in college football ever since. Dr. Outland, an All-American at the University of Pennsylvania in the late 1890s, eventually took up practice in Kansas City, Mo. An avid outdoorsman, Dr. Outland believed linemen did not get the credit they deserved and wanted an award to recognize them.

The Outland Trophy is a member of the National College Football Awards Association (NCFAA), which encompasses college football’s most prestigious awards. The NCFAA’s 25 awards have honored more than 950 recipients since 1935. For more information about the NCFAA, visit ncfaa.org.

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The Greater Omaha Sports Committee, founded in 1977, is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, consisting of more than 1,300 men and women from the City of Omaha, the State of Nebraska, and others. The Committee serves to communicate, develop, initiate and promote sports activities in the Greater Omaha sports area. In addition to the Outland Trophy Award Events and Dinner, the Greater Omaha Sports Committee promotes high school, college, and professional sports in the Greater Omaha area and the Midwest.  For more information contact Bob Mancuso Jr., Chairman at bmancuso@showofficeonline.com or see showofficeonline.com.

Founded in 1941, the Football Writers Association of America consists of 1,300 men and women who cover college football. The membership includes journalists, broadcasters and publicists, as well as key executives in all the areas that involve the game. The FWAA works to govern areas that include game-day operations, major awards and its annual All-America team