Eritrean-American and Texas Longhorns rising offensive lineman Rafiti Ghirmai entered the NCAA transfer portal last winter as a graduate transfer after his last game of the season for Texas against the Kansas State Wildcats. Soon after Rafiti had an offer from the Syracuse Orange and almost committed to the school known for producing great student-athletes, including Eritrean-Brit Mo Adams who played soccer at the New York school.

Rafiti graduated with a sports management degree and a minor in Business from the Austin, Texas-based University and one of the most popular universities in the USA. The University of Texas is known also for its football program and Rafiti played a huge role in the success of the team last season. Abilene Christian University’s football program was a member of the Southland Conference through the 2020–21 season, but joined the Western Athletics Conference in last year, coinciding with that league’s reinstatement of football as an official conference sport. The school’s football program has been around for over a century winning NAIA titles twice and playing in a strong NCAA Division 2 conference until recently.

It is to be recalled that Eri-internationalsports interviewed Rafiti right before he chose his home state University of Texas to play his football after getting many other offers from some of the biggest football programs in the nation. Rafiti redshirted one year at Texas giving him an opportunity to transfer and work on his master’s. In his interview, he goes on to say that he is ready for the challenge of being a good student-athlete and he graduated with good grades to prove it. He said to us during the interview when he was asked if he had anything to say to encourage other Eritreans:

“To my fellow Eritreans, don’t stop grinding!! No matter what happens always be on your grind 110%.”

Congratulations to Rafiti as he starts a new season and going forward an opportunity to be looked at by the NFL in the coming years as he pursues his career in football.

Erisports