Playing for ‘Mama Kingsway,’ this Boise State safety stayed the course despite tragedy

After sacking UNLV quarterback Jayden Maiava in the Mountain West championship game, Boise State defensive back Seyi Oladipo pointed to the sky to thank the woman who helped raise him.

It was one of the several sources of motivation that Boise State players found this year.

After former Boise State coach Andy Avalos was fired in November, the Broncos rallied around interim coach Spencer Danielson and won three straight games, including a 44-20 trouncing of UNLV in the title game. Danielson was promoted to head coach last week.

The Broncos also jumped at the chance to prove their doubters wrong. Nobody gave them much of a chance to even make the Mountain West championship game after losses to Colorado State and Fresno State. They went on to win their conference-leading fifth title.

Oladipo was playing for a higher cause. He dedicated the second half of the season to his grandmother, Olufunke Esther Oladipo, who died just before the Broncos’ game at Memphis in late September. She was 80 years old.

“In everything she did, she was fighting,” Oladipo said. “The way she smiled through all adversity, it taught me a lesson.”

Oladipo’s father, Tony, unexpectedly made the trip to Memphis and broke the news to his youngest son after the Broncos’ 35-32 loss. He had told his daughter, Olufunmilayo, over the phone. She is a student at Xavier University of Louisiana in New Orleans, and Tony said he instantly regretted not telling her in person when she broke down sobbing with no family members around to console her.

He wasn’t going to make the same mistake twice.

He reached out to Boise State safeties coach Kane Ioane first. He also made sure safety Rodney Robinson and cornerback Jaylen Clark were there to offer support, but Tony said that didn’t make breaking the news any easier.

“It was terrible when I told Seyi,” he said. “He was down after the death of my mom. I don’t know how he made it. He is very, very strong.”

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Oladipo and his grandmother were incredibly close, Tony said. She left her native Nigeria and moved in with the family in Colorado not long after Oladipo was born. She was his babysitter and confidant, and she never hesitated to spoil her grandchildren.

“She would give the kids everything in her apartment: jewelry, sweets, whatever she had,” Tony Oladipo said. “We taught our children to know that grandparents are golden, and Seyi has every attribute of my mom: generous, sociable, kind.”

Seyi Oladipo said he was shaken by the news of his grandmother’s death. To make matters worse, he didn’t even get to attend her funeral. He watched via a live video as she was laid to rest in Denver while the Broncos were in Logan, Utah, to face Utah State.

Despite his agony, he said he never considered leaving the team, and he didn’t miss a single game. That’s a testament to how much he cares about his teammates, Danielson said.

“You’re talking about a young man that right when it happened, we had conversations and he was emotional, but never batted an eye,” Danielson told the Idaho Statesman. “He never skipped a beat. He was early to everything and never felt sorry for himself, and he’s played his best football consistently every single game since then.”

Oladipo has carried a memento of his grandmother’s love into every game since she passed. He had a towel made that was inscribed with a blue cross and the words “Mama Kingsway,” which is a reference to a now-defunct department store where she worked in Nigeria.

It hung from the waistband of his uniform as he posted 43 tackles, five tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks, one forced fumble and an interception in the past eight games. The honorable mention All-Mountain West pick ranks No. 2 on the team with 64 tackles heading into the LA Bowl against UCLA on Saturday.

Oladipo was reminded just how much his grandmother motivated him as confetti rained down around him in Allegiant Stadium after the Broncos’ win in the Mountain West title game.

“I had to take a moment to realize how much she really helped me today,” he said. “Not even just today, but every week. I’ll never forget her.”

BOISE STATE VS. UCLA

What: Starco Brands Inc. LA Bowl

When: 5:30 p.m. Mountain time, Saturday

Where: SoFi Stadium, Los Angeles (70,000)

TV: ABC (Dave Flemming, Brock Osweiler, Kayla Burton)

Radio: KBOI 670 AM/93.1 FM (Bob Behler, Pete Cavender)

Records: Boise State 8-5, 6-2 Mountain West; UCLA 7-5, 4-5 Pac-12

Series: The Broncos and Bruins have played just once before, a 38-7 home win for UCLA in 1999.

Vegas line: UCLA by 2.5 points