Sam McGuffie was known for his hard-hitting, smash mouth style of play on the football field.

Now he's hoping to channel that energy onto the worldwide stage.

The former Michigan running back was one of 12 to be named to the 2018 United States Olympic bobsled team, it was announced Monday morning.

McGuffie, now 28, is part of the four-man sled with Codie Bascue (Whitehall, N.Y.), Evan Weinstock (Las Vegas) and Steve Langton (Melrose, Mass.), and also serve as breakman with Bascue on a two-man sled.

🇺🇸⭐️⭐️⭐️I made the 2018 Olympic Team⭐️⭐️⭐️🇺🇸 https://t.co/06XvWoknU5 — Sam McGuffie, OLY (@sam_mcguffie) January 15, 2018

The U.S. has qualified three sleds in both two-man and four-man bobsled.

This will be McGuffie's first Olympic appearance since taking on the sport in 2015, after playing football all four years in college and trying to make a career out of it in the Canadian Football League.

He was recruited by Michigan and then-head coach Lloyd Carr in 2008 out of Cy-Fair High School in Cypress, Texas, where his highlight videos drew millions of views on YouTube.

But his first season overlapped with the start of Rich Rodriguez's spread offense, which clashed with McGuffie's preference of playing in a pro-style system. He played 10 games his freshman season, rushing for 486 yards and three touchdowns, but decided to transfer to Rice after.

At Rice, McGuffie rushed for 883 yards and six touchdowns and caught 39 passes for 384 yards and three touchdowns his sophomore season, in 2010. After an injury-plagued 2011, he moved to slot receiver and caught 54 passes for 603 yards and five touchdowns.

McGuffie -- who also ran track and field in college -- played on practice squads with the NFL's Oakland Raiders, Arizona Cardinals and New England Patriots after college, along with a brief stint with the CFL's Winnipeg Blue Bombers, before beginning a full-fledged career in bobsledding.

Since 2015, McGuffie has been named to the U.S. national bobsled team three times and won five World Cup medals. He'll have an opportunity to add an Olympic medal next month, when the Games kick off Feb. 9 from Pyeongchang, South Korea.