Two Gopher Football Starters Returning, per Dinkytown Athletes

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John Nestor - Minnesota Gophers cornerback
Credit: Kayden Kircher - MinnesotaSportsFan.com

The Minnesota Gophers are preparing for the 2025 Rate Bowl down in Phoenix, Arizona this week against the New Mexico Lobos. It will be PJ Fleck’s seventh bowl appearance as Golden Gopher football coach, and he enters the matchup a perfect 6-0.

Bowl season, especially these days, are especially tricky to navigate for any college football program. The portal is open and players are hopping in and out like it’s a cold shower.

Meanwhile, the coaching carousel is even more unstable, as we saw this year at Ole Miss — when they lost head coach Lane Kiffin to LSU before the Rebels played in the College Football Playoff.

Minnesota Gophers collective announces return of two key starters

That’s why we now have players announcing their re-commitment to schools that they already play for. At Minnesota, for the most talented and coveted Gopher football players, that process goes through the school’s official NIL collective, Dinkytown Athletes.

For example, when top cornerback John Nestor and starting o-lineman like Greg Johnson decided they wanted to stay in Minnesota for another year, they were rewarded with a new NIL contract through Dinkytown Athletes, deals that were announced via DA’s social media platforms Tuesday.

In his third season as a Gopher, Greg Johnson started all 14 games for Minnesota in 2025, ten of which came at left guard, where he is at his best.

According to Pro Football Focus, Johnson — who has one year of eligibility remaining — was the 28th best guard in the country, grading out at 73.3 overall. His pass block grade was 82.5.

Related: MN Gophers Promote Coach on Defense

Unlike his o-line teammate, John Nestor’s production in maroon and gold is a lot easier to measure on paper. Not only did he lead the 2025 Minnesota Gophers in interceptions with 5, but he returned one of those picks for a touchdown, while also collecting 47 tackles, 6 TFL and 6 passes defended.

PFF likes Nestor too. His overall grade on defense is 77.9, his coverage grade a 76.5 and run defense 79.8. If there was any upperclassman corner that had to be retained this offseason, it was Nestor, who still has two years of eligibility remaining.

CFB Wild Wild West makes bowl season unpredictable

Because of all the moving and grooving around college football, in the weeks leading up to bowl season, each individual game is like a box of chocolates. As Forest Gump would say, you never know what you are going to get.

The same can be said year-to-year, in what is the Wild Wild West of collegiate athletics and the NIL era. Every offseason, players from each school have the option to enter free agency (the transfer portal), without penalty, forcing some teams to completely flip their roster from one season to the next.

Related: Blossoming MN Gophers Running Back Enters Transfer Portal

One program that has retained talent better than most of the middle-tier football schools across the country is the Minnesota Gophers, a testament to what PJ Fleck has built at the U of M, in a very short amount of time and incredibly unstable NIL landscape.

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