Homegrown Gophers Star Chooses New School

The Minnesota Gophers wrapped up their 8-5 season with an overtime Rate Bowl victory over New Mexico. Not long after, news broke that homegrown star safety Koi Perich was entering the transfer portal.

Early indications suggested that Perich was ticketed for the Miami Hurricanes, where he would have reunited with his former defensive coordinator at Minnesota, Corey Hetherman. Then… the Nike money came calling out of Eugene.

Homegrown Gopher football transfer settles on Oregon

Once Perich decided to expand his search area, he first visited Texas Tech, before going out to the University of Oregon. Then on Monday, Ducks head coach Dan Lanning teased a possible Koi decision, which then became unofficially official via Matt Zenitz (CBS Sports) hours later.

Oregon has a landed a commitment from ex-Minnesota star safety Koi Perich, sources tell @CBSSports.

Perich, who had 128 tackles and six interceptions the last two years at Minnesota, ranks as the top safety and one of the best overall players to enter the portal this cycle. pic.twitter.com/eHZW7P66FW

— Matt Zenitz (@mzenitz) January 13, 2026

The Oregon Ducks were shell-shocked at the Peach Bowl against the Indiana Hoosiers. They didn’t return home until 5:30 am on Friday morning, at which point their Lanning immediately hit the recruiting trail. The Ducks head coach had Koi Perich in town, looking to land the former Gophers stud.

Last season, as a sophomore at Minnesota, Koi Perich was making seven-figures between NIL and rev sharing money. At Oregon, that number is expected to be exponentially bigger.

Koi Perich, the No. 1 safety and one of the best players in the transfer portal, is heading to Eugene to play for the Ducks.

Nice to see he’s already used to beating USC.#GoDucks pic.twitter.com/XSypHFvnmb

— Alek Arend (@alekarend) January 13, 2026

After standing out as a true freshman with the Golden Gophers, Perich took a step backward last season, as a sophomore. Part of the problem may have been his usage on offense, which would up being a pretty epic failure, and seemingly affected his play and focus on defense, where all of his numbers and metrics took a hit.

Defensively, Koi finished with 82 total tackles, three for loss, and one sack. After leading the Big Ten in interceptions as a freshman (5), he recorded just a single INT in 2025

Fortunately for the Minnesota Gophers football program, hope is far from lost, especially at safety, where few schools in the country over the past decade have developed NFL caliber safeties like PJ Fleck and his defensive staff.

MN Gophers reload without Koi Perich

Keeping Koi Perich was always going to be difficult, no matter how his 2025 season went. That’s probably why we saw the MN Gophers try and get Perich involved in all three phases during the Rate Bowl — after he was sparingly used on offense most of the season. Fleck was clearly trying to appease his star talent.

In Perich’s absence, the Gophers have landed 19 commitments out of the transfer portal, to compliment the best recruiting class in school history. Another in-state product, Parker Knutson (SMSU), will hope to compete immediately for Perich’s snaps, while FCS product Mekhai Smith (Lehigh) will also be in the picture.

Although it was Perich that stood out as a freshman, the other soon-to-be junior safety Kerry Brown has been the better overall player, over the course of two seasons in Minnesota.

In 13 games last season, Brown totaled 56 tackles, including four for a loss, and two interceptions. He will be the seasoned leader of Danny Collins’ defensive unit next season.