MN Gophers Land Another Portal Commit Out of Marshall

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PJ Fleck - Minnesota Gophers vs New Mexico
Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

The Minnesota Gophers’ mission to have the best offseason of PJ Fleck’s 10 year coaching tenure in Dinkytown has been on full display this offseason. Yes, they lost Koi Perich and a few other starters to the transfer portal.

But Fleck and his staff have spun around and turned the millions of dollars in NIL money left in the wake of Perich, Za’Quan Bryan, Fame Ijeboi and 20 other outgoing Gophers and turned it into 19 new transfer portal commitments from across the country.

Minnesota Gophers get 19th portal commitment of 2026

On Sunday evening, the most recent in that count became Marshall defensive lineman, Sid Kaba, who lands in Dinkytown with two years of eligibility remaining.

Related: Gopher Football Lands Former FCS Freshman All-American

Kaba is an interesting transfer portal take for the MN Gophers. At first glance, I assume Fleck is either running out of talent interested in coming to Minnesota or he’s running out of NIL dollars to dole out.

Out of high school in Columbus, OH, Sid Kaba was a low three-star prospect who was supposed to start his college career at Western Michigan. Unfortunately, after two seasons (freshman + redshirt freshman) in Kalamazoo, the 6’3″, 289 pound defensive lineman failed to get on the field for even one snap as a Bronco.

So last offseason, Kaba entered the transfer portal, where he eventually landed at Marshall. With the Thundering Herd, Kaba finally saw saw his first playing time in three collegiate seasons… but it was still rather sparingly.

What does Kaba bring to Minnesota?

Officially, Kaba played 154 snaps on defense in 9 games last season for Marshall, totalling 18 tackles, 0.5 sacks and 3 tackles for loss. But he only played 11 defensive snaps in seven of those nine games, and never played more than 23.

If you trust PFF, however, then you might think Sid Kaba is a deep, deep sleeper on the Golden Gopher defensive line. Last year, Kaba posted a 72.3 PFF grade on defense, built up by a 79.9 grade vs run and 74.2 tackle grade.

He played all over, too, logging snaps at right and left defensive tackle, both ends, both edges and both outside linebacker spots. In his one season at Marshall, Kaba was the epitome of a swiss army knife. Whether he can be that in the Big Ten is yet to be seen.

It’s worth noting that Minnesota struggled vs the run in 2025 in a way that it hasn’t very often under PJ Fleck. Kaba is the third interior d-lineman to commit to the Gophers in the 2026 transfer portal class.

He comes in behind Xion Chapman (FIU) and Sid Kaba’s teammate at Marshall, Naquon Crowder — who may or may not have played a part in his d-line buddy landing in Dinkytown.

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