Blossoming MN Gophers Running Back Enters Transfer Portal

It’s been an up and down 2025 season for PJ Fleck and his 7-5 Minnesota Gophers, and there is still one game left to play — the Rank Bowl against New Mexico on December 26. But this time of year, the competition inside of college football stretches way beyond what is happening during Bowl Season.

In major college football today, you have to be able to pay these players. We found out over the weekend, according to reports out of the Pioneer Press, that Golden Gopher stars like Koi Perich, Darius Taylor and Drake Lindsey will cost more than $1 million each in 2026.

But if Minnesota is going to retain their most talented players year-to-year, in today’s NIL landscape, it won’t be cheap. And for a school with limited funds at its disposal, that will make keeping all talent that much more difficult, including those who haven’t quite cracked the starting roster.

Minnesota Gophers lose promising RB Fame Ijeboi to transfer portal

If you watched the Gopher games with any regularity this fall.winter, you got to know backup running back Fame Ijeboi pretty well. He appeared in all 11 regular season contests, carrying the ball 97 times for 454 yards and 2 touchdowns.

Unfortunately, Minnesota’s offense will have to find that ground production elsewhere in 2026, because Ijeboi is on his way out, according to On3.com’s Hayes Fawcett.

BREAKING: Minnesota RB Fame Ijeboi plans to enter the @TransferPortal, he tells @On3Sports⁰⁰This season he totaled 495 yards and 3 TDs

He’ll have 3 years of eligibility left https://t.co/RlUbB6EMhS pic.twitter.com/skYg6p4kcU

— Hayes Fawcett (@Hayesfawcett3) December 9, 2025

Yet again, the highly compensated Darius Taylor found himself on the sideline way too often in 2025. Luckily, they had Ijeboi behind him to pick up the slack, and he mostly took advantage of the opportunities, averaging 4.5 yards per carry, only slightly less than Taylor’s 4.7 YPC.

I’d imagine this announcement means the Minnesota Gophers are keeping Darius Taylor around. On its face, that is good news. But the soon to be senior is one of this offense’s most expensive players.

And it’s a scheme that continues to get more pass-happy, with Lindsey under center. So in order to make the Taylor investment worth it in 2026, he must stay healthy.

String of youngsters bailing on PJ Fleck, Gophers

Ijeboi isn’t the first talented young Gopher to drop his oar and hop out of PJ Fleck’s boat. Four star Freshman quarterback Jackson Kollock entered the transfer portal last week, a signal that starting QB Drake Lindsey will indeed hang around for another season.

That move wasn’t a big surprise to anyone. Lindsey still has three years of eligibility remaining so sitting behind him could be QB suicide. The news that came down Tuesday, surrounding the running back room, was a bit more eye-opening.

Excited to see Fame Ijeboi become the next great #Gophers tailback. pic.twitter.com/yo9fzWIiM2

— Noel Thompson (@N0ELTHOMPSON) October 7, 2025

Related: P.J. Fleck Sends Assistant Coach Packing

PJ Fleck and his staff found out the hard way just how much misspent NIL funds can come back to bit them in 2025, when multiple transfer portal additions collected most of their money while sitting on the bench, even when healthy.

So if they are going to spend even more cash on the running back position this offseason, they better find players who can produce at the Big Ten level… like Fame Ijeboi did in his two seasons wearing maroon and gold.