Gophers Top Commit Koi Perich to Visit Ohio State and Florida State

By    |  
Nov 7, 2023

The Minnesota Gophers 2024 recruiting class is pretty impressive (ranked 30th nationally), as of November 7, 2023. But one month from today, the outlook could be very different… and not in a good way.

Koi Perich lands offer from Ohio State

That’s because PJ Fleck’s most talented and highly-rated verbal commit of the class, Esko, MN safety named Koi Perich, may be in jeopardy of throwing his oar and jumping overboard.

I’ve written about Perich a couple of times. Shortly after his commitment, Koi vowed allegiance to his hometown Gophers, declaring that, no matter the offer or NIL deal made available to him, he was going to wear maroon and gold when he put on a college football uniform.

Related: Gophers Moved Practice Indoors Last Week Over Concerns that Iowa was Spying on Outdoor Fields

Koi Perich will visit Ohio State and Florida State

But now, just 6-7 months later, Koi Perich has made a giant leap up recruiting rankings and has offers flying in from helmets schools across the country, including USC, Michigan, Florida State and most recently, Ohio State, which Perich announced via his Twitter account on Monday.

It gets worse. 247Sports’ Minnesota recruiting guru, Ryan Burns, reported at GopherIllustrated.com that Perich plans to take visits to both Ohio State and Florida State once the Esko football season comes to a completion.

Perich tells me tonight he’s planning on seeing Ohio State and Florida State after Esko’s season wraps up, so we’ll see what December brings

Ryan Burns – GopherIllustrated.com

Minnesota Gophers all-time football commit

Koi Perich is the 4th-highest rated commitment in the internet age of Minnesota Gophers football history, according to 247Sports.com. Others in the top-10 include Carter Coughlin (2) and Michael Carter (8), two former Gophers who went on to the NFL.

But the top-10 is also riddled with recruits who never played a snap or busted one way or another, like Jeff Jones (1), Clint Brewster (6) and Hayo Carpenter (3). Perich’s fellow 2024 Gopher commit, (OL) Nathan Roy, is ranked 5th in program history.

But I have little doubt, Koi Perich will impact whatever program he decides on because he is a stud. Hopefully, he stays. The below highlight was from last week’s game between Esko and Pequot Lakes, only. Perich’s half season highlight reel is 10 minutes long and every single play is an eye opener.

Eric Strack | Minnesota Sports fan