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.

Coming into the contest against Cal on Saturday night, the Gophers found themselves slight road favorites. They were without Taylor though. Things quickly went from bad to worse.

It wasn’t just the injuries that cost Minnesota on Saturday night though. Mental mistakes, multiple of which were made by star two-way player Koi Perich, sank the ship as well.

Running backs in flux for Minnesota Gophers

Fleck gave the first crack at things to Marshall transfer A.J. Turner. Turner had 864 yards on the ground for the Thundering Herd last season and averaged 8.6 yards per carry. Unfortunately he turned in just four totes before suffering an injury of his own.

Injury. #Gophers

Running back AJ Turner can't put any weight on his left leg. Trainers were looking at his left knee after that first-down carry.

Already without Darius Taylor, Minnesota might be down another tailback vs. Cal

— Andy Greder (@andygreder) September 14, 2025

Fleck turned the opportunities over to freshman Fame Ijeboi and Washington transfer Cam Davis. The former turned 16 carries into 85 yards and ripped off a 27-yard gain. Davis was more plodding with just a 2.9 yards per carry average on his 44 yards, but did find the end zone.

There was no sign of last week’s standout, freshman Grant Washington. The Gophers do have a bye week before facing Rutgers on September 27. Hopefully that will be enough time to get one or both of Taylor and Turner back.

Koi Perich puts up a clunker for Gophers

This season was supposed to be a fun one for Minnesota-native Koi Perich. He is attempting the Travis Hunter route playing on both sides of the football. Unfortunately his contributions on defense have not been as solid, and the offensive performance has been rather underwhelming.

On Saturday there seemed to be way too much going on, and he couldn’t lock in on any facet of the game.

and then a blown coverage on the Cal TD pass, not a great sequence there pic.twitter.com/9Tl5oOMyDu

— CJ Fogler 🫡 (@cjzero) September 14, 2025

It’s not out of pocket to suggest that Perich cost the Gophers a win on Saturday night. He also touched a punt in the first quarter that had his team starting at their own three-yard line instead of being a touchback. The mental mistakes added up and Fleck shared his thoughts postgame.

#Gophers P.J. Fleck on Koi Perich’s struggles against Cal:

“All great players go through adversity. This is probably his first piece of adversity in the 15 months he has been here. He does so many great things and he does it naturally” https://t.co/1yJFNb4Yus pic.twitter.com/Sn8UEViOKb

— GopherHole.com (@GopherHole) September 14, 2025

All great players go through adversity. This is probably his first piece of adversity in the 15 months he has been here. Adversity strengthens you if you use it properly, and you swallow the pill of adversity, and you take accountability and responsibility for it. He does so many great things, and he does them so naturally. He’s been coached really hard by a lot of different people. He’s got a personal wide receivers coach. It’s really hard to do everything…He’ll learn a lot from it. I know he’ll take accountability for it. This is one of his first major adversities he’s had, but it’s coming at some point.

P.J. Fleck

It was an unfortunate night for Perich, but as Fleck suggested, it’s the first time we have seen this from a player who has otherwise been so special. How he responds will be the key, and that opportunity will come against Rutgers.

Related: Gopher Football Paying Out How Much Money to Players?

Perich is far too talented for this performance to drag him down. How the Gophers continue to use him moving forward, and if they dial back the offensive part, remains to be seen. You can bet that the star playmaker will come back with a vengeance though.

Now with an potentially unexpected tally in the loss column, Minnesota will need to tighten things up in a big way moving forward.