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.

But head coach PJ Fleck and his staff have more work to do because they’ve also lost 21 players into the portal. While most of Minnesota’s outgoing transfers are depth players, the’ve certainly lost his fair share of talent too.

That’s especially true in the secondary where Fleck and defensive coordinator Danny Collins lost two key starters, in Za’Quan Bryan (CB) and Koi Perich (S). Both will be difficult to replace, but the homegrown kid from Esko hurts the brand the most.

Every kid buying a Minnesota Gophers jersey the past two years have bought No. 3 with “PERICH” on the back. If you talk to casual Gopher fans who only know the name of one player, it was probably Koi Perich.

And now he will wear a different uniform in 2026. So far, we’ve seen Koi connected to both Ohio State and Miami, the latter of which employs his former coach at Minnesota, Corey Hetherman, as its defensive coordinator.

Former Minnesota Gophers superstar visiting new schools

On Wednesday, however, it appears Perich has found a couple more schools to flirt with. According to Matt Zenitz (CBS Sports), Koi is in Lubbock now, preparing to officially visit the Texas Tech campus on Thursday. It sounds like Eugene is next on his itinerary.

Former Minnesota star safety Koi Perich, one of the top ranked players in the transfer portal, is set to visit Texas Tech tomorrow and is also expected to visit Oregon, sources tell me and @chris_hummer.

Posted 128 tackles and six interceptions the last two years at Minnesota. pic.twitter.com/VmWMuFjPCR

— Matt Zenitz (@mzenitz) January 7, 2026

As a freshman, Perich led the Big Ten with five interceptions and was a regular menace anytime the football went up in the air. In 2026, he grabbed just one INT. But more worrisome than that was when you noticed him.

Far too often, the true sophomore stuck out in a negative way, whether he was getting beat, showing up late in coverage or just missing tackles — a stat that Koi easily led the 2025 Gophers defense in with 23.

Koi Perich also saw his PFF grades drop dramatically last season. His defense grade fell from 88.9 in 2024 to 62.4 in 2025, and his coverage grade saw the biggest decline, from 88.9 as a freshman to an unbelievable 57.7 as a sophomore.

Koi Perich opening his transfer portal options back up

Wherever Koi Perich ends up, he will have to bounce back from season in 2025, where he came down to earth a little bit. If he is taking visits now, however, you have to believe these other schools are just as much on his radar as the Buckeyes, and even Canes.

Much like Ohio State and Miami, the Red Raiders and Ducks are considered two of the wealthiest NIL programs in the country. Thus, it is no surprise they are the new schools on Koi’s radar.

Still, it’s a bit surprising to see Perich visiting other schools like this. Many insiders believed just last week that he was as good as gone to Miami, to reunite with Hetherman — something our own Ted Schwerzler found out doing his own digging, as well.

We found out what life without Kirk will be like, without a successful succession plan in place, when he went down in week 8 last season, with a torn achilles. In an effort to make sure they aren’t caught with QB pants down again, the Vikings quickly pivoted to Sam Darnold, who they signed to a 1-year, $10 million deal, just after the clock struck midnight, in the wee hours of Tuesday morning.

But if the Vikings want to keep Justin Jefferson happy long term, and they want panicking fans to forget about Kirk Cousins or and Sam Darnold in the short-term, then they need to hit on a rookie QB in the NFL Draft next month. As of Wednesday morning, the Vikings are favorites to land Michigan QB JJ McCarthy, along with being tied as favorites for Oregon’s, Bo Nix. — [Read More: Vikings QB Draft Odds]

Minnesota Vikings Absent from Bo Nix’s Pro Day

Now, we know that Kevin O’Connell and Kwesi Adofo-Mensah have done exhaustive amounts of work on this year’s QB class. They’ve been linked to just about every top QB on board and interviewed all of them during the NFL scouting combine.

But if they are heavily interested in Bo Nix, they didn’t show it on Tuesday, when he performed in Eugene at Oregon’s scheduled pro day. In fact, they didn’t really show up at all. That’s right. No KOC, no Kwesi and no Josh McCown, who was just hired as QB coach a couple of weeks ago.

Doesn’t sound like Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, Kevin O’Connell or Josh McCown are in Eugene today for Bo Nix’s pro day at Oregon. https://t.co/KXC695lTdk

— Alec Lewis (@alec_lewis) March 12, 2024

Of course, this could mean nothing. Obviously, with the free agency tampering period going on the last couple days and the Vikings being HEAVILY involved in all the action, they may have felt their time was better spent elsewhere yesterday, especially after most of the Minnesota coaching staff got a really close look at Bo Nix during the Senior Bowl.

Related: Former Packers RB Aaron Jones is Signing with the Vikings

Showing up in mass to Nix’s pro day could draw more attention to the former Ducks QB, too. So even if they are extremely interested, avoiding Eugene on Tuesday could be seen as an attempt to throw teams off-track on their plans in the draft.

Some of Bo Nix's best throws from Pro Day: #GoDucks #NFLDraft pic.twitter.com/20QNrw9OwR

— Trevor Denton (@trevordenton37) March 12, 2024

McCown wasn’t on staff when they were in Mobile, AL coaching Bo Nix, but he was able to get eyes, hands and ears on him at the combine. With Kirk Cousins now out and the Vikings hunting for a new franchise QB, the next six weeks leading up to the draft will be a rollercoaster of reports and smokescreens. So hang on tight, Minnesota…

Bo Nix by the numbers at Oregon was absurd

Nix’s final year in Eugene was arguably the greatest season ever by a University of Oregon quarterback, which made him just the fourth Heisman Trophy finalist in program history (finished 3rd). I mean, the numbers that Bo put up last year are jaw-dropping.

Related: Vikings Signing Big Leg XFL Kicker John Parker Romo

He set an NCAA single-season record for completion percentage at 77.45% (364-of-470). Oh, the record he broke was his own, 71.9% set in 2022. Nix also broke Oregon’s single-season records for completions (364), passing yards (4,508) and passing touchdowns (45). How many interceptions? THREE.

Oh, you think all Oregon QBs put up huge numbers in that legendary spread-style offense? Try again. 2023 Bo Nix is the first ever Duck quarterback to surpass 4,500 passing yards in a season.

Is he one of the top 3 QB prospects? Probably not. But I'm surprised with how much flak I come across on Bo Nix. He was college football's most efficient red zone passer in 2023 and he possesses all of the desirable tools in a QB. pic.twitter.com/ImmYenNyce

— Tanner Weber – Purple Post (@Purple_Post) March 7, 2024

#RTB #SkiUMah #GoGophers pic.twitter.com/j0kDeISST3

— Rod Chance (@Coach_Chance) February 16, 2020

Another assistant coach is leaving the University of Minnesota. This time, it’s DB Coach Rod Chance, who will head back to Oregon, taking the same position he held here.

Chance was at Oregon, as a defensive analyst, before being hired at MN and has spent a lot of his career on the West side of the country (Southern Utah, Oregon). He’s from Georgia though, and helped land 4 of our commitments from that area for 2020.

I don’t like seeing coaches leave either, especially big time recruiters like Chance, but get used to it. PJ Fleck wants to grow his coaching tree and he wants to bring the best around the country, into his family…. even if he knows it will be for a limited time amount of time.

We’ll see what PJ does to fill this position. Joe Harasymiak came onto the scene at the same time as Rod Chance and coached part of the secondary last year, but was promoted to Co-DC already this offseason.

Even with plenty of secondary coaching experience I’d be surprised if we don’t see new blood, to help fill the newest hole in the Gophers coaching carousel.

Eric Strack | Minnesota Sports Fan