Michael Cohen
College Football and College Basketball Writer
LAS VEGAS — From his position behind the microphone in a crowded ballroom at Mandalay Bay, where Big Ten Media Days unfolded last week, Minnesota head coach P.J. Fleck only needed a few moments — seconds, even — to utter the name everyone had envisioned since he teased the idea of deploying safety Koi Perich on both sides of the ball this coming season:
Travis. Hunter.
Minnesota Gophers safety Koi Perich (3) looks on after a college football game between Rhode Island and Minnesota. (Photo by Bailey Hillesheim/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
“He got a ton of credit for being a two-way player, right?” Fleck said. “There’s not a lot of people who can do that and do it successfully. We feel Koi can.
“And I’m not comparing him to Travis Hunter by any means. But I’m saying that [Hunter] is somebody who did it within the last decade [and showed] how hard it really is. And if you’re going to do it, you’ve got to be both feet in on it. But if there’s one person that can do it, it’s Koi.”
Lest anyone forget, Hunter won the Heisman Trophy last December after authoring arguably the greatest individual season in college football history while starring for head coach Deion Sanders at Colorado. As a cornerback, Hunter logged 748 snaps while racking up 36 tackles, 11 pass breakups, four interceptions and one forced fumble to finish with the best INT-per-target ratio of any player in the Power 4 conferences. He was a shoo-in for Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year and garnered unanimous All-American status. He even took home a pair of national defensive player of the year honors by securing the Bednarik Award and the Lott IMPACT Trophy.
And as a wide receiver, where Hunter played 714 snaps, he caught 96 passes for 1,258 yards and 15 touchdowns — all of which ranked among the top five nationally. He received the Biletnikoff Award, which is given to the sport’s best wideout, and became the first repeat winner of the Paul Hornung Award, which recognizes the country’s most versatile player regardless of position. He was a consensus All-American on this side of the ball, splitting time between first- and second-team lists depending on the publication.
Not long after, the Jacksonville Jaguars traded up to select Hunter at No. 2 overall in this year’s NFL Draft with the unabashed intention of deploying him on both sides of the ball.
“I think that’s a perfect person just to lean on and learn from,” said Perich, a first-team all-conference performer as a true freshman in 2024. “He just had the best season, ultimately, that probably college has ever seen from a single person. Obviously, you can learn from that, and if you want to play two ways, that’s the blueprint. You’ve just got to do your best to imitate that. And I think that’s what me and my coaches are trying to do.”
Hearing Minnesota’s contingent outline the broad strokes of this vision at Big Ten Media Days only invited more questions given the supreme rarity and difficulty of what Hunter achieved last season. The chief inquiries were as follows: Just how real is the possibility of the Gophers utilizing Perich, a former blue-chip recruit who chose Minnesota over Ohio State, as anything close to a full-time, two-way player? And if the team’s plan is to be accepted as legitimate, meaning Perich hardly comes off the field, what makes him the right choice for such a physically and mentally taxing role?
Koi Perich #3 of the Minnesota Golden Gophers defends in coverage during a game against USC. (Photo by Brandon Sloter/Image Of Sport/Getty Images)
For all the skeptics Hunter converted week after week despite playing more than 84% of Colorado’s snaps in 2024 — a year in which no other FBS player eclipsed 56% playing time from scrimmage — there were other high-profile rumors about potential two-way players that never came to fruition. Last May, Michigan cornerback Will Johnson told reporters that he and then-offensive coordinator Kirk Campbell had engaged in discussions about the All-American getting involved at wide receiver, where the Wolverines were hurting for talent. And then last June, Ohio State head coach Ryan Day told the local press corps that star safety Caleb Downs, a transfer from Alabama, took some reps at running back during spring practice, returning to a position he dominated at youth levels.
But once push came to shove in the regular season, and once the coaching staffs at both programs realized exactly how much they’d be risking by exposing two of the best players in the nation to even more contact than necessary, the possibility of broadened roles for Johnson and Downs devolved into nothing more than a midsummer night’s dream from the doldrums of talking season. Neither player logged a single snap on offense across the entire 2024 campaign.
Back in Las Vegas, however, Fleck assured reporters that the circumstances surrounding Perich would be different. He told the media that discussions about incorporating Perich on offense dated back several years to the recruiting process when Perich, an in-state prospect, caught people’s attention as a two-way star for Esko High School, roughly two hours north of Minneapolis. Fleck went so far as suggesting Perich would have gotten involved on offense last season had he been among the Gophers’ early enrollees and participated in spring practice, rather than arriving on campus in June.
“We’re going to do as much as Koi will allow us to do,” Fleck said. “Koi works really hard in the unrequired, not just practicing. He’s doing a ton of stuff on his own ever since January because we took last year as a snippet. We dabbled in it a little bit [by practicing some things with him on offense], but now we’re going to commit to it.”
The reason Fleck and everyone associated with Minnesota believes the 6-foot-1, 200-pound Perich can handle a two-way role is because of his remarkable athletic profile. In addition to playing all three phases on the football field at Esko High School — he scored touchdowns as a runner, receiver, passer, punt returner, kick returner and defender in his senior year alone — Perich was also a standout basketball player and track athlete, with a 2022 Class A long jump state championship to show for it. He runs the 40-yard dash in 4.4 seconds, according to Fleck, and has a vertical leap north of 40 inches, something Perich showed off with a 360-degree windmill dunk during basketball warmups with his future head coach in the bleachers for a recruiting visit.
Equally important, Fleck said, is Perich’s singularity of focus when it comes to getting better at football. Fleck lovingly explained that Perich is not the type to “answer questions about world history and American history” or spend his interview sessions in Las Vegas telling media members that he “collects rocks and he collects pennies and coins — that’s not his deal.” Playing and competing is Perich’s deal, according to Fleck, and because of that, Perich spent the spring and summer focusing on little more than conditioning himself for what he expects to be a significant offensive role.
“He’s an absolute freak show,” Minnesota quarterback Drake Lindsey said of Perich. “He’s very smart, he knows all our plays really well, he’s doing a good job learning the playbook. And he’s just very special with the ball in his hands. I personally like how he plays really fast. He doesn’t think much, he just goes, and I think that’s one of the best qualities about Koi.”
Koi Perich #3 of the Minnesota Golden Gophers returns a fourth quarter punt past Tommy Doman #19 of the Michigan Wolverines. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
Coach and players alike were hesitant to reveal any specifics about exactly where Perich will align this fall, though the safe bet might be a broad application. There were whispers that Perich could become the Gophers’ wildcat quarterback considering he ran the ball 61 times for 708 yards and 16 touchdowns as a senior in high school. Fleck reminded the media that Perich has a great arm and is more than capable of attempting a pass. And the five interceptions Perich notched last season, which were tied for fourth nationally and most in the country among freshmen, suggest that getting the ball in his hands at wide receiver — a la Hunter — is probably the smartest course of action.
So while the likelihood of Perich ever matching what Hunter did at Colorado is exceedingly slim, if not outright impossible, he’s still desperate for enough snaps to try.
“Hopefully I get that chance,” Perich said. “That would be very fun. Obviously, I think I have the ability to do it, and it all just comes down to opportunity.”
Michael Cohen covers college football and college basketball for FOX Sports. Follow him at @Michael_Cohen13.
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