'Life program' recruiting strategy is paying off for Gophers football

Minnesota football is accumulating talent at a level that hasn't been seen in a very long time.

Jun 21, 2025; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Minnesota safety Koi Perich throws out a ceremonial first pitch before the game between the Milwaukee Brewers and the Minnesota Twins at Target Field. Mandatory Credit: Bruce Kluckhohn-Imagn Images | Bruce Kluckhohn-Imagn Images

Heading into year nine of the P.J. Fleck era, Gophers football has routinely fielded rosters more talented than we have typically seen in the history of the program. In the transfer portal era, many of Minnesota's top players signed with the school out of high school. A "life program" recruiting strategy is paying off.

Koi Perich, Drake Lindsey, Anthony Smith, Darius Taylor, Deven Eastern, Jameson Geers and Greg Johnson all project as leaders on Minnesota's roster in 2025, and they all signed with the program as high school recruits.

Top-end talent like Perich, Smith, Taylor and Johnson, who were all viewed as four-star recruits by 247Sports, has taken Minnesota's roster to the next level. All of those recruits had offers from some of the top programs in the country, but they chose Minnesota.

"Hard work, personality. Recruiting is the people. We look at that and take that very seriously. Just with the relationships that we built with those guys," Gophers offensive coordinator Greg Harbaugh Jr. responded when asked about why they've been successful. "I look back, even just with Coach (Danny) Collins with Koi. Just the relationship he built with Koi, and then just the relationship that Koi had built with Coach Fleck."

Perich's recruitment was a watershed moment for the Gophers. When the top-75 high school prospect in the class of 2024 signed on Dec. 20, 2023, choosing to stay home rather than go to college football powerhouse Ohio State, it opened the floodgates. Minnesota has proceeded to sign Jaxon Howard out of the transfer portal, three four-star recruits in the 2025 class, and land commitments from five more four-star prospects in the 2026 and 2027 classes, respectively.

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"It was super close, I mean, it came down to the last day," Perich said at Big Ten Media Days earlier this summer. "Ohio State is Ohio State. What I liked more about Minnesota was just ultimately their NFL safeties... It happened the way it happened, and I don’t try to change the past."

It's not just Perich. There are former four-star high school prospects at nearly every position on their roster. The top-ranked high school player in Minnesota has played for the Gophers or is currently committed to the program in six straight recruiting classes. They're one of only six programs in the country to produce a first or second-round NFL Draft pick in six straight years. Those two facts were unheard of not too long ago.

"We're doing things with players and producing NFL talent at a record level here, and we're really proud of that," Fleck said. "Not only that, we're producing orthopedic surgeons, teachers and social workers, and that's what I am proudest of the most. Now you're never sitting there saying that you rest on your laurels, but that's what I mean about we'll always be this life program."

In the world of the transfer portal and NIL, it would've been very easy for Fleck to change his program-building strategy. He has stuck to his beliefs, and it is beginning to pay huge dividends for Gophers football.