MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Koi Perich was once a sports-loving kid in northern Minnesota who grew determined at a young age to suit up for the home-state football team he so passionately supported.
Entering the season with enormous expectations after a propitious debut with the Gophers in 2024, naturally, must be quite the pinch-me experience for the second-year safety.
“No, I didn't watch college football. My dream was to play for the Vikings,” said Perich, a second-team preseason AP All-America pick. “I would just skip through college if I could and just go straight to the Vikings. But you’ve got to do your three years, and I’m willing to do it.”
Perich smiled widely as he matter-of-factly spelled out his plan to declare for the NFL draft in 2027, a bold but predictable goal the Gophers will be more than happy to help him achieve. Team members with that level of self-confidence who can simultaneously gain the admiration and trust of peers and supervisors are few and far between, but Perich appears to be that rare type of player.
His exceptional status is only about to ascend.
After Perich led the Big Ten and set the Minnesota freshman record with five interceptions last season, he's been taking regular turns at wide receiver during training camp while giving the Gophers a glimpse of Travis Hunter in a potential preview of college football's next two-way star.
“Koi will have a specific job each week within the offense. He can do a lot of things,” offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Greg Harbaugh Jr. said. "Why would I not want the ball in his hands?”
Perich also had punt returns of 60 and 28 yards last season plus a 32-yard kickoff return. Hunter, who was the second-overall pick in the draft this spring by the Jacksonville Jaguars, didn't even do that during his dazzling three-year career at Jackson State and Colorado that ended with the Heisman Trophy in his hands.
“I just hope they go out there and continue to do what they need to do,” Hunter said after a recent practice with the Jaguars. "I’m not going to say I’m the groundbreaker because there’s a lot of people before me who have done it. I just did it to a certain extent that nobody else did it.”
Perich has spent hours of extra time with assistant wide receivers coach Nick Faus this summer getting up to speed on work with the offense he missed while in meetings and drills with the defense. He also has a natural tutor at the ready when he's away from the team facility: Quarterback Drake Lindsey has become one of his best friends.
After class in the winter, they'd hang out and pore over the nuances of the playbook. This spring, Lindsey took Perich with him on a spring visit to his native Arkansas, where they bonded over golf — and, of course, football stuff like formations, audibles and first reads.
“He is a very special person. It’s unreal. He can do a lot of different things on the football field that not a lot of people can do,” Lindsey said. “So I think it’s going to be awesome to see what he can add to our offense.”
Perich’s bravado of a clear individual goal to turn pro comes as a package deal with a deference to the team that makes him an easy favorite in the locker room. Asked earlier this summer to reflect on the longest of his interception returns last season, a 45-yarder against Maryland, Perich mentioned defensive lineman Anthony Smith three times for his pressure on the passer that preceded the pick.
The praise for Perich from the Gophers inevitably circles back to his pure passion for the sport.
“Just being in love with the progress, in love with the journey. I feel like that’s the fun part,” Perich said.
Even after the grueling nature of late-summer practices, with two sets of playbooks to master.
“You wake up the next day, you’re still living, still living to the next day, and you get to live another day,” he said. “Just enjoy it.”
Despite Perich's admission he gave the Gophers little attention while growing up in tiny Esko, a town of about 2,000 people that's a two-hour drive north from Minneapolis and just outside of Duluth, he never wavered in his commitment to coach P.J. Fleck and a program that over the last six decades has only occasionally transcended the middle of the Big Ten pack. Perich was unmoved even by a late push during the recruiting period from Ohio State, a team he would've won a national championship with had he changed his mind.
“I give him a lot of credit because, for being so young and having this kind of hit you so fast, I think there are a lot of people who are not mature enough to handle that,” said Fleck, who's entering his ninth season with the Gophers. “He is a very mature individual who is very comfortable being himself, and that’s very hard to find in young people.”
AP Sports Writer Mark Long in Jacksonville, Florida, contributed.
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Minnesota defensive back Koi Perich poses for a photo Wednesday, July 16, 2025, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
Minnesota defensive back Koi Perich poses for a photo Wednesday, July 16, 2025, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
