Category: NCAA

 

The unexpected comes to mind this week as Minnesota and Iowa prepare for their 118^th  football game.  Why? Because both teams and their fans had no idea last year’s game in Iowa City would end with such drama.

With less than two minutes remaining in the game, Iowa’s Cooper DeJean fielded a punt and ran 54 yards for an apparent touchdown to give his No. 24 ranked team a 16-12 lead.  However, the go-ahead score was negated after officials determined that before fielding the football, DeJean signaled an illegal fair catch.

Emotions always run high in rivalry games but the replay ruling that wiped the touchdown off the scoreboard took things to a higher level. Iowa fans reportedly threw bottles, cans, and food onto the field.  The Minnesota bench was targeted with debris, forcing the players to move out of their sideline area.

The Golden Gophers hung on to their 12-10 lead, winning for the first time in Iowa City since 2000 and taking home the famous rivalry trophy, Floyd of Rosedale. Minnesota’s other four wins this century all came in Minneapolis where Saturday’s game will be played.

The 2023 game was a bitter defeat for the Hawkeyes, including for DeJean who now is in the NFL playing for the Eagles.  DeJean is only 21 years old, but he will be remembered as a legendary player for Iowa.  He has a charming backstory with origins in Odebolt, Iowa, a small town with less than 1,000 people.

As a high school player, the scholarship offers were modest coming from the likes of North and South Dakota schools.  But like a movie character DeJean had a passion for the home-state Hawkeyes and, boy, did he make their fans happy soon after he accepted an Iowa scholarship.  It was the only Power Five offer he received.

A superb cornerback and punt returner, he played three seasons at Iowa and the results were the kind of stuff that gets your uniform number retired and name on a short list of program legends.  In 2022 he set a school single season record by returning three pass interceptions for touchdowns. He was a unanimous cornerback All-American last season on a who’s who of All-American teams. He was also named Big Ten Defensive Back of the Year and Return Specialist of the Year after dazzling on punt returns including a 70-yard TD against Michigan State—and the score that wasn’t against the Gophers.

On Saturday, the Gophers will introduce Iowa to—just maybe—their own version of Cooper DeJean.  Minnesota’s nominee, of course, is prized freshman recruit Koi Perich, a substitute safety for now but already the team’s punt returner.

Perich has that small town background, too, coming from Esko, Minnesota, with a population of about 2,000.  Unlike DeJean coming out of high school, the college football world coveted Perich including mighty Ohio State who he turned down at the last minute.

After signing with the Gophers in December, Perich showed what he could do in a high school all-star game in San Antonio. Playing in the All-American Bowl against some of the better prep talent in the country last January, Perich was named MVP.  He had an interception, broke up two passes, made a tackle for a loss, and blocked and recovered a punt.

As a high school senior last fall Perich played defense, offense and special teams while leading Esko to a 10-1 record.  He accounted for 27 touchdowns, including five on defense, along with three scores on punt returns and one on a kickoff return.

In Perich’s brief career with the Gophers, he’s played special teams and also spot minutes as a defensive back and has an interception.  But it’s been as punt returner that he has mostly caused a stir.  Replacing regular returner Quentin Redding who is injured and out for the year, Perich already has a 28-yard return. He has returned three punts for an average of 16.67 yards (in 2023 DeJean averaged 11.5 for the season).               .

The moxie and athleticism are so evident when Perich is on the field that his presence makes observers watch in anticipation of what he will do.  He has inspired confidence in Minnesota head coach P.J. Fleck who is quick to point out that Perich, unlike some freshmen who enrolled in January, has only been in the program since June.

Perich has had some catching up to do with all there is to learn in college football, but Fleck said the freshman can handle the process by the “shovels.”  Talented, intelligent and confident, Perich has inspired trust in Fleck—something a freshman doesn’t easily earn.

“He’s a heck of a football player,” said Fleck who talks about the 6-foot-1, 200-pound Perich as a player who prompts anticipation that something good is going to happen when he is on the field.

Perhaps like a punt return or interception to beat the hated Hawkeyes on Saturday, or next year, or the year after?

Minnesota, with a 2-1 record, is about a 2.5-point underdog to Iowa, also 2-1.  For the Gophers to win they likely will need sophomore running back Darius Taylor’s big play ability.

Taylor, who is one of Minnesota’s top Name, Image and Likeness earners, missed the North Carolina opener because of a hamstring issue.  The Gophers probably win that game, a 19-17 loss, if Taylor had played.

Taylor, who averaged 133.2 yards rushing in 2023 (third best in program history), had a hamstring injury that caused him to miss seven games last season.  Darrell Thompson, the record setting former Gopher running back and now color analyst on the Gopher Radio Network, acknowledged how hamstring injuries can be re-occurring.

Thompson said hamstring prevention and maintenance are challenging because “you gotta really take care of it and rehab it and never forget about it.”  He added: “…It’s a big delicate muscle, especially when you’re a running back, receiver, defensive back, where you gotta…(track) the problem like all the time.”

Thompson told Sports Headliners fingers are crossed regarding Taylor.  “Absolutely.  We need him.  He’s a very integral part of the offense.  He’s the straw that stirs the drink, so we need him to be in one piece.”

Thompson believes Taylor’s production can go to a new level this fall for a couple of reasons. His workload will be shared with other backs, mostly Oklahoma transfer Marcus Major.  Odds are that a “pitch count” can reduce his vulnerability to injury.

Another positive is it looks like Taylor will be targeted more as a pass receiver. In two games he already has nine receptions after a total of 11 in six games last year.

Fleck, of course, knows what he’s got in Taylor who had a 80-yard touchdown run last Saturday in Minnesota’s win over Nevada.  “I think he’s one of the best players on this football team, and maybe in the country. …He’s really important to our team, not only on the field, but off the field. The type of person he is, the leader he is. How he’s developing as a man.

“There’s so many things that I love about Darius, but yeah, we missed him (against North Carolina). I mean you can’t sit there and say you don’t miss your best players when they’re not in there. …”

Thompson, BTW, was expected on Monday to start his annual routine of eating bacon each day leading up to the Iowa game.  His plan is to “eat as much bacon as possible” during the week, although he confessed there are limits. There was a year when he had nine pieces in one day and he didn’t feel so “great” after gobbling all that down.  The news, he said, didn’t go over well with his cardiologist.

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