https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6551090/2025/08/14/koi-perich-minnesota-football-travis-hunter/
Koi Perich looks different from his Minnesota teammates in practice, and it’s not because of his 6-foot-1, 200-pound frame. Outside of the quarterbacks, half the Gophers wear maroon jerseys, while the other half don white. Each day, Perich pulls on a split-colored jersey with maroon on one side and white on the other. On defense, Perich lines up at safety. Then he flips over to offense and plays receiver. For good measure, Perich also returns kicks and punts.
“This isn’t a gimmick,” Minnesota coach P.J. Fleck said. “This is a real thing where he’s going to play offense. It could be a Wildcat quarterback. He’s going to be on defense, he’s going to kick return, he’s going to punt return. But Koi will show us what he can handle and how much we give him.”
Travis Hunter blazed a path for current and future two-way football stars by channeling his exceptional athletic ability into an unprecedented workload during last year’s Heisman Trophy-winning campaign at Colorado. First in line to follow his example is Minnesota’s sophomore safety, who made an immediate impact in his debut college season and has eyes on adding to his plate this fall. He’s perhaps the most versatile threat in college football, but the major question facing Perich is whether he can produce on offense while remaining effective on defense, where he primarily shined as a freshman.
“I’ve played offense and defense my whole life,” Perich said. “Ultimately, it’s just playing football.”
“We’re going to do as much as Koi will allow us to do,” Fleck said in July. “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 by any means, but I’m saying that he is somebody who did it within the last decade. That’s 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.”
www.nytimes.com
