College Football 2024: Ranking the best freshmen performances in October | News, results, highlights, statistics and rumors

True freshman safety Koi Perich is one of the reasons Minnesota has a top-10 pass defense. Perich was a 4-star recruit and the No. 5 overall safety in the country as of the 2024 class.

He was a consistent starter in October and had some impressive numbers in the Gophers' last three games. Minnesota's best performance came in its surprising 24-17 victory over USC. Perich finished with six total tackles, including five solo stops and a forced fumble. He also had the game-winning interception of Miller Moss late in the fourth quarter.

Since that game he has become more productive week after week. He had two interceptions in Minnesota's 21-17 win over UCLA on Oct. 12. He totaled three tackles and one interception in Minnesota's 48-23 win over Maryland last week.

Perich was also effective on offense against Maryland. We could potentially see more from the talented rookie on that side of the ball as well.

“I don't want to put too much on him, but whatever we put on him, he was fine,” Gophers head coach PJ Fleck said earlier this week as his team prepared for Saturday's game at Illinois. “He's a competitor and an athlete, and if we can add another athlete on offense – and I'm not saying he's going to play 30, 40 snaps, but if we can find a way to get 8-10 snaps by He does different things, then.” We'll definitely highlight that.