After Danny Collins watched Koi Perich pretty much do everything for Esko High School in a game in 2022, the Gophers safeties coach immediately drove south on Interstate 35. He had one dominating thought.

“This is the guy,” Collins recalled thinking. The next day, he told head coach P.J. Fleck that very thing. And Minnesota set out to heavily recruit the four-star prospect starting his junior year.

Two years later, Perich is starring for the Gophers. He was named Big Ten defensive player of the week after a two-interception performance in a 21-17 win over UCLA on Oct. 12. He is the first U player to win the honor since Tyrone Carter in 1996; Carter went on to win the Jim Thorpe Award as the nation’s top defensive back in 1999 and an 11-year NFL career.

When Collins drove north again and again to Esko — a small town of about 2,200 people near Duluth — he set out to not only make an impression on Perich and his family but also the Bad Moms Club.

Danielle Perich, Koi’s mother, was a part of a group of 12 mothers who rallied around Brooke Pfister after her son, Jackson Pfister, a football player at Esko, collapsed on a field in Aitkin in 2019. Jackson, 15, passed away; he had a heart condition.

“It happened as a way, I guess, to help us heal, navigate the grief, walk through that unimaginable heartache,” Pfister told the Pioneer Press this week. “These moms came together, and we became the Bad Moms.”

Beyond support for Pfister, the ad hoc club would gather to make locker decorations or posters for football players at school or some other type of “shenanigan,” Danielle said. “We also like to embarrass the kids a little bit,” she added. “That’s our job as parents, right?”

During a get-together, one mother referenced the 2016 “Bad Moms” movie with Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell and Kathryn Hahn. The name stuck.

One time when Collins traveled the 130 miles north, Koi was busy playing basketball, so Collins texted Danielle. Lunch? Danielle was in and she also texted the Bad Moms. Replies flooded in. “Where are we taking Danny for lunch? We’re in! We’ll be there.”

“And so we just got to know him kind of informally and just as a normal guy,” Danielle said.

Last year, Fleck joined Collins on a trip north for a big home visit to the Periches. It was around the time Ohio State was also in hot pursuit of Koi, who was considered one of the top recruits in the nation. During the Gophers’ visit, there was a dinner at Carmen’s Bar and Grill in Cloquet. The Bad Moms Club was part of a welcome party.

The club even has a logo similar to that famous World War II image of a woman wearing a red polkadot bandanna, flexing her arm under the words “We Can Do It!” The Bad Moms have put a version of that image — which can have a heart tattoo with Koi’s name in the middle — on such things as visors and mugs.

When the Bad Moms welcomed Fleck to the Northland that day, they gave him a poster. Fleck has it sitting next to his desk at the Larson Football Performance Center.

Fleck has referenced the Bad Moms Club a few times when Koi’s impact this season has become more prominent. “It was all part of getting him to Minnesota,” Fleck said. “Koi is his own person, period. But Koi also surrounds himself with people who really love him.”

Perich has said the Gophers’ development of safeties who go on to the NFL — Antoine Winfield Jr., Jordan Howden and Tyler Nubin — was a key factor in his decision to stay in Minnesota. Collins also routinely emphasizes the opportunity for him to become a legend in his home state. That was realized, in part, when fans lifted him off the field at Huntington Bank Stadium after his game-sealing interception to upset then-No. 11 Southern California on Oct. 5.

But Collins also added: “I think, at the end of the day, I had to win the Bad Moms.”

Members of the Bad Moms Club gather for a photo at the Minnesota Gophers football game against Iowa in Minneapolis on Sept. 21, 2024. The club supports Gophers safety Koi Perich, of Esko, Minn. His parents, George and Danielle, are second and third from the right. (Courtesy of Danielle Perich)

The Bad Moms Club is still going strong. While members can be spread out supporting their college-age boys, a group still gathers for Gopher games at Huntington Bank Stadium.

“Homecoming game!” Pfister said about Saturday’s matchup with Maryland. “I will be there in Koi’s white jersey.”

Childhood

Koi’s first sport was wrestling. He was good at it from the first time he stepped on the mat, and his nearly perfect record reflects that.

Physicality was engrained. Brother Mason, two years older; cousin Carter Zezulka, one year older, and Koi came up with ways to beat on each other. Danielle says they have videos to prove it.

“They’re wearing boxing gloves and their football pads and they’re just throwing (haymakers) at each other,” she said. “They would tackle each other on the trampoline. And they would just ride each other.

“If somebody was slow to get up, they would just razz them,” she continued. “That really helped the competitive spirit; that’s down deep in the core of all three of them.”

Mason is now a receiver at Division II Minnesota State Mankato. He had 18 receptions for 300 yards and four touchdowns last year, but has been sidelined with a broken collarbone this fall. Zezulka is a receiver at Division III Wisconsin-Stout. He has 13 receptions for 207 yards and two TDs.

Koi played football, basketball, baseball and ran track. He holds school records for more than 2,000 points scored in basketball and hold the 4×100-meter relay mark with his brother, cousin and a close friend.

Father George didn’t say there was one particular highlight-reel play that stood out. Koi has been making them in every sport, including Pop Warner football. “There’s just a lot of them,” he said.

When Perich produced his first collegiate interception against Rhode Island in September, he lamented not being able to return it for a touchdown.

“It’s been outlined that he’s pretty confident in himself. It’s true. He does have a supreme level of confidence,” said George, who played football at Valley City (N.D.) State. “Even when he was little, he wanted the ball. He wanted to be the guy to have the last shot or have the opportunity to win the game at the end. He always had a pretty strong belief in himself. That’s been since he started playing sports.”

The Periches aren’t surprised to see Koi have early success in his Gophers career. Danielle recalled Koi producing a return for a touchdown in his first year on the high school varsity team as a sophomore.

“Well, dang, nobody even has a chance at catching him,” said Danielle, a basketball player and track and field athlete at Valley City State.

Danielle said Koi’s performance in the All-American Bowl, a showcase of the best high school football players in the nation, in January showed her that he was ready for the next level. Koi — the top-ranked player in Minnesota and a top-five-ranked safety in the nation in the 2024 class — had an interception, two pass break-ups and a tackle for lost yards. He also blocked and recovered one punt.

“He killed it down there,” Danielle said about the all-star game in San Antonio. “”And I was like, ‘Alright, he’s got this. Yeah, he’s gonna do just fine.”

But Danielle said it still caught her by surprise to see him on the Gophers’ kickoff coverage team for the first play of the season against North Carolina in late August. “Besides almost having a heart attack the first time?” she said. “I’m like, ‘Oh my God, here we go!’ ”

Recently nicknamed “Koi Wonder,” Perich has been ascending since then. He had a 60-yard kickoff return at Michigan, the game-sealing interception against USC and two more picks against UCLA, including a great read and diving snag to help the Gophers get back in the game at Rose Bowl Stadium. His playing time has increased on defense in the past two weeks, including at free safety, nickleback and in the box as a pseudo linebacker.

Clutch

Fleck believes in the sports concept of having a “clutch gene.” It’s included in how the U recruits and evaluates players.

“Can you have consistency, the attention to detail within the fundamental, plugged into the scheme, the call (and perform) under the pressure of the situation?” Fleck asked.

There are two precedents for U freshmen. In 2018, receiver Rashod Bateman showed it with four catches for 108 yards and a touchdown in a win over Indiana in late October. In 2021, cornerback Justin Walley displayed it with a big interception and five tackles against Wisconsin in late November.

“I always bring Rashod back to the Indiana game, catching that post to go win the game,” Fleck said. “That was a huge play in his career. And I think that gave him the confidence, the antidote, to be able to go perform at a really high level and keep that sustained throughout his entire career.

“We all need that moment where it’s: ‘I can. I belong. And I will from here on out.’ We all need that. And I think Rashad and Koi kind of did that at very similar times.

“Four years from now, eight years from now,” Fleck added. “We’re going to bring it back to the USC game.”

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