Derik LeCaptain latest Gophers walk-on to receive surprise scholarship

Gophers football training camp and creative scholarship announcements go hand-in-hand, and Tuesday night it was Derik LeCaptain's turn to join the club.

During a team meeting, LeCaptain, a redshirt sophomore linebacker/special teams player, found out from an oar that he's now on scholarship.

Coach P.J. Fleck had some players come to the front of the meeting room, where they each were handed an oar that featured a word or phrase from the team's Row the Boat philosophy. When LeCaptain, a redshirt sophomore from Gardner, Wis., took his oar, he read the word on the back, "scholarship,'' and his teammates gave him a standing ovation and rushed to join him.

Fleck posted a video of the announcement on his twitter account, and it features LeCaptain calling his mother to give her the news. LeCaptain, a member of all four Gophers special teams, was the spring game MVP this year and the special teams scout team player of the year in 2019.

Fleck has used creative ways to announce scholarships to walk-ons, such as kicker Justin Juenemann receiving his notification via T-shirt shot from an air cannon; linebacker Blake Cashman discovering his news via an Easter egg hunt; and defensive lineman Sam Renner getting his award during a break in the action in the spring game.

The most impressive announcement, however, came in 2018, when linebacker/special teams player Bailey Schoenfelder got his news from a letter delivered by two Navy SEALs parachuting into TCF Bank Stadium after a Gophers practice.