The Gophers football program on Tuesday added a wide receiver to its 2025 recruiting class and saw three members of its 2024 spring roster enter the transfer portal.
Gophers land Andover wide receiver Cameron Begalle, but three enter transfer portal
The Gophers football team added a local wide receiver from the Class of 2025 but lost three players from their spring roster to the transfer portal.
The Minnesota Star Tribune
April 17, 2024 at 8:44PM
Andover wide receiver Cameron Begalle, a three-star recruit, announced on the X platform that he has committed to the Gophers. The 6-0, 180-pounder caught 74 passes for 1,252 yards and 12 touchdowns as a junior last season. He is the sixth-ranked player in Minnesota in the 2025 class and the 155th-ranked wide receiver nationally by 247Sports.
Begalle recently received scholarship offers from Air Force and Army but chose the Gophers after receiving an offer on Tuesday.
Defensive back Tariq Watson and offensive linemen Cade McConnell and De’Eric Mister entered their names into the transfer portal on Tuesday, the opening day of the spring transfer window that lasts until April 30.
Watson, a redshirt sophomore from Gretna, La., played 13 games in 2023, making 10 tackles. He also saw action in one game in 2022 but preserved his redshirt year. McConnell, a redshirt sophomore from Choctaw, Okla., redshirted in 2022 and did not see action in 2023. Mister, a redshirt freshman from Gary, Ind., did not see action last year.
Gophers coach P.J. Fleck said he expects to add some players through the portal during this window.
“We love this football team; we love where we’re at,’' he said after Tuesday’s practice. “There’s going to be, probably, a few additions, just like there are some subtractions. Everybody in the country is dealing with that piece. But whatever the needs are, we’ll make sure we have people for those needs.’'
Bixby giving it another go elsewhere
Trey Bixby, the former Eden Prairie defensive lineman who spent the 2022 season as a redshirt freshman for the Gophers but medically retired from football in 2023, will attempt a comeback at another school. He has entered his name into the transfer portal.
Bixby, who was the top-rated recruit in the Gophers’ 2022 class, developed a medical condition that caused an allergic reaction when his body temperature rose. The condition caused Bixby to lose weight, limited his ability to exercise and forced him to miss his junior season of football at St. Edward High School in Lakewood, Ohio.
He transferred to Eden Prairie High School in 2021 but was limited to four games with the Eagles that season while recovering from the condition and suffering a high ankle sprain. Fleck honored the scholarship offer he gave Bixby in 2020, and Bixby signed with the team in December 2021.
The Nittany Lions converted on three fourth downs while protecting a one-point lead to keep the Gophers from getting the ball back.
