P.J. Fleck and the Minnesota Golden Gophers celebrated a successful signing day on Wednesday as a total of 33 players will join the program for the 2023 season. If you thought that would come without any border battle drama, you were wrong.
According to Fleck, the Wisconsin Badgers contacted Prior Lake defensive lineman Martin Owusu and offensive lineman Greg Johnson in an effort to flip the commits. While Fleck said the Badgers used several pitches, they also reverted to “negative recruiting.”
“You get to see all the text messages,” Fleck said during his press conference. “… You get to see all these grown men negative recruit. [It’s] beautiful and I appreciate everybody sharing those with us because we don’t negative recruit.”
Fleck also said that Owusu showed him the negative texts, which prompted a reference to Paul Bunyan’s Axe, which the Gophers have held for the past two years after beating Wisconsin.
“[They] negative recruit to flip us,” Fleck said. “It didn’t work, so we Axed it.”
New Badgers coach Luke Fickell was asked about Fleck’s comments during his signing day press conference and denied that his program negative recruits.
Here was Luke Fickell's response:
"I won't negative recruit." #Badgers https://t.co/L36xVBCIf1 pic.twitter.com/PiB5yF9uIs
— Evan Flood (@Evan_Flood) December 21, 2022
“I won’t negative recruit,” Fickell told reporters Wednesday. “I’m not saying somebody didn’t call. I know we maybe reached out to somebody. But I wouldn’t think that we would’ve said anything negative about a guy going anywhere. We’ve got plenty of positives to say about what it is we do.”
The drama with the Badgers overshadowed a successful day for the Gophers, who added 21 incoming freshmen, five transfers and seven preferred walk-ons in this year’s class.
At the top of the class is four-star Michigan running back Darius Taylor and four-star offensive lineman and Osseo native Jerome Williams. The Gophers also signed 19 three-star recruit which helped the Gophers rank 41st in 247Sports’ composite rankings and eighth in the Big Ten.
(In case you were wondering, Wisconsin ranks 56th.)
Related: The five highest-rated players to the Gophers on signing day
