The dizzying pace of the college football transfer portal is coming to a close, and it’s time to wrap up what it means for the Gophers going into the 2026 season.

Minnesota had 21 players exit after the 2025 season and 19 players come aboard for next year. The portal closes for new entrants on Friday. And while players can still join new programs, the huge majority of Minnesota’s work is done. The recruiting site 247Sports likes the Gophers class overall, slotting Minnesota at 30th in the nation and seventh within the Big Ten.

This analysis breaks down the future pieces, ranking the top 10 and putting the remaining nine adds into two tiers. Daniel House, founder of Gophers Guru, provides analysis on five of the newcomers.

1. TJ Bush, defensive end, California

The best acquisition for the U this winter played nearly 2,000 total snaps, spread evenly between Cal last year and the two previous at Liberty. Minnesota knew it struggled with him in its nonconference game in Berkeley last September, when Bush had four pressures, three tackles and one sack.

The 6-foot-3, 265-pounder had 37 total pressures in 2025, per Pro Football Focus. He can complement Anthony Smith and Karter Menz at both edge spots, which can keep the trio fresh to menace quarterbacks.

House: The best chance of being a high-impact transfer. … Disruptive, tone-setting. … (He) generates knock-back into the quarterback, impeding vision lanes and compressing edges. His aggressive, violent hands stand out while studying film.

2. Naquan Crowder, defensive tackle, Marshall

The Gophers identified a critical need to replenish their interior D-line given the exits of their top four at that position last season. This 6-foot-2 320-pound anchor is considered tops in a trio of new additions. The former Division II player developed at Marshall last season and was considered by PFF to be outstanding in run defense (82.7) in the Sun Belt Conference.

House: Slightly different style of defensive tackle than the Gophers have targeted in the past. He is a big, wide-bodied, space-eater. Played in wider alignment shades within a 3-3-5 defense, so his skills against the run may be completely maximized as he becomes more of a pure nose (tackle) for the Gophers. … I’ve been wondering if the Gophers may become more of a multi-front defense in 2026.

Michigan State defensive back Aydan West (2) and linebacker Darius Snow (23) react after stopping Penn State from gaining a first down during the first half of an NCAA college football game, Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025, in East Lansing, Mich. West committed to the Gophers out of the transfer portal. (AP Photo/Jose Juarez)

3. Aydan West, cornerback, Michigan State

Minnesota had a huge need at CB2 after two portal defections at that position this winter. There is belief within the program the Gophers got a “very good” candidate here to play opposite starter John Nestor. At 5-foot-11 and 190 pounds, West logged 380 snaps as a true freshman for the Spartans. The Gaithersburg, Md., native had two undefeated state championship seasons with Quince Orchard High School.

4. Perry Thompson, receiver, Auburn

Auburn wide receiver Perry Thompson (3) spins away from Georgia defensive back Demello Jones (15) during the first half of an NCAA college football game Saturday, Oct. 11, 2025, in Auburn, Ala. (AP Photo/Butch Dill)

Minnesota needs wideouts who can create space and win contested catches, and this 6-foot-3, 220-pound target with speed will be asked to get open regularly for QB Drake Lindsey next fall.

As a true freshman in the SEC, Thompson had five receptions for 126 yards and a touchdown, followed by 17 grabs for 154 yards as a sophomore.

House: Highly-rated high school player who had limited productivity over two college seasons. … Auburn’s RPO (run-pass option) offense involved a heavy dose of quick routes, so Minnesota’s coaching staff will be tasked with expanding his route tree as he enters a completely different offensive language and system.

5. Bennett Warren, right tackle, Tennessee

The 6-foot-7, 325-pounder was a big-time recruit coming from Houston, but totaled just 116 snaps over two years with the Volunteers. With three years of eligibility remaining, Warren will compete for the starting right tackle spot with redshirt freshman DJ Shipp of Eastvale, Calif., in spring ball.

6. Noah Jennings, receiver, Cincinnati

The 6-foot, 190-pound to-be senior has the second-highest snap count (1,506) in the transfer class behind Bush. After two years at Charleston Southern, he totaled 23 catches for 323 yards with the Bearcats last season. Jennings didn’t play much in the slot last season, but might be a candidate to do so this fall.

7. Xion Chapman, defensive tackle, Florida International

The Allentown, Pa., native signed with Minnesota after visiting Penn State and before he headed to Oklahoma State. The 6-foot-4, 300-pounder will help in the interior D-line and his best PFF grade came as a pass rusher (79.8). He was credited with 24 pressures at FIU a season ago.

House: Solid productivity in key pass rushing metrics. … Chapman’s blend of lateral quickness and size could create some mismatches vs. certain guards. Minnesota will work on unlocking his pad level and consistency against the run as moves up to the Big Ten.

Tulsa’s Zion Steptoe (7) runs off the field during an NCAA college football game in Greenville, N.C., Saturday, Oct. 16, 2025. Steptoe committed to the Gophers out of the transfer portal. (AP Photo/Ben McKeown)

8. Zion Steptoe, receiver, Tulsa

The Gophers are betting to hit on two of the three new wideouts — a final verdict on that success rate will come in December. After starting out as a defensive back at Purdue, this 5-foot-11, 195-pound athlete had more than 900 snaps at Tulsa. Steptoe has speed to stretch the field and has played some in the slot. He had 36 receptions for 475  yards at Tulsa.

9. Mekhai Smith, safety, Lehigh

With star safety Koi Perich off to the Oregon Ducks, Minnesota brought in two new players at that position. But the internal belief within the program is the Gophers like the experienced depth already cultivated at that spot, plus the upside of Zach Harden.

At 6-2 and 210 pounds, Smith had 56 tackles and four interceptions last season at the FCS level. If he can adjust to the higher level in the Big Ten, Smith can compete for playing time.

House: Compared to Minnesota’s scheme, he operated in some stylistically-similar coverage structures at Lehigh. He looks like he’ll be comfortable triggering from depth via zones in the backend, rolling down into the box or being more of a hybrid defensive back. … Displayed solid physicality and open-field tackling fundamentals.

10. Sid Kaba, defensive tackle, Marshall

The 6-3, 290-pound product of Columbus, Ohio didn’t play a ton for the Thundering Herd last season (154 snaps), but was strong against the run (79.9 grade, per PFF). The goal for Kaba appears to be taking a chunk of snaps in the trenches.

Contributors

Tight end Kaden Helms (Oklahoma) comes in as Minnesota lost three at the position from last season. He is considered a freak athlete, but has injury history with the Sooners. The U doesn’t believe that’s chronic. … Running back TJ Thomas (Elon) will see a handful of RBs ahead of him on the depth chart, but fewer clear-cut names competing to be a returner. … Quarterback Michael Merdinger (Liberty) will complete with Max Shikenjanski to be QB2 behind Lindsey. … Linebacker Andrew Marshall (Ohio) might see the field most on special teams and in a pinch if there are multiple injuries at LB. … Kicker Beckham Sunderland (Michigan) will compete with redshirt freshman Daniel Jackson for primary place-kicking duties next season. The U does not plan to add another kicker before next fall.

Developmental

Running back Jaron Thomas (Purdue); safety Parker Knutson (Southwest Minnesota State); cornerback Elisha West (Michigan State); punter Zachary Robbins (Utah State).

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COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — President Donald Trump suggested Friday that he may punish countries with tariffs if they don’t back the U.S. controlling Greenland, a message that came as a Congressional delegation met Danish and Greenlandic lawmakers in Copenhagen and sought to lower tensions.

Trump for months has insisted that the U.S. should control Greenland, a semiautonomous territory of NATO ally Denmark, and said earlier this week that anything less than the Arctic island being in U.S. hands would be “unacceptable.”

“I may put a tariff on countries if they don’t go along with Greenland,” he said Friday, without providing details. “We need Greenland for national security.”

He had not previously mentioned using tariffs to try to force the issue.

Earlier this week, the foreign ministers of Denmark and Greenland met in Washington this week with U.S. Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

That encounter didn’t resolve the deep differences, but did produce an agreement to set up a working group — on whose purpose Denmark and the White House then offered sharply diverging public views. Greenland is a semiautonomous territory of Denmark, a NATO ally of the U.S.

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By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER, Associated Press Economics Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department’s investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has brought heightened attention to a key drama that will play out at the central bank in the coming months: Will Powell leave the Fed when his term as chair ends, or will he take the unusual step of remaining a governor?

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Powell’s term as Fed chair finishes on May 15, but because of the central bank’s complex structure, he has a separate term as one of seven members of its governing board that lasts until January 31, 2028. Historically, nearly all Fed chairs have stepped down from the board when they are no longer chair. But Powell could be the first in nearly 50 years to stay on as a governor.

Many Fed-watchers believe that the criminal investigation into Powell’s testimony about cost overruns for Fed building renovations was intended to intimidate him out of taking that step. If Powell stays on the board, it would deny the White House a chance to gain a majority, undercutting the Trump administration’s efforts to seize greater control over what has for decades been an institution largely insulated from day-to-day politics.

“I find it very difficult to see Powell leaving before midnight on Jan. 31, 2028,” said David Wilcox, a former top economist at the Fed and senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. “This is a mortal threat to the governance structure of the Fed as we’ve known it for 90 years. And I think that Powell does take that threat exceedingly seriously, and therefore will believe that it is his solemn duty to continue to occupy his seat on the board of governors.”

Powell, 72, was appointed as Fed chair by Trump in 2018, and must step down from the position in May because his second four-year term is ending. He has declined several times to comment on his plans beyond that when asked by reporters. A spokesperson declined to comment for this story.

Trump has sought to push out Powell before his time is up, obsessively attacking him for not cutting rates as sharply as the president wants, particularly in light of ongoing concerns about high costs for groceries, utilities, and housing that have remained a salient political issue even as inflation has cooled.

On Tuesday, Trump highlighted that mortgage rates have declined in the past year. “If I had the help of the Fed, it would be easier,” he said. “But that jerk will be gone soon.”

Or maybe not.

Here is a look at the impacts of whether or not Powell stays on the board could have:

What happens if Powell stays on the board

Trump said Tuesday that he hopes to name a new Fed chair in the next few weeks. But that could get held up by the criminal investigation of Powell.

Several Republican senators, including at least two on the banking committee who would have to approve Trump’s nominees to the Fed, have expressed skepticism that Powell committed crimes during his testimony last June regarding the Fed’s $2.5 billion renovation of two office buildings, a project that Trump has criticized as excessive. That testimony is the subject of subpoenas sent to the Fed by U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro.

Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican, said he would not vote for any Fed nominees until the legal cloud around Powell is resolved. That would be enough to delay a nomination from getting out of the banking committee.

If no new chair of the Fed’s board has been confirmed by May 15, then Powell could remain in that post until a replacement has been confirmed. As a result, the Fed might not cut interest rates anywhere near as quickly as Trump wants.

If Powell stays on as a governor even after he is no longer chair, Trump could still name someone to lead the Fed but that would give him a total of three appointments on the board — including two from his first term — and short of a majority.

So even if Trump nominates a chair who seeks to do the president’s bidding regarding interest rates, that person “would have very little persuasive power with his colleagues,” said Wilcox, who is also director of research at Bloomberg Economics. Powell, along with other members of the Fed’s 19-member interest-rate setting committee, could outvote the new chair. That hasn’t happened since 1986.

What happens if Powell leaves the board

In that case, Trump could nominate a fourth person to the board and gain a majority. He could even then add a fifth, if the Supreme Court allows his attempt to fire Governor Lisa Cook to proceed. The high court will hear her case on Wednesday.

A majority on the board would enable the White House to make sweeping changes to the Fed. Trump’s Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, has advocated numerous reforms to reduce the central bank’s influence in the economy and financial markets.

Trump’s majority on the Fed’s board could also remove some of the presidents of the 12 regional banks, who are members of the Fed’s rate-setting committee. The New York Fed president has a vote on the committee and four others vote on a rotating basis.

Several of those bank presidents have expressed opposition to the deep rate cuts that Trump has demanded. The board of governors could seek to have them fired if a chair wanted to do so.

What past Fed chairs have done

While nearly all Fed chairs have left the board of governors before their terms were up, there is some precedent for Powell to stay. In 1978, then-Chair Arthur Burns stayed on the board for about three weeks after his chairmanship ended. But in 1948, then-Fed chairman Marriner Eccles remained as a governor for three years after finishing as chair, in part because President Harry Truman asked him to remain.

In 1951, however, he played a key role in undercutting the Truman administration in a dispute over interest rates, which led to the Fed-Treasury Accord that established the modern Fed as a largely independent institution.

Eccles became a symbol of Fed independence, though some academics say that reputation is overstated. The Fed’s principal office building —- currently under renovation and at the center of the criminal investigation of Powell — is named after him.

Truman then appointed a Treasury official, William McChesney Martin, to the Fed chairmanship and assumed he would do his bidding. Yet Martin defied Truman and raised interest rates. Years later, Truman ran into Martin in New York City and called him a “traitor.” The Fed’s second office building in Washington is named after Martin.

“So it’s a cautionary tale also for Trump, thinking he’s going to get his own Fed chair in there,” said Lev Menand, a law professor at Columbia University who studies the Fed. “Martin didn’t do what Truman wanted.”

By Todd Martens, Los Angeles Times

Meow Wolf likes to say that its upcoming Los Angeles exhibition is focused on the art of storytelling — why it matters, what it means and how stories transform.

“This exhibition is about the inevitability of change,” says creative director Elizabeth Jarrett, “and how the stories that we tell ourselves and others have the ability to affect the way we perceive change and the way we experience it.”

That also means that Meow Wolf, known for its large-scale, explorable installations in Las Vegas, Denver, Houston, the Dallas suburbs and its home base of Santa Fe, New Mexico, will double down on its experiments with other media. Throughout the Los Angeles show, guests will encounter mixes of live action and animation, shadow boxes, games and even a mini escape room, only here guests have to break into rather than out of a secret room.

The Times spent two days in Santa Fe late last year to preview Meow Wolf’s Los Angeles exhibition, set to take over part of the Cinemark complex at Howard Hughes L.A. near the end of this year. Here are five fast things to know about the experience.

The Meow Wolf tourist attraction, which has been described as an “immersive, multimedia experiences,” at its location in an old bowling alley in Santa Fe, New Mexico on July 31, 2017. (Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS)

1. The exhibition pays homage to the multiplex

In Las Vegas, guests enter a trippy grocery store complete with parodies of household items before finding their way to the main exhibition space. In Santa Fe, it’s a house with otherworldly goings-on. And in Los Angeles, attendees will first find themselves in a movie theater.

Co-founder and executive vice president Sean Di Ianni says the team is aiming for “sticky floor, popcorn vibes.” “It’s a ’90s multiplex cinema, and we’re going to lean into that, to design the space to feel like that era of multiplex cinema,” Di Ianni says.

The Meow Wolf tourist attraction, which has been described as an “immersive, multimedia experiences,” at its location in an old bowling alley in Santa Fe, New Mexico on July 31, 2017. (Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS)

2. There will be a sentient candy — and an actual cafe

As guests traverse the cinema at the start of the show, they will encounter a concession stand where candy has sprung to life. In fact, one of the first art pieces in the space will be a multicolored installation in aquarium-like boxes of forgotten gummies and discarded pizza slices that appear to have a soul of their own.

There will be a cafe in the theater, and the lounge itself will be filled with art. Large-scale neon sculptures — a bunny, a martini glass — will grace the upper walls. And behind the bar will be a projection wall with original video designed to look decades old. “One of our inspirations was very early experimental video art, stuff people made with a Sandin Image Processor, stuff that was only possible because people in the ’60s and ’70s decided they were going to engineer circuits to make visual images,” says video designer Sue Slagle.

3. You can sit on a space bike

All of Meow Wolf’s exhibitions have a sci-fi bent, and Los Angeles will be no different, with many a nod to films of science fiction and fantasy. One part of the show will house a pair of space bikes. They will be rideable, situated in front of a giant screen to simulate movement. The engine will spin like the innards of a kaleidoscope and embedded in the bike will be a small mini-game.

There will be two space bikes, including one that’s ADA compliant. “The tires are pretty complicated,” says space bike designer Chris Hilson. “Why are they so complicated? We needed to put monitors in there. We’re going to have monitors in there showing some really insane spatial imagery. It gives them a really bold effect.”

4. There will be a spaceship — or is it a fish?

A major part of the exhibition space will house a spaceship. But it’s not just any spaceship. The so-called Dream Freighter is also a living being.

“The Dream Freighter is a living time-, space-traversing vessel that’s sort of shaped like a fish, but not a normal fish,” says Hilson.

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The centerpiece room of the ship will house a giant interactive screen, in which guests can twist knobs and panels to skip across different intergalactic worlds — or perhaps they’re just dreams. It isn’t quite clear. But the goal is something that feels both mechanical and biological.

“We’re going for a real kind of interesting organic appeal to this,” says Hilson. “I’ve been calling it bio nouveau.”

5. It’s L.A. so of course there’ll be a meditative space

Meow Wolf focuses on maximalist, sensory overloaded art, but at least one key space in Los Angeles will be dedicated to deep contemplation. And mushrooms.

“We’re going to make a sustainable room,” says Shakti Howeth, creative director. “It’s a decompression room where people can dip out of the main anchor to have a quiet meditative moment and recaliberate. It’s going to be all-natural treatments with a mycelia ceiling.”

The fungal feeling will extend to other parts of the exhibition as well. Meow Wolf is also working on a 30-foot tall explorable “mushroom tower,” which will have hidden interactions and secret hideaways. The latter will serve as one of the spiritual tentpoles of the space. It was important, says Howeth, for the Los Angeles exhibit to celebrate the organic.

©2026 Los Angeles Times. Visit at latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.