On Sunday, the Minnesota Football program had a big day picking up five commitments for their 2026 recruiting class following hteir first major offiical visit weekend of the 2026 recruiting cycle.
The first of those five commitments was a surprising one, Skyridge (UT) offensvie tackle Mataalii Benjamin. Below, Gophers Nation goes over five things you should know about Benjamin and his commitment to Minnesota.
1. Minnesota beat out strong competition for Benjamin including a rival
Benjamin has a very strong offer sheet with nearly two dozen programs extending offers to the offensive tackle. Among those that offered Benjamin and didn't make his finalists include Arizona, Arizona State, Cal, NC State, Texas A&M, and Washington. That being said, Benjamin's recruitment came down to Oklahoma State, Minnesota, Arkansas, Utah, and Nebraska.
While the Gophers and offensive line coach Brian Calalhan were chipping away at Benjamin for quite some time over the last few months. Including Callahan heading out ot Utah in May to see the three-star, a lot of the discusiosn surrounding his recruitment was with the Nebraska Cornhuskers and Utah Utes.
Nonetheless, the Golden Gophers were able to not just get Benjamin on campus this weekend but in a surprsiing turn was able to convince him to make a commitment before taking his last three official visits.
That being said, we would expect programs to continue to push for Benjamin esecially the in-state Utes.
2. Benjamin is the second prospect from Utah to commit to Minnseota in the Rivals era
Utah historically isn't a pipeline state for Minnesota but perhaps the Golden Gophers are beginning to carve out a niche in The Beehive State. Benjamin is the second prospect from Utah in the Rivals era to commit to the Golden Gophers. Both of those commitments have come in the 2026 recruiting cycle as the program earlier this cycle landed a commitment from wide receiver Kai Meza.
3. The recruiting timeline
What makes Minnesota's recruitment of Benjamin more impressive is that the Golden Gophers were one of the newer contenders for the three-star prospect.
Benjamin began receiving offers last spring including Arizona,Arkansa, Nebraska, Washington, and Texas A&M among others. In the fall, his stock continued to rise and he picked up an offer from Utah. It wasn't until February, that the Gophers entered the mix for Benjamin.
Despite the late start in his recruitment, Brian Callahan and assistant offensive line coach James Bain were able to make up ground quickly. Benjamin didn't get to campus fo an unofficial visit this spring but the Gophers did make their way to Utah to see Benjamin. They then got him on campus this weekend and the rest is history.
4. What is Minnesota getting in Benjamin?
We'll have a deeper scouting report on Benjamin this week but for a quick scouting report, we turn to Rivals national recruiting director and west coast expert, Adam Gorney.
"Benjamin has great size and length but will need to add more weight to his frame as he continues to develop beacuse he's so tall, there's a big target there and he'll need to add weight to push people around in the Big Ten."
Additionally, here are our quick thoughts on Benjamin.
"We haven't been able to do a deep dive yet on Benjamin but early on we do like what we see out of the Utah offensive tackle. As Adam said, he's already got great size and length. His length as he continues to develop is going to be a huge advantage for him. He moves rather well for his size. He'll definetely need to add more weight to his frame to withstand bull rushes from some of the Big Ten's best pass rushers but once he's able to work with Minnesota's strength and conditioning that shouldn't be a problem. Overall, Benjamin in our brief glimpses so far shows great upside with the chance to be one of the better offensive tackles that Brian Callahan has recruited over the couse of his tenure with the Golden Gophers."
5. Brian Callahan assembling his best OL class yet?
Minnesota offensive line coach Brian Callahan is assembling one of his best offensive line classes, if not his best offensive line class with the Golden Gophers.
Callahan started the class off strong with a commitment from in-state four-star Andrew Trout. This spring, he then landed a major commitment when he nabbed Wisconsin three-star prospect Gavin Meier, one of the state's top overall prospects and a priorirty recruit for the Badgers.
This wekeend, he was able to then add two more offensive tackles to the room with two of his top remaining targets in Benjamin as well as Oklahoma standout Daniel McMorris.
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