P.J. Fleck and his Gophers football coaching staff looked westward for prospects before the Big Ten expanded in that direction — and certainly well before they upset No. 11 USC last weekend.

Fleck proved with the commitments in his 2025 class that the Gophers prioritized in-state talent but went well beyond Minnesota’s borders to establish a recruiting base all the way to California.

The Gophers have five senior recruits from either the Pacific or Mountain time zones, including four-star Laguna Beach quarterback Jackson Kollock, Covina wide receiver Legend Lyons and Corona Centennial offensive tackle Daniel Shipp from Southern California.

If the Gophers could snare back-to-back wins against new Big Ten teams from California, with Saturday’s game at UCLA up next, Fleck and his staff would have even more clout out west to land future recruits.

“We beat USC, and that’s going to help,” Gophers offensive coordinator Greg Harbaugh Jr., said Wednesday. “That opens up eyes in California, in all areas of it. We’re going to go where the best players are, but obviously, we know that the state of California has a lot of great prospects.”

Fleck and his coaches can’t talk about specific players until they sign in December, but it’s pretty clear the Gophers are trying to take advantage of now being able to play USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington in the Big Ten.

In the 2026 class, the Gophers offered scholarships to 24 players in the Pacific and Mountain time zones, including four quarterbacks from California. They already have offered three players from California in the 2027 class, including five-star Sierra Canyon defensive end Richard Wesley, the No. 2 player in the country in that class.

“We want to be able to utilize that and be able to get in there and get our footprint in there and continue to recruit those guys out there,” said Harbaugh, who is one of the U’s top recruiting assistants in California.