Riley Sunram Talks About Choosing the Gophers with Adam

Riley Sunram is Headed From Kindred to Minnesota Football

KINDRED, N.D. — Adam Chalifoux and Riley Sunram caught up over zoom to discuss Riley’s commitment to play defensive line for the Minnesota Golden Gophers.

Adam: “First thing I want to ask you because I have been following your travels via twitter and I’ve lost count. How many places did you visit? How many offers did you wind up with on the table?”

Riley: “Yeah so last fall I went to seven game day visits which was a lot but it was really fun and then this spring I had a total of five visits two of those being Minnesota so and then I had eleven offers.”

Adam: “OK and what were some of those bigger schools offering you?”

Riley: “It was going to be my top four I was going to release that but I decided to commit to Minnesota but that was Miami, Kansas State, Kansas, and Minnesota so those were kind of my bigger schools and then Missouri was an SEC school.”

Adam: “You obviously had some incredible opportunities there and what made the Gophers feel like the right fit for you?”

Riley: “Yeah so, just that fit part, I think they were the best fit for me and they weren’t too far away but they’re alos far enough where kind of like a college feel you know, so that helps my family out just it’s a little closer and just the culture, I love everything they do, how they compete and I love what Fleck does and how he sticks to his own and all their coaches are very enthusiastic they gave a lot of support and I just love how they coach. Academic-wise too, they’re a good fit for me. They have great accademics and I just love everything about Minnesota and I’ve watched them growing up to and they’ve just kind of been a dream school of mine to go to so I took the offer and I committed.”

Adam: “Awesome, love that and great to hear that you’re living out the dream and so what does this feel like you know, you know you’re taking the Kindred Viking jersey and trading that in for the Golden Gophers how does that make you feel?”

Riley: “Yeah it just feels awesome to you know play college football because a lot of people dream about that; just happy I got the opportunity and it’s obviously big for a small town, Kindred, just to have all those coaches come to my school to with the population of a thousand so it was just awesome to have all the coaches come and and I’m just thankful for all that. It’s awesome to go to a power five school and coming from a power five school, it’s huge.”