Minnesota
Minnesota announces several coaching staff changes and promotions
The Minnesota Golden Gophers have officially announced the promotion of safeties coach Danny Collins as defensive coordinator. Collins has been with the program since 2017, first serving as the program’s defensive quality control coach before being a graduate assistant, senior defensive analyst, and safeties coach,.
Collins previously called plays for the Gophers in their 2023 Quick Lane Bowl victory against Bowling Green. The Gophers in that game kept Bowling Green to 303 total yards while allowing 24 points.
In addition to Collins being promoted to defensive coordinator, the program also officially announced that former Gopher linebacker Mariano Sori-Marin will take over as linebackers coach after being a defensive analyst in 2023 and the nickels/assistant linebackers coach in 2024.
Additionally, senior defensive analyst Dennis Dottin-Carter has been promoted to be the program’s rush-end coach after working with Winston DeLattiboudere the last two seasons, helping assist DeLattiboudere coach the Gophers’ defensive linemen.
Kevin Kane, whose hiring we touched on, on Wednesday evening will be the Gophers’ Nickles/Outside Linebackers Coach, helping assist Sori-Marin with the linebackers unit while also taking over Sori-Marin’s previous post of coaching the nicklebacks.
Finally, Keegan O’Hara has been named the program’s assistant quarterbacks coach. He previously worked with the quarterbacks as one of the program’s offensive analysts since 2023.
Earlier on Thursday, Gophers Nation also reported the hiring of Minnesota’s new Director of Football Operations , Zack Lucas who took over the role previously held by Daniel Ifft, who left the program earlier this month for an opportunity outside of football.
LINK: University of Minnesota football coach P.J. Fleck announced today that Danny Collins was promoted to defensive coordinator. Collins, who will still coach the safeties, has been at Minnesota since 2017 and most recently served as the safeties coach / pass game coordinator.
Fleck also announced that Mariano Sori-Marin will coach the linebackers and that Dennis Dottin-Carter will coach the rush ends. He also announced the hiring of Kevin Kane, as nickels / outside linebackers coach.
“I am excited for Danny, Mariano, Dennis and Kevin,” said head coach P.J. Fleck. “Danny has been with me since Western Michigan and is an elite defensive mind who has recruited and coached All-American players. I know he will do a tremendous job coaching and calling our defense.
“Mariano played for us at Minnesota and worked for us the past two seasons. He will bring a tremendous voice and poise to our linebacker room, and I know those young men will respond to his leadership.
“Dennis has been with us for two years and is an elite coach and person. His personality, coaching style and relationship with defensive line coach Winston DeLattiboudere played a big role in why our defensive line was able to generate pressure and have success last year.
“Kevin is a veteran coach who will be a tremendous addition to our staff. He has called defenses at multiple places and has a great deal of experience coaching in the Big Ten. I am excited to welcome him and his family to Minnesota.”
Danny Collins: Defensive Coordinator / Safeties Coach
The 2025 season will be the ninth at Minnesota for Collins. It will be his first as defensive coordinator, his fourth as coaching the safeties and his 13th year with Fleck.
Collins came to Minnesota with Fleck in 2017 and served as the team’s defensive quality control. He was a graduate assistant in 2018 before returning to quality control in 2019. In 2020, he was named Senior Defensive Analyst before being promoted to safeties coach in 2022.
At Minnesota, Collins has coached All-Americans Koi Perich and Tyler Nubin and has seen two of his safeties – Nubin (New York Giants) and Jordan Howden (New Orleans aSaints) – drafted into the NFL. This past season, safeties Perich and Kerry Brown were both named semifinalists for the Shaun Alexander Freshman of the Year Award semifinalists and Perich was one of five national finalists.
The first game of the 2025 season will mark the second time that Collins will call the Minnesota defense, as he also did so in Minnesota’s 2023 Quick Lane Bowl win against Bowling Green.
Since Collins has been at Minnesota, the Gophers have turned in some stellar defensive performances. In 2024, the team ranked fifth in the nation in total defense, seventh in team passing efficiency defense and ninth in scoring defense. In 2022, Minnesota ranked eighth in total defense, fourth in scoring defense and seventh in team passing efficiency defense. In 2021, the Gophers ranked third in the nation in total defense and tied for sixth in scoring defense.
Mariano Sori-Marin: Linebackers Coach
Sori-Marin knows the Minnesota linebacker position better than most, as he played the position for the Maroon and Gold from 2018-22.
The Mokena, Ill., native played in 58 career games for the Gophers and ended his career with 274 tackles and 14.5 tackles for loss. He also broke up 10 passes, forced three fumbles and made one interception. Sori-Marin was honored as All-Big Ten Third Team in 2022 and was Honorable Mention in 2021. He was also named Academic All-Big Ten four times and was also a Big Ten Distinguished Scholar.
Sori-Marin joined the Minnesota staff prior to the 2023 season as a defensive analyst before being promoted to nickels / assistant linebackers coach in January 2024.
Last year, with Sori-Marin coaching, three of the team’s top six tackles played either linebacker (Cody Lindenberg and Maverick Baranowski) or nickel (Jack Henderson) and the unit finished the year ranked fifth in the nation in total defense and 12th in rushing defense.
Dennis Dottin-Carter: Rush Ends Coach
Dottin-Carter joined the Gopher staff in January 2023 as a senior defensive analyst. In addition, he has worked closely with the team’s defensive line and is one of the main reasons the team’s sack and tackles for loss totals has increased year-over-year.
In 2022, the year prior to Dottin-Carter’s arrival, Minnesota had 19 sacks and 47 tackles for loss. Last season, the Gophers totaled 28 sacks and 66 tackles for loss. In 2022, the Gopher defensive line broke up seven passes, and in 2024 it broke up 14, led by Jah Joyner (7) and Jalen Logan-Redding (4).
Kevin Kane: Nickles / Outside Linebackers Coach
The 2025 season will be the first in Maroon and Gold for Kane, who comes to Minnesota after two seasons at Purdue as defensive coordinator. Kane has also worked at Illinois, SMU, Northern Illinois, Kansas and Wisconsin, and in addition to Purdue, he previously served as the defensive coordinator at SMU and Northern Illinois.
Kane brings plenty of defensive coaching experience with him to Dinkytown, as he has worked exclusively on the defensive side of the ball since 2012 when he started coaching linebackers at Northern Illinois. He has also coached linebackers at Purdue, Illinois, SMU and Kansas.
After a press conference earlier today in St. Paul, we continue the conversation on food support across the state. Zach Rodvold with Second Harvest Heartland joins us to talk about growing demand, including estimates that as many as 1 in 5 Minnesota families may be struggling to afford food, and what’s being done to help meet the need.
Minnesota
Minneapolis nonprofit founders push back on lawsuit alleging they misused $2M in charitable assets
A Minnesota couple is accused of misusing nonprofit assets to fund “lavish lifestyles,” according to a lawsuit filed by the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office.
The lawsuit is filed against Larry and Sharon Cook and their nonprofits, Real Believers Faith Center and Les Jolies Petites School of Dance, based in north Minneapolis.
“[The Cooks] diverted more than $2 million in charitable assets from Les Jolies and Real Believers to fund lavish lifestyles, luxury travel, designer goods, and for-profit ventures masquerading under nearly identical names, while pretending to serve their communities,” the lawsuit reads.
Larry Cook is the senior pastor at Real Believers Faith Center and called the lawsuit a lie.
“It’s an absolute 1,000% fabrication of the facts,” Cook said on Tuesday. “It’s a fiction, and I’m glad we’re here to talk about it, because we do great work in the community.”
The Attorney General’s Office claims that over the course of about six years, more than $1.3 million in funds were misspent from Real Believers and approximately $800,000 from Les Jolies. The lawsuit says some of those funds were spent at Michael Kors, Louis Vuitton, at a hotel in London and to pay the Cooks’ homeowners association for parking fines and late fees.
The lawsuit also accuses the couple of making false statements to the IRS and taking out loans that “served no charitable purpose.”
When the couple sat down with WCCO inside the church, they didn’t dispute the purchases and said they were all made for charitable purposes.
“I do get a salary for what I do at [Les Jolies], so they’re acting like we took everything that was for the nonprofit and spent it on ourselves, which is a total lie,” said Sharon Cook.
As for the travel, the couple said those are ministry trips with church parishioners and each person paid their own way.
“[The Attorney General’s Office is] gonna have to answer when we get to the courtroom, because documents and truth don’t lie,” said Larry Cook.
The couple got some media attention a few years ago when they bought a nearby crime-ridden gas station. The lawsuit says they used nonprofit funds to help cover the gas station bills, while the money made went into a for-profit bank account.
The lawsuit also accuses the Cooks of failing to register with the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office as required by law, as well as violating the Minnesota Nonprofit Corporation Act.
The Minnesota Attorney General’s Office said a temporary restraining order is in place to protect the nonprofit assets from being diverted.
A 19-year-old man is accused of driving a stolen car and crashing into a Minnesota State Patrol squad car in Minneapolis Friday evening, injuring three people, including a trooper.
Officials say the incident started around 10:30 p.m. in St. Paul’s Highland Park neighborhood. The criminal complaint says Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office deputies found a stolen red Hyundai and were following it when the driver of the car started to flee and drive recklessly.
The Hyundai entered Minneapolis and the deputies turned off their lights and stopped pursuing the car, the charges say. The car drove through Aldrich Avenue and 46th Street at approximately 80 mph, blowing through a stop sign before crashing into the side of a state patrol vehicle.
The 19-year-old, who was driving the Hyundai, fled on foot but was apprehended a short time later, the complaint says.
The trooper was hospitalized with a fractured right fibula and a fractured left scapula, court documents say. The two passengers in the Hyundai were also both taken to the hospital; one had a compound neck fracture and brain bleed, while the other had neck pain, the complaint says.
According to the charges, the teenager told police in a post-Miranda statement that it’s fun to drive around in stolen vehicles.
He faces three counts of criminal vehicular operation, one count of receiving stolen property and one count of fleeing a peace officer.
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