When it comes to viral videos in sports, two things may never get old. The first are the videos of soldiers surprising their families at a game. The second is when a college athlete is surprised with a scholarship in front of his teammates. On Thursday night, Minnesota head coach P.J. Fleck took the opportunity during the spring game to let one player, defensive lineman Sam Renner, get his moment to remember for as long as lives.
The Gophers moved their spring game up to Thursday due to inclement weather heading their way. Whether that played a role in the surprise announcement is unknown, but Fleck stopped the spring game for the very special announcement. The moment occurred shortly after the start of the second quarter when Fleck called for a video replay following a turnover in the game. Of course, this ended up just being the break in the action Fleck was counting on having in order to pull off the surprise, as a video on the scoreboard made the announcement to the team and fans in attendance. The entire team gathered around Renner to celebrate the milestone.
Why we love spring football today: @Coach_Fleck paused Thursday's spring game to give walk-on defensive end Sam Renner a scholarship.
— Big Ten Network (@BigTenNetwork) April 12, 2018
Sam then got to soak in the moment with teammates and fans: pic.twitter.com/HcELbpRL8K
Renner is an Academic All-Big Ten player and a two-time Dean’s List student at Minnesota. he is set to graduate this spring in just three years.
The scholarship announcement was packaged together for a video on Minnesota’s YouTube channel afterward.
Fleck always has a knack for the surprise scholarship, form his time at Western Michigan and now at Minnesota. It never gets old.