After a myriad of scholarship offers to play football from universities all across the country, most notably UCLA, USC, University of Texas, University of Oklahoma, just to name a few, Diablo Valley College’s Jason Dickson has decided to commit to the University of Minnesota.

The decision came as a bit of a surprise because Dickson had verbally committed to UCLA last summer, but instability in that program and the coaching staff caused Dickson to pull out of his commitment to the school.

The University of Minnesota Golden Gophers and head coach PJ Fleck have established a culture in the Twin Cities that ultimately lured Dickson to sign there. Fleck told Dickson what he told his players about their culture, an analogy of riding a boat is how Fleck approaches running his football team.

“It’s three things that has to do with rowing a boat: the oar, the compass and the boat,” said Dickson. “The oar is the how, how you get your job done, the boat is the sacrifice because you have to sacrifice to get what you want and the compass is the direction of wherever you going, it helps you get to your destination.”

The Bay 6 all-conference offensive lineman claimed that the aforementioned analogy perfectly summarized the culture that attracted him immensely. Dickson also did not mind living in the Twin Cities with its gorgeous scenery.

The decision process of it all wasn’t too hard for Dickson other than dealing with disappointed coaches that he didn’t sign with. He felt it was a choice of choosing where he wanted to live.

The amazing part about this all is Dickson received all these scholarship offers to play a sport he didn’t have much a background in before coming to DVC. He came out of high school primarily as a basketball player.

‘”He was a special one,” said DVC head coach Mike Darr. “Right away, we saw visions of “The Blind Side,” where this kid comes out of nowhere. He’s obviously blessed with great physical tools, but didn’t have a real extensive football background.”‘

Despite not playing the sport intensively from a young age, Dickson has the right mindset to learn more and more on how to play the game.

“His attitude was the very first thing I noticed,” said DVC offensive line coach Dave Garcia. “Granted, he’s athletic, being 6’7” 300 pounds, that’s great, but you gotta have the right attitude to go along with it. From the very first day, he was coachable, eager to learn and ready to go.”

DVC coaches like Darr and Garcia played a huge part in Dickson’s growth both on and off the field, playing two seasons for the Vikings.

“DVC just helped me focus a litter better, get a sense of direction of my life and I wouldn’t be here without coach Darr,” said Dickson.

Fans of University of Minnesota football should be excited. They are getting a guy playing argubly the second-most important position on the field to the quarterback, left tackle, who is highly gifted, but still raw in his talent and has plenty of room to grow.

“They are getting a guy who’s just scratching the surface,” said Darr. “He thought he was going to be a basketball player through high school so he didn’t play much football before getting here.”

Darr really believes in Dickson’s ability, along with his great physical gifts, to take his talents all the way up to the NFL.

Dickson already has high hopes in his next season playing Golden Gophers football.

“We need a Big Ten championship my first year,” said Dickson. “Then, we needa be in the playoffs my second year and I’m out.”

Get excited University of Minnesota fans.