For a guy who never played for the Gophers beyond a spring football game, Vic Viramontes made quite an impression on many Gophers fans. Minnesota was in big need of a quarterback heading into the 2018 season, and Viramontes had impressive statistics at a California junior college.

In 2015, as a high schooler, Viramontes made a verbal commitment to Michigan. Then, on National Signing Day in February 2016, he switched to Cal.

Viramontes left during the summer of 2017 and ended up at Minnesota, which was without an established starting QB.

He struggled in the 2018 spring football game and returned to junior college. On his second junior college stint, Viramontes reinvented himself as a linebacker — and became a three-star recruit at the position. On Wednesday, Viramontes chose college No. 4.

The Las Vegas Sun headline: Why a coveted linebacker picked UNLV over TCU, Baylor and others.

HOWARD SINKER