Rashod Bateman formed a plan the summer before last season.
The Gophers receiver had gone wakeboarding on Lake Minnetonka with a couple of teammates, and spent the July 4th holiday at Zack Annexstad's cabin near Alexandria, home to the Jim & Judy's gas station that Bateman reps with his favorite hat. He'd attended Twins games, explored downtown Minneapolis, frequented the Mall of America.
And he'd come to the conclusion this was home.
"Ever since I've been here, I haven't been homesick. I haven't gotten homesick once," the Tifton, Ga., native said last fall. "I fell in love with Minnesota. I've thought about it, I think I'm going to retire and live on Lake Minnetonka."
Those retirement plans look a little closer this season, almost certainly Bateman's last since he already declared for the 2021 NFL draft once. But he ultimately decided to return to the Gophers and play in the reinstated Big Ten season that begins Saturday.
The reigning Big Ten Receiver of the Year will likely go on to become a first-round draft pick, possibly in the top 10. He'll hope to have a long and illustrious NFL career that could take him all across the country. But in a decade or so, he'll find his way back here. Maybe with a nice house on a lake. Maybe with a post-playing venture opening the first Zaxby's — one of his favorite restaurants — franchise of the North.
This place will keep a hold on its adopted son because it's where he found himself, while lighting up the highlight reel with touchdown receptions.
"He came here a boy, I would say, and then he's leaving here a man," Gophers coach P.J. Fleck said. "It's because of his experiences at the University of Minnesota and because of the Twin Cities area and the state of Minnesota that Rashod has been allowed to be Rashod in every way possible."