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Houston North Shore soon-to-be junior Zach Evans, a 2020 recruit, is already one of the most sought after athletes in the country. The Texas Longhorns have prioritized him over every RB in the country, if not any recruit at any position in the country. Early (read: premature) indications suggest that it will be a Texas-LSU battle, with Texas A&M, OU and a host of prominent national suitors also making their case.
I’m definitely of the 97% of running backs are a creation of their environment school, but some are special enough to create their own ecosystem. As a 5-11, 195 pound sophomore who compiled 27 touchdowns last year, Evans appears to be the latter variety. Check him out here.
And he still has two more years to develop before seeing a college campus.
Texas currently boasts a top heavy 7 scholarship running backs on its roster, but none have yet asserted themselves in a lead role or proven special; by demonstrating the ability to turn eight yards into sixty or three yards into six. The Austin running back by committee will carry on.
In 2017, Texas missed out on a comparable caliber of running back in CenTex athlete J.K. Dobbins. Though to be an early Longhorn favorite, J.K stood for Just Kidding, went to Ohio State, started as a freshman, and notched over 1400 yards rushing at over 7 yards per pop.
Landing Keaontay Ingram in 2018 was some solace, but Texas Football is always more fun when Earl Campbell, Ricky Williams, Jamaal Charles and Cedric Benson types of talents are toting the rock.
For Texas to win, Tom Herman needs to rebuild infrastructure across the board. For Texas to win big, he’ll need to start landing players like Zach Evans.
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The 2018 Burnt Orange Bible dedicates over twenty pages to evaluating the 2018 recruiting class and breaking down the 2019 class (courtesy of IT recruiting analyst Eric Nahlin), in addition to providing the best Longhorn football preview on the planet. Give it a read.
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