Texas Football: Could a new OC win over 5-Star RB Zachary Evans

The 2020 Texas football recruiting class could be stacked at running back if they are still in the race to land 5-Star Zachary Evans.

With all the recent shakeups that the Texas football program made to the coaching staff over the weekend in terms of firings and demotions, what lies ahead on the recruiting trail could be decisive. Texas already lost one key commitment on Dec. 1 after the departure of defensive coordinator Todd Orlando, from four-star defensive end Van Fillinger.

There’s always the chance that the Texas Longhorns football program loses more commitments following all this coaching staff turnover. Head Texas football coach Tom Herman either parted ways with or demoted both coordinators and a number of position coaches. Both wide receiver coaches were either demoted or fired too.

However, with coaching change to this degree comes the opportunity for the Longhorns to build new bridges with various recruiting targets. There might also not be two more important uncommitted 2020 recruiting targets for Texas at the moment than this pair of five-star prospects: North Shore running back Zachary Evans and Saguaro cornerback Kelee Ringo.

If the Longhorns are to land one of their top offensive coordinator targets to replace the demoted Tim Beck, then Evans could gain more interest in coming to Austin after all. Since the LSU Tigers are one of his finalist schools and overall favorites to land his commitment (247Sports Crystal Ball Predictions favor LSU), then possibly landing Joe Brady to replace Beck could get Evans to have more intrigue with the Longhorns.

Brady and USC’s Graham Harrell seem to be two of the favorites to be the next Texas offensive coordinator. But Brady would likely gain more traction with Evans on the recruiting trail than Harrell would as the Longhorns next offensive coordinator.

Landing a young up and coming candidate to be the Longhorns next offensive coordinator, like Harrell, could make quite the splash on the recruiting trail. But the direct ties that Brady would have with Evans and his interest in coming to Baton Rouge to play for LSU would be more impactful for the Longhorns.

Could it also be a sign that Evans is waiting to announce his commitment decision until the Longhorns find out who their next offensive coordinator will be? With the interest surrounding Brady and Harrell to fill that position on the coaching staff, it could very well be.

Back on Sep. 20, Evans posted on his Twitter timeline that he had “decided”, assuming that meant he knew where he would be taking his football career next.

One thing to consider is the fact that Texas has five-star Tucson, AZ, running back Bijan Robinson already committed to the 2020 recruiting class. But maybe a thin Longhorns running back room, that really only features one proven rusher, could use both Evans and Robinson in the mix.

Evans ranks as the No. 14 2020 high school prospect in the nation, and is still heralded as the top ranked running back. With Robinson ranked as the nation’s second best 2020 high school running back prospect, that would be quite the one-two punch on the Forty Acres if they could manage to sign Evans too.