Texas Football: Former 5-Star RB target Zachary Evans commits to TCU

A once big time target of the 2020 Texas football recruiting class, 5-Star RB Zachary Evans, committed to the TCU Horned Frogs on May 11.

The end of one of the most polarizing and confusing recruiting sagas looks to finally be in the books. Five-star Houston, TX, native running back and former target of the 2020 Texas football recruiting class, North Shore’s Zachary Evans, finally announced a commitment to a Big 12 foe. Evans chose to take his talents to link up with head coach Gary Patterson and the TCU Horned Frogs in Fort Worth.

The commitment of Evans to TCU was reported from Horned Frog Blitz of 247Sports. That report mentioned that Evans signed a financial aid agreement this month with the university. The financial aid agreement allows Evans to take classes online starting soon for the summer session since students aren’t on campus right now due to the novel coronavirus pandemic. If football is played in the fall, then that should allow Evans to try to get immediate eligibility.

That report from Horned Frog Blitz regarding Evans’ commitment to TCU also showed that he is the highest rated 247Sports Composite prospect in program history (at least as long as recruiting rankings were a commonality). He ranks as the nation’s No. 16 2020 high school prospect, No. 2 running back, and top prospect out of Texas (247Sports Composite). Although, his sole 247Sports recruiting ranking did drop him outside of the top 30 ranked high school prospects in the nation, and bounced him from the top five rated prospects out of Texas.

The 247Sports Composite did also rank Evans as a top 325 high school prospect of all-time.

The last official visit that Evans took before the COVID-19 pandemic essentially eliminated in-person recruiting contact was with head coach Jeremy Pruitt and the Tennessee Volunteers back on Jan. 24. And the last offer he received was from the Ole Miss Rebels seven days prior to his visit to Tennessee.

Evans had originally received his offer from the Texas Longhorns football program back on June 8, 2017. Head coach Tom Herman jumped on him very early in his recruitment out of high school, but started to back off when Evans cut the Longhorns from his finalist schools last year. And then things got weird.

Apparently Evans had committed to the Georgia Bulldogs but later received a release from his letter of intent prior to National Signing Day 2020. He remained uncommitted beyond National Signing Day, until he committed and enrolled with TCU this week.

Other significant offers Evans had received came from the LSU Tigers, Alabama Crimson Tide, Texas A&M Aggies, Florida Gators, Michigan Wolverines, Notre Dame Fighting Irish, Ohio State Buckeyes, Oklahoma Sooners, Oregon Ducks, and USC Trojans. Teams like Ole Miss, LSU, and Texas A&M, seemed to be in the thick of the running to land Evans, but it was confusing to follow how he trended in the last couple of months.

It was a pretty big surprise that Evans still landed with a Big 12 program that was not Oklahoma or Texas. Once Texas signed the top ranked running back of the 2020 cycle, five-star Salpointe Catholic product Bijan Robinson, the need to a controversial prospect with the raw-talent level of Evans greatly diminished. Oklahoma also signed a good running back class in 2020.

According to the 247Sports Team Composite Rankings, the 2020 TCU recruiting class is up to the No. 23 spot in the nation, and third in the Big 12. TCU sits behind Texas (No. 8 nationally) and Oklahoma (No. 11) in the Big 12 rankings.