ORLANDO, Fla. — Zachary Evans prefers to be known as Zach. He signed on the second day of the early signing period and did sign a letter of intent. Not a financial aid form.
He said that the Under Armour All-American Game has told him he is scheduled to make his college decision known at halftime of the game on Jan. 2. That could be subject to change.
The other important series of details he shared during his “Media Day” time was that he also plans to enroll early. That exact date was going to be either Jan. 4 or Jan. 5.
Evans also said his decision came down to Alabama, Georgia and LSU.
The nation’s No. 1 RB for 2020 (per the 247Sports Composite rankings) will make his decision known during the Under Armour All-American Game on Jan.2.
He shared a few interesting items during his conversation with the media on Saturday morning. The first of those would have to be that the school that signs him will have a strong position coach.
The Houston native said that the position coach that he will go play for has a history of putting players into the league, including a former member of that program who went on to win a Super Bowl in his rookie season.
He stuck with those three schools because those were the ones that didn’t relent in their constant recruiting approach. That’s not to say that there were others.
“I had schools that I had never tried to contact before try to hit me,” he said. “That’s the only thing I didn’t like. It wasn’t the only thing I didn’t like. I had schools that had stopped trying to contact me because they had filled their roster and they started coming back towards the end.”
He declined to name those schools.
“I don’t want to bash no school,” Evans said.
There is a heavy online presence of predictions trending towards Georgia as the school that Evans signed with on the second day of the early period.
Evans shared a couple of reasons why.
The first was the recruiting intensity. Georgia never let up in this recruitment.
“They have never shown any love lost,” he said. “That’s how I feel. I feel like coach [Dell] McGee has never put me in the dirt like ‘Oh, I am going to stop talking to you or something’ and he always kept me around the loose and let me know what was up. Lacing me up. Just keep me on the right track. Checking on me and stuff like that.”
He said McGee’s way “as a man” stood out.
“That’s a role model,” he said. “He is a real genuine dude. You can tell the stuff that he is talking and the stuff he’s preaching he has actually been through it. He actually knows what he is talking about.”
The other big factor? That was the head coach of the Bulldog program.
“That’s probably my strongest connection,” he said. “I love Kirby. He funny.”
He brought up Smart several times in his interview session.
“With Kirby Smart, I feel like he is a real one. He is not going to cut it sweet to you. He is going to cut it short. He is all about his business.”
He said that his ultimate decision was “real real close.”
“It is like my family,” he said. “The other school [in the running] is my family where my grandmother is from. It was like you can go home and you can go there and be around your family. Or you can leave, grow up and experience life.”
He plans to make a decision involving the hats of those three schools. Evans said he only took official visits to LSU and Texas A&M.
Check out the full DawgNation interview recap with Evans below.
