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One day after Snoop Conner announced he’s going declaring for the 2022 NFL Draft, TCU running back Zach Evans announced he was transferring to Ole Miss, checking a huge box for the Rebel offense in 2022.
Yes, you read that right. Ole Miss got a top-10, nationally-ranked five-star transfer running back to come in next season to help fill the void left by Conner and Jerrion Ealy.
Evans was a strong enough back to get TCU legend LaDanian Tomlinson to give him a call, trying to convince him to return. It doesn’t appear that worked.
Former five-star running back Zach Evans announced this morning that he’ll be transferring from TCU to Oxford, and due to the one-time transfer rule he’ll be eligible immediately. It’s a good thing, because Ole Miss will probably only get one season out of Evans.
Not sure if it’ll convince him to return but LaDainian Tomlinson had a “really good conversation” with Zach Evans last night.https://t.co/MIFy2noxiN pic.twitter.com/KOF5qaC8lk
— Drew Davison (@drewdavison) January 5, 2022
The likely one season Evans is in Oxford should be really fun though, as he is a monster of a running back. At TCU, all he did was average 7.3 yards per carry across 146 carries in two years. On top of that, he did well receiving when given the opportunity, averaging 13 yards per reception as a sophomore. Honestly, if Evans is only in Oxford for a season, it’s very likely he had a good to great season and would pursue an NFL career, so it’s the new age of a transfer portal and NIL deals coming to fruition positively for the Rebels.
This is a huge, huge deal. Evans is a verified superstar who will immediately raise the level of play in the running back room. I’m not in the business of comparing players from year to year, but this transfer immediately makes the running back room viable when there was a threat it would not be.
As I wrote earlier today, Lane Kiffin has a lot of work to do this offseason. There are tons of hires and personnel moves to make. The job just got a small amount easier though, which is a welcomed change relative to all the negative momentum the program has been accumulating recently. Landing Evans doesn’t make this 10-3 team likely to repeat, but it helps a lot.