CHAPEL HILL – Desmond Evans’ natural talents are obvious.

He is tall and arrived at North Carolina rather slender, but he sure can run. He has basketball quickness and shiftiness because, well, he is also a hoopster. A star on the hardwood at Lee County High School in Sanford, NC, Evans is good enough to possibly walk on to the UNC basketball team.

The thing is, however, he is better at football, is at Carolina on a football scholarship, and now that his body is up to 265 pounds supporting a 6-foot-6 frame and he knows the playbook, Evans is ready to explode on the gridiron.

Basketball might now be a hobby for Evans, and football is his future in a big way.

“Des Evans had a great spring,” UNC Coach Mack Brown said following UNC’s spring game Saturday at Kenan Stadium. “He’s becoming a better pass rusher at 6-6, and now he’s 265, so that helps us.”

The 6-6 and 265 elements of Evans cannot be understated, especially understanding his breathtaking athletic ability. But it is also important to understand how he has grown in other areas.

As a true freshman last fall, Evans played 170 snaps on defense registering 10 tackles, two of which were for a loss of yardage, one being a sack, but he also made a lot of mistakes. Knowing the playbook is essential in any defensive scheme, but maybe more so in Jay Bateman’s semi-elaborate approach. And as a newbie at Carolina without any benefit of the usual summer workouts, Evans was behind throughout the season.

So, among his offseason priorities was to dive into the playbook and learn, though it wasn’t always easy.

“Learning the playbook is like sometimes you have your good days, sometimes you have your bad days, you just have to get through it,” Evans said. “Every night you just look at your playbook and that’s what I did to get through it and to have a positive mindset.”

Ask his teammates and they go straight to the playbook when discussing Evans. Again, his natural gifts are as plain as day. So is having a vision down the road of what a more mentally fortified Evans will look like on the field.

If anyone on Carolina’s defense knows about Evans or other Tar Heels on that side of the ball, it’s senior linebacker Jeremiah Gemmel.

“I think just learning the playbook for him,” said team spokesman Gemmel, wen asked about Evans. “Because playing the outside linebacker position, they’re not rushing off the edge every time, they’ve got to drop in coverage. Sometimes they have to lo-ho drop, sometimes they have to be the flat-hole dropper, and I think the biggest step for him was just learning the playbook more.

“I think he’s going to be able to play a lot faster because he knows where to go, he knows where he needs to be. I think that was the biggest step for Des. That’s another long body guy that we have outside in rush. He’s going to be able to constrict gaps and make them smaller. I expect a huge season out of him.”

Huge is a word increasingly associated with Evans. He is long and will always look long. But thanks to UNC strength and conditioning coach Brian Hess and team led nutritionist Kelsee Gomes, Evans has filled out a lot since the end of last season.

Eating meals every three hours, knowledge of how certain foods work together and what is best for his body and grinding in the weight room have rendered impressive results.

Evans has seen the results on the field. In his own words, progress is being made.

“Take off the ball faster than I did before, using my hands to make the offensive lineman think about something different than…,” he said, noting what areas of his game he has worked on and improved since the offseason commenced in January. “Make them think I’m going to a different spot.”

Bigger, stronger, and more knowledgeable, Evans is becoming a different player right before everyone’s eyes. Most important, the coaches are seeing it, too.

“He’s very gifted,” Brown said. “To be that tall, and he works so hard. He’s gained so much strength and weight since he’s been here. The other thing he’s doing, is he’s been such an outstanding dual athlete with basketball and football, he’s learning to rush the passer.

“He’ll be in that group. He was beating people so much better this spring.”

And Evans is likely to smack around some dudes next fall, too.