CHAPEL HILL – Des Evans is home again.
The gifted, rangy North Carolina football player took a couple of years away, learning to play a role perhaps he wasn’t entirely suited for. Football players his size with decisive first-steps and noses for quarterbacks are more meant to pursue them instead of trying to defend their aerial attempts.
So, after two years playing in a hybrid defensive end/outside linebacker role, in which Evans began most snaps upright and without a hand on the ground, he is back in his comfort zone: hand on the ground, getting around slower offensive tackles, and making a bee-line toward frazzled quarterbacks.
That is the 6-foot-6, 262-pound junior’s job now for UNC’s football team, and it’s one he is thrilled to embrace.
“I feel like I’m home,” Evans said. “Back in high school, I used to play d-end, so you just get back to rushing. In Bateman’s defense, you drop into coverage a lot. It's just better for me to get back to rushing and just pass rush, it’s a better fit all around.”
Evans played 319 snaps a year ago on defense, and 489 on that side of the ball in his two seasons with the Tar Heels. Year number one was during the stress and limitations from the effects of COVID-19, which meant less practice and position-room time than what has been the norm for other true freshmen pre-COVID, and now that the post-COVID era is essentially in full swing.
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It hurt Evans, who was learning something drastically different than he had been asked to ever do on a field. That and the pressure of being one of the top players in the nation in the class of 2020, made the transition even more challenging.
Evans was rated the No. 76 overall player in his class, including No. 4 at his position, and No. 2 in the loaded state of North Carolina. So, the Sanford native didn’t really get a consistently decent number of snaps until last season. And even then, he logged more than 24 reps in a game just once through Carolina’s first eight contests.
Then, he played 44 snaps in a win at home over then-No. 10 Wake Forest, 42 five days later in an overtime loss at Pittsburgh, before getting 51 total snaps in the final two games at NC State and versus South Carolina in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl.
He didn’t always grade out all that well, much of which was a product of the scheme that had him a bit out of position. Evans is glad those days are over.
“Well, I don’t have to worry about dropping into coverage,” he said, noting a former role that is no longer in his position description. “I think that’s a big deal for me because my mindset was just getting to the quarterback, working my moves and doing that. “
Evans isn’t the only one happy to see himself returning to a more natural role. His gifts are as a pass rusher, and junior linebacker Cedric Gray loves seeing Evans pin his ears back and go after QBs.
“It’s a lot more natural position for him,” Gray said. “Last year, he was kind of an outside linebacker position where he had to be in coverage a lot. You know, me personally, I wouldn’t have a 6-7 dude in coverage.
“So, I just think that it suits him a lot more and he’s really able to stick his hand in the dirt and get after the quarterback. His skills are really showing a lot more.”
Gray really appreciates having someone with Evans’ ability at end so much, he went a big step further complimenting his teammate.
“The sky is the limit for Des,” he said. “I mean, if you could build a d-end on (video game) Madden right now, it would look like Des Evans. So, he’s just got to keep honing in on his technique, skills, and all that.
“The sky is the limit for Des. I mean he’s going to be a great player.”
Evans was a constant source of stress for the offensive line throughout fall camp, not just in the spring game, when he racked up a pair of sacks.
He pushed tackles on both sides by getting around them over and over again, but he also used his growing strength to fend them off, including dealing with the double-teams thrown his way. Everything about what Evans is being asked to do now is geared toward the natural football gifts he was bestowed.
“Des Evans is playing better because we've got him in the position he should be in,” UNC Coach Mack Brown said. “He's not dropping. He's a pass rusher and a run stopper."
Evans is a defensive end, and he’s back home.
