The addition of Zach Evans opens up Ole Miss offense in a big way

The Ole Miss offense is going to look drastically different next season, but there might not be much of a fall-off. In the eyes of college football analyst JD PicKell, running back Zach Evans is going to make a major difference for Ole Miss.

Evans began his collegiate career in the Big 12, playing his first two seasons at TCU. After last season, though, Evans entered the transfer portal and eventually committed to Ole Miss. The Rebels also added a number of other offensive weapons, including quarterback Jaxson Dart.

Having Evans will be a luxury for Ole Miss, as he can be used in almost every situation. He should play a big role right away, and he and Dart will be able to feed off of each other to help the offense succeed. PicKell ranked Evans as the top non-quarterback impact player from the transfer portal during this cycle.

“At number one we got Zach Evans, the running back for Ole Miss transferring from TCU and landing his way in Oxford,” PicKell said. “This guy was a beast at TCU. Like he just straight up did what he wanted against Big 12 defenses. Averaged seven yards a carry for his two years he was there. You average seven yards in one season, that’s impressive. To do it over two seasons, dude was running the rock.”

PicKell: Evans will be ‘an enormous luxury’ for Dart in the Ole Miss offense

Evans came to TCU as a five-star recruit and the top-ranked running back in the 2020 class, according to the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies. As a freshman, he ran for 415 yards and four touchdowns on 54 carries in nine games, also adding eight receptions for 76 yards. Last year, he played in just six games but had 92 carries for 648 yards and five touchdowns, adding ten receptions for 130 yards and a touchdown.

Evans averaged 7.7 yards per carry as a freshman and 7.0 as a sophomore. His versatility in the backfield will be valuable for Ole Miss, and the Rebels should have a solid 1-2 punch with him and SMU transfer addition Ulysses Bentley.

“The scouting report on him is he runs angry, he gets downhill quick, fast and in a hurry,” said PicKell. “So what that does to defenses, it means you got to be sharp with your reads. When you’re not sharp with your reads, if you’re going to be sloppy, you still have to decide one way or another very quickly, more than you want to ideally. So for Zach Evans to get downhill and to make a linebacker commit before he’s even ready to, that’s going to open things up for the rest of the offense. It’s no secret they did a lot in the portal. Jaxson Dart, Jaylon Robinson. They’re going to have some weapons, they’re going to have some guys they can throw the ball to. But they’re going to be much more wide open because of what Zach Evans is going to command from commitment in the run game from defenses.

“Even if they don’t command a lot from the defense in terms of what they can do in the passing game, you can still just hand the ball to (Evans) and that’s going to be an enormous luxury for Jaxson Dart, who is the presumed starter in Oxford. For him to have a guy he can just turn around and hand the ball to on first, second, even third down, that’s going to make a world of difference as he continues to mature and as Lane Kiffin breaks in his new offensive coordinator.”