Evans is ready to carry CU to the top
At 14,271 feet, Mount Evans is one of the highest peaks in Colorado. It is not named after Ty Evans, although that is where the high school quarterback aspires to be one day — at the top of Colorado.
Evans wakes up every day in Monument, Colo. and takes a look at the prestigious Pikes Peak and wonders what it would be like to be on top. The journey to the summit in football is a lot like climbing a mountain. There are points where you think you are not going to make it but if you put in enough work, you eventually will.
Becoming one of the most sought after quarterback recruits in the country did not come easy to Evans. He didn’t take the same trail to the top as others. He wasn’t developed by a QB guru at a young age, he was just a kid with a big arm and aspirations of becoming the best one day.
Upbringings
College football quarterbacks don’t just wake up one day and decide to become a quarterback. They are built over time through hundreds of hours of work on and off the field. It was no different for Evans, who grew up minutes from the high school he would eventually carry to a state title.
The Palmer Ridge standout grew up in a sports family, where there was never really a doubt that Ty was going to play some kind of sport and excel at it — that’s just what they did in the Evans family.
“I played every sport possible,” the 6-foot-1, 192-pound quarterback said. “My parents were both coaches. My sisters are both playing college volleyball and used to play club year round so if I wasn’t at my own sporting events, I was at one of theirs. And if I wasn’t at one of theirs, I was at home watching sports with my dad. So it’s always been a very sports focused family.”
Quarterback sort of fell into Evans lap. He’s admittedly a bit of a control freak, which in team sports is sometimes a bad thing. But it can also be a good thing, especially for a position like quarterback.
“I like to be in control,” Evans said. “And my dad used to tell me when I was little, ‘The QB gets the ball every play. And you’re kind of the coach on the field.’ So I grew into that and it kind of fit my personality really well and it has seemed to work out really well.”
From then on his love for football grew and his love for the quarterback position grew even more. Evans’ favorite player growing up was Peyton Manning and that becomes pretty obvious when you see how he conducts himself off the field. But there was one moment when Ty was growing up that he figured out maybe he could be Peyton Manning on the field as well. That took place at Folsom Field.
“I was in first grade,” Evans said with a smile on his face. “For my first football camp at CU and I was wearing my Peyton Manning Colts jersey and they were always calling me little Peyton. I always had coaches that were players that were really nice to me and I still remember those guys to this day. I have a connection with Folsom. I played there and I looked up to my dad and said, ‘This is where I wanna play. Boulder is where I wanna play.’ And I was very willing to make that my end goal.”
So from then on Evans had his goals in place. He wanted to become the best quarterback that he could possibly be, win a high school state championship and be recognized as the player of the year. Then he’d be ready to go off to college, with his mind and his heart set on CU. But things don’t always go according to plan.
The First Commitment
After his sophomore year, where he threw for 3,130 yards and 30 touchdowns, and had some pretty good camp circuit showings, the colleges came calling. And the calls were coming in from everywhere. One of those coaches was Brian Lindgren, the former co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at CU. Another one was Dan Enos, who held a similar position at the University of Arkansas.
Enos was able to build a relationship with Evans that he wasn’t getting with other coaches. They would talk on a daily basis about all types of things, down to Ty asking his coach how his family is doing. And the head coach at Arkansas at the time, Brett Bielema, was no different. They also talked about all sorts of things and there was even a time when Ty’s sister, who played volleyball at North Carolina, suffered a concussion and she got a letter of support from Bielema.
That relationship led to Evans committing to Arkansas on July 16, 2017. The following season didn’t go as expected for the Razorbacks and Bielema was fired at the end of the season. Enos was looking for a job elsewhere as well.
Evans decided after his junior football season that he had enough time to reopen his recruiting process and build a solid relationship with some new coaches. On Nov. 26, he decommitted from Arkansas.
Back to square one
After decommitting from Arkansas, there was one school that shot to the top of the list again. Evans was ready to give CU another shot. He took the drive from Monument to Boulder and got to meet with the coaches again for an unofficial visit. He had already been in Boulder for the last game of the season against USC but didn’t get to spend time with the coaches.
“I had gone up there when there wasn’t a QB coach and I had talked to coach Chev (Darrin Chiaverini) and coach Mac (Mike MacIntyre) about the offense,” Evans explained. “And that was kind of one of my big trips, to get familiar with what they wanted to do offensively and where I’d fit in. And it felt like this is a great offense for me. And coach Mac and coach Chev and I had a great relationship. But that was the missing piece of the puzzle for me, who was going to be my specific coach?”
A few weeks later CU had found their new quarterbacks coach, Kurt Roper, who was previously the offensive coordinator and QB coach at South Carolina, a school that had already been recruiting Evans.
“And then they announced coach Roper and he had offered me at South Carolina and we had already built a relationship so I didn’t have to spend time getting to know him. It was just the stars aligning so let’s make it happen.” Evans said.
One thing led to another and Evans was ready to commit to his dream school. Evans said it has been a little bit of an adjustment period, committing to a school in-state that has so many fans around.
“A lot of fan support,” Evans said about the biggest difference since his commitment. “This whole year has been weird because it goes from you’re just another guy living your life to getting stopped at Wal Mart and get asked, ‘Can I take a picture with you with my kid?’ It’s been great and I love it but it’s been an adjustment period.”
What’s next?
Once Evans had finally committed to CU, a lot of pressure was lifted off of his shoulders but that didn’t stop the college coaches.
“It’s a lot like dating,” Evans told a reporter at one of his camps about recruiting. “Once you commit to someone, that’s when others get interested and start sliding into your DM’s.”
And slide into Evans’ DM’s they did. Enos was hired for a couple of months at Michigan as their quarterback coach and Evans was his favorite so it didn’t take long for Ty to receive a scholarship from Michigan. And then Enos switched jobs again, becoming the quarterback coach at the University of Alabama. It took a little longer for Enos to get the green light from coaching legend Nick Saban, but once he did Evans picked up an offer from Alabama.
Enos wasn’t the only one after the blue chip quarterback. After committing to CU, Evans picked up offers from Ole Miss and Texas A&M.
Evans now has 14 scholarship offers from schools all over the country but has kept his loyalty with CU and doesn’t plan on wavering.
“First of all we have the dopest unis in the game,” Evans said when asked what sticks out at him when he thinks about CU football. “Colors and everything are just so cold. But outside of that, the tradition with CU football going back to winning the National Championship over Notre Dame and stuff like that. And then obviously Ralphie, seeing Ralphie run across the field there is really nothing like it. I can’t wait to run behind Ralphie.”
Preparation
Evans has seven months before he is enrolled at CU as a student-athlete. In the meantime, he has been doing everything he can to prepare himself for the next level. Ty is truly living the QB lifestyle.
When Evans isn’t at school, he spends most of his time trying to get better. Whether it’s working at Ground Up Sports Performance to improve his strength, agility and speed, practicing with his team, or in the film room and on the field with Tim Jenkins and his Jenkins Elite crew. He finds little time to play Fortnite.
Evans has been working with Jenkins Elite since his freshman year and that is who has turned him into a top level quarterback.
“I came to him back in my freshman year and I was really just a skinny kid with arm talent,” Evans explained. “But I was very raw, not very technically sound with footwork and all of that. So he tuned me up and made me think about the next level of comprehension and it just kind of transformed to an elite quarterback.”
Evans praises his trainers for his development but it has been his hard work and dedication that has made the difference according to Tim Jenkins.
“Ty is one of the hardest working players we have ever had in our program,” Jenkins said. “Since I started working with Ty his freshman year in high school he has missed three groups out of over 100 workouts. One was for Elite 11 and the other two were for college visits where he got offered. Pretty good excuses! We are so proud of everything he has accomplished and everything that is ahead of him.”
Evans will keep working with Jenkins throughout the summer. And he’s always going to be working to get better. That is part of the lifestyle. In sports, Evans way of life and mannerisms on the field are usually described as the ‘it factor’. But the better way to look at it is he’s just climbing the mountain, trying not to fall, and one day he’s going to make it to the top. Who knows, if he wins enough football games at CU, Mount Evans might have to be stripped of its mark from former governor John Evans and reassigned to a youngster with dreams of becoming the best quarterback to ever step foot at Colorado.
