Samson Evans

Pos: RB

Hometown: Crystal Lake, Illinois

Ht: 6’0”

Wt: 200

Stars: 2

Other Offers: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa State, Minnesota, Syracuse, Others

Commitment Post: Hawkeyes Land Samson Evans

Don’t let the 2-star rating fool you, Samson Evans is one of the integral pieces to this 2018 recruiting class for the Hawkeyes. The Prairie Ridge High School product has won back-to-back state championships while manning the QB spot and took home Gatorade player of the year honors in the state of Illinois this season.

Today, he added his name to the list of players officially signed on to join the Hawkeyes in 2018, signing his national letter of intent

Evans, while the only 2-star commit in the class of 2018, was one of the higher-recruited talents in the group. The low rating has much more to do with where he lined up in high school and how he projected at that position than his actual skillset.

At Prairie Ridge, Evans was a QB in a run-first offense. While that means he didn’t throw for a ton of yardage, he did run for it, literally. He finished his senior year with more than 2,000 rushing yards and 37 rushing touchdowns. He shows a very good combination of speed and power with the ball in his hands.

He had been projected as a WR for some time in this class, but recently announced the staff was planning to start him as a RB. Given what we see of him running the ball (and what we don’t see of him catching it) that makes a lot of sense. There is always the potential he slides over to the defensive side of the ball (he has a prototypical build for a safety), but his offensive talents warrant at least starting in position to put points on the board.

Evans finished his high school career with nearly 6,400 rushing yards, good enough for 7th all time in the state of Illinois, and 112 rushing TDs, 3rd best all time in the state. Those are solid reasons to trust the staff’s placement of Evans as a RB in the class of 2018.

From a needs standpoint, this class didn’t necessarily need another RB after they gained the commitment of Wisconsin-native Henry Geil. But the skills of Evans seem too good to not at least try at the spot. If history has told Hawkeye fans anything it’s that you can never have too many RBs on the roster.

Evans is one of a trio of players from the state of Illinois, which has historically been fertile recruiting grounds for the Hawkeyes. He’ll join Oswego-native Noah Shannon, a defensive tackle, as well has his high school teammate at Prairie Ridge Jeff Jenkins. Jenkins is an offensive linemen who has spent his prep career clearing the way for those big runs by Evans. The Hawkeyes hope that can continue at the next level.

Here’s a look at the full list of commitments in the class of 2018.

As a reminder, everything you need to know about the early signing period and Iowa’s class of 2018 can be found on our EARLY SIGNING PERIOD HEADQUARTERS.