Evans enjoys Iowa junior day

After visiting Iowa in January, Illinois native Samson Evans had a chance to make a return trip to campus for the Hawkeyes’ junior day this past weekend. For the 6-foot-1, 196-pound Evans, the visit was all about continuing to build his relationship with the Hawkeye coaching staff as he looks further into the opportunity at Iowa.

“When we got there, we got to talk to the head coach, Coach Ferentz, right away, so that was great,” said Evans. “After that, we had lunch and got to tour the campus. Then we got to talk to the coaches, which was mostly Coach Wallace and Coach Copeland for me.”

Kelton Copeland, Iowa’s new wide receivers coach, already has a connection to the Evans family as Samson’s older brother, Shane, is an offensive lineman at Northern Illinois, which is where he coached previously.

“My brother is at NIU and he was coaching there before he came to Iowa, so he already knew my brother,” Evans said. “He was telling me how hard of a worker my brother is at NIU and how he knows he’s a role model for me and how I take after him and everything, so he’s excited to work with me if given the chance.”

Evans already has a high school teammate, Jeff Jenkins, committed to the Hawkeyes, and Iowa remains at the forefront of his recruiting as well.

“I really love it there,” said Evans. “They have great coaches and it was great getting talk to them again and just continuing to build a bond was the biggest thing I took away. Just wanting to build a relationship and keep in touch and feel like I belong there.”

While Evans is not rushing things, he is targeting a spring decision if all goes according to plan, as he looks over scholarship offers from Iowa, Iowa State, Minnesota, Illinois, Syracuse, Army, and Northern Illinois, among others.

“The sooner, the better,” Evans said. “I’m trying to shoot for before the season, maybe around May. There’s no set date exactly, but just before school ends, I want try to be 100% sure. If anything changes in the meantime and I’m totally set on going somewhere, it could be earlier, but for sure before the season starts.”

An option quarterback who rushed for 2,211 yards and 43 touchdowns as a junior, Evans could play wide receiver, running back, or defensive back in college. Also, Army is recruiting him as a quarterback.

“It’s all different,” said Evans. “A lot of schools can see me playing on either side of the ball, so they just say athlete. Some schools just tell me offense, which is the best thing I want to hear. At Iowa, it’s mostly offense, but they’ve also told me how they turn quarterbacks into top players on defense all the time, so if it didn’t work out on offense, that’s something that I could do too."

See highlights from Evans’ junior year at Crystal Lake Prairie Ridge in the video below.