Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1508769
BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM OCT. 7, 2023 17 Stadium to give Fighting Irish quarterback Sam Hartman a throwing window. Chambers interlocked his right arm with that of Evans. Hartman saw enough space to throw the pass anyway. Unable to get both hands to the football, Evans reached up and snared it with one. Not even for a split second after he broke free from Chambers' entanglement did he use the other to help secure the catch. Thirteen-yard gain. First down. An- other highlight reel snag for a school that's had plenty of them from the tight end position over the years. "I'm at the top of my route, I'm get- ting bear-hugged, and I'm like, 'OK, probably not going to get the ball,'" Ev- ans said. "I get out of my break and the ball was coming out, so I was like, 'OK, I've got to do something.'" He did something, all right. And not just that one thing. A lot of things. Evans had at least one catch in every quarter and was Hartman's most reliable target all night. The Fighting Irish were one second away from defeating the No. 6 team in the country and beating the Buckeyes for the first time since 1936, largely because of Evans' 7 catches for 75 yards, both of which were career highs. Evans said the Ohio State game was personal for him. He's from less than two hours north of Columbus, and the Buckeyes didn't recruit him. "I wanted to show them something a little bit, and I think I did that," he said. He's been showing Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman something for quite a while. The Michael Mayer era at Notre Dame effectively ended when Mayer announced he wouldn't play in the Gator Bowl to prepare for the upcoming NFL Draft. With the greatest tight end in the history of a program that has produced some of the best of all time moving on, Notre Dame needed someone to lean on. It leaned on Evans. Evans caught 3 passes for 39 yards and the winning touchdown in the final minutes of that Gator Bowl. Freeman saw it coming. "All of a sudden Michael Mayer isn't playing, and we are a tight end heavy offense," Freeman said. "In the bowl prep, I noticed he could be the guy. He played well in that bowl game, and he's played well all year." Evans doesn't have Mayer-like num- bers in 2023, but Notre Dame isn't looking for those from him. There are enough pass catchers now to use the tight end like most other programs do — supplementally. Through Week 4, Evans had 12 catches for 138 yards. He had yet to score a touch- down. He missed the Central Michigan game because of a concussion, otherwise he'd have possibly been Notre Dame's team leader in receptions. Through Week 4, he was tied with freshman wide re- ceiver Jaden Greathouse for No. 2 on the roster in that regard. Only junior Jayden Thomas had more than that duo with 13. While Hartman is looking to Evans, Thomas, Greathouse, senior Chris Tyree, sophomore Tobias Merriweather, fresh- man Rico Flores Jr. and even sophomore tight end Holden Staes on any given play, Evans is looking within himself to be that Mayer-like presence even if Notre Dame's circumstances don't demand it like they did when Mayer was actually around and backup-turned-starter Drew Pyne was operating a limited Irish offense. "With my mindset, I go out there every day and work my butt off and just try to hold that standard, like what 'Tight End U' at Notre Dame is like," Evans said. Will 7-catch, 75-yard games be the norm for Evans? Probably not in this offense. Not with this veteran quarter- back who so effortlessly spreads the ball around. The Notre Dame coaches can take as much away from a game like the one against Navy when Evans doesn't generate a single target, though, as they do when he's the Irish's leading receiver. They know who the boy from Wad- sworth really is at this stage in his career. "We have high expectations for him," Notre Dame offensive coordinator Gerad Parker said. "I think it would be fair to say he's played at a really high level this year. Sometimes the ball doesn't find you in game plans. That's unfortunate sometimes because you try to find ways. But then it does, and when it does you can see how special he is." ✦ "In the bowl prep, I noticed he could be the guy. He played well in that bowl game, and he's played well all year." HEAD COACH MARCUS FREEMAN ON EVANS Evans, who had 12 catches for 138 yards in four games played, is coming on strong as one of quarterback Sam Hartman's favorite targets. PHOTO BY CHAD WEAVER