2016 ATH Chris Evans Says Michigan Coaches See Him at Multiple Positions

Four-star Michigan ATH commit Chris Evans led the Ben Davis Giants to a second-straight Sectional Championship game last night in a 55-27 win over rival Pike High School.

The seventh-ranked all-purpose back in the country had four touchdowns in the contest, propelling the Giants to 42 unanswered points and a rematch against Avon High School, led by fellow Michigan QB commit Brandon Peters.

Evans ran hard in the rematch against Pike, a game that Ben Davis lost earlier in the season. As with any high-caliber high school player, he received the bulk of the offensive workload and did an excellent job of converting it into hard-fought points for the Red Devils.

"Pike’s a really good team," Evans said in a postgame interview, "we just kept playing hard and everybody didn’t give up."

Evans excels with the ball in his hands, making the most of the holes he finds and showing great vertical speed. He’s a shifty runner, often making tacklers miss, and has a great ability to make his way out of the backfield when the blocking falls apart. Perhaps most important to his recruiting as an athlete, however, are his soft hands and intuitive pass-catching ability, which came in very handy on more than a handful of wheel routes and screens. Coming out of the backfield, Evans is very dangerous, but once he finds himself in the open field there are very few high school players that can bring him down.

Evans says he’s been in touch with Coach Fisch, Coach Wheatley, and Coach Harbaugh throughout his recruiting process, and Fisch was on hand to watch last night’s sectional matchup. Though keeping his position at halfback is still a possibility once he arrives in Ann Arbor, the coaching staff has made it clear that Evans could end up at a handful of different positions.

"(I’ll play) either defensive back, slot (receiver), or running back," Evans said. He also indicated that Coach Fisch has spoken about the possibility of returning kicks and punts as soon as next season.

Evans has also been active off the field this season, making a big effort to bring as many talented athletes as possible with him to Ann Arbor next season. He’s spoken with Rashan Gary frequently, as well as Ohio State commit Kareem Walker, whose recruitment has heated up significantly since the start of the season.

Up next on the schedule for Ben Davis is a matchup against four-star quarterback Brandon Peters and the Avon Orioles, a game that Ben Davis won 49-42 earlier in the season. Avon and Ben Davis finished 6th and 11th in the final AP poll, respectively, but the rematch will be on the Orioles’ home turf instead of Ben Davis’. The Giants are looking to repeat their successful tournament run from last year, which was capped off by a state championship win over Indianapolis powerhouse Carmel High School.