Dane Evans gets head start on future as a TU quarterback
BY ERIC BAILEY World Sports Writer
Sunday, January 15, 2012
1/15/12 at 6:09 AM
Dane Evans could have floated through his senior year of Sanger (Texas) High School. Easy classes and baseball could have ruled his life.
Instead, the young man graduated high school early and enrolled in classes at the University of Tulsa last week. The quarterback will be the youngest player in TU's football program this spring.
"Baseball was the only thing holding me back about not wanting to graduate early," Evans said after a Friday workout. "I talked to my baseball coach and all of my teammates. They understood what I wanted to pursue."
Evans will go through spring football and try to break into the quarterback race to replace G.J. Kinne.
Evans, a prolific passer at Sanger, admits he'd love to play and start as a Tulsa freshman.
"I've thought about that," he said. "I'm a competitive person and, if I'm here, I want to play. I'm going to go as hard as I can in spring ball and I want to learn this offense. If it turns out I'm the best one at the end of this, yeah, I want to play.
"What's the worst thing? I go as hard as I can and someone is better than me. Then I redshirt and do it all over again next year. It's a win-win situation and I have experience and four years of eligibility."
Evans will complete against sophomore Kalen Henderson, junior transfer Cody Green and redshirt freshman Joseph Calcagni for the vacant quarterback position.
Evans (6-foot-2, 195 pounds) capped his high school career with solid numbers. He finished with 9,074 career passing yards and completed his career 15th on the state of Texas' all-time career passing list. He also had 94 touchdown passes.
Evans piqued the interest of TU's Bill Blankenship at last summer's camps, but the football coach was honest with Sanger and all of his quarterback prospects.
"We went through all of our camps before we made an offer because I wanted to see who really jumped out at me," Blankenship said. "Then I went through and ranked all the quarterbacks I saw all summer and we ranked (Evans) No. 1 of the guys in our view that we'd seen all summer.
"He was our first choice."
Original Print Headline: Incoming TU QB gets a head start on future
Eric Bailey 918-581-8391
eric.bailey@tulsaworld.com
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Early entry
Dane Evans: The Sanger (Texas) quarterback will be the youngest player in TU's football program this spring.
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