Like a child having fun with his friends, Willie Evans stands behind the door of the defensive line’s meeting room waiting anxiously to pounce on the next player who walks in.
“He jumps out and scares the (explicative) out of them,” defensive line coach Brick Haley said of Evans, who is a quiet hard-worker on the field but a prankster off it.
“I like to have fun-all work and no fun makes a dull guy,” Evans added.
Evans, a 6-foot-2, 270-pound senior, may like to joke while in the locker room, but he’s a smart, aggressive defensive end on the football field. After his breakout year last season with the Bulldogs where he averaged 5.9 tackles per game (leading all SEC lineman), the Waynesboro native sacked Tulane quarterback Lester Ricard four times during the Bulldogs’ win Saturday. He also tallied a team-leading 10 tackles.
“He played a very, very good ball game (Saturday night). (He gave) great effort and great intensity,” coach Sylvester Croom said at his weekly press conference,”And we saw that out of him early this year, but he did not have a quality spring. He was distracted by some things off the field.”
Croom later said bluntly that Evans had a poor spring. After coming into spring drills starting at defensive end, the senior found himself backing up sophomore Titus Brown at the conclusion of the spring.
“It wasn’t a big deal,” Evans said. “I just knew I had to come out this fall and play ball like I know how.”
Evans did just that in the month of pre-season practice leading up to the Murray State game. After having all summer to ponder his place on the team, he retained his starting role by playing tough, hard-nosed football, and now he is playing the best football of his life.
“I wanted to prove (coach Croom) wrong,” he said in his quiet manner. “I’m trying to have a good senior season, so I might have a chance at the next level.”
Sometimes it seems as if Croom and Evans don’t quite see along the same lines, but after stepping up his game this fall, the 50-year-old head coach was all positives about Evans’ recent play.
“He’s come back this fall and really focusing and really trying to have a big year,” he said. “(Saturday night) was a great individual effort, and he’ll have another opportunity this week (versus No. 7 Georgia).”
Evans, who has always had leaders to follow in the past, enters his final season anchoring the defensive line as the only senior.
“I’m used to Tommy Kelly and Ronald Fields who were before me, but now it’s my time to lead the younger guys,” said Evans, who has played in all 38 games of his Bulldog career, starting 28 of them. “It’s all about hard-work and dedication.”
Defensive coordinator Ellis Johnson, going into his second year at State, relies on Evans’ experience and athletic ability to lead an unsteady and still unproven defense.
“He’s worked real hard in the off season,” Johnson said. “He’s very football-intelligent.”
Evans came to State after a stellar high school career where he played a dual role as a nose tackle and a fullback at Wayne County High School.
In fact, Evans was recruited by former head coach Jackie Sherrill as a fullback.
He played his first three games as a freshman at fullback, carrying the ball once for two yards. During week four preparation for LSU, he was moved to the defensive line, where he remains. He started four games for State on the defensive line his freshman year.
“I think I have an edge,” Evans said, referring to his knowledge of offense that helped him on the defensive side of the ball. “I could pick out some of the keys that help our defensive front.”
It’s hard to find Evans without a smile spread across his face. It seems that he consistently wears it. As the senior leader of the defensive line one would think Evans, like Fields and Kelly before him, would be a loud vocal leader. But he’s not. Evans is a very quiet individual who does his job and leads by example.
“He’s not a very vocal guy at all,” Johnson said. “He’s not a cheerleader type or anything.” Although Evans takes a business-like approach to the game, off the field his prankster ways serve as a comic relief in the locker room for other players, as well as himself.
“He’s kind of a prankster in the meeting room,” said Haley with a smile. “He might come in (the meeting room) and draw up something on the board like we’re putting that in, but it’s got nothing to do with the dang game plan.”
“I try to have a little fun off the field,” said Evans, laughing. “I like picking on the young guys, hiding their play book and stuff like that.”
Offensive guard Brian Anderson sees the other side of Evans. Anderson goes up against him every day at practice.
“Willie’s a good guy,” Anderson said. “He’s a tough competitor on the field.”
Though he’s a different person on and off the field, Willie Evans does his job either way.
“He takes care of his business,” Johnson said. “I know people can count on him and depend on him.”