RB Respect Month Vol. 3, Day 25: You don't remember Virginia Tech's Darren Evans, and that's OK (2008)
RB Respect Month is more than just remembering legends and icons.
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Welcome to day 25 of Running Back Respect Month! Yesterday, Tiki Barber showed us why he was one of the most dangerous all-purpose runners ever. Here's where we're at today, and how the rest of the month looks:
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Today: Darren Evans vs. Maryland (2008)
RB Respect Month Vol. 3, Day 25: You don't remember Virginia Tech's Darren Evans, and that's OK (2008)
I think it's important to balance out RB Respect Month with a mix of legendary players, guys who were great that you might have forgotten about, and backs that you just straight up have no idea about. Virginia Tech's Darren Evans fits into the last category for almost anyone who isn't a Hokies fan. To be clear, I don't mean that disparagingly.
Evans arrived at Virginia Tech fresh off a remarkable high school career. As a senior, he was named the 2006 EA Sports National Player of the Year after running for 2,806 yards and an Indiana state record 61 touchdowns at Warren Central High School. For his career, Evans had a remarkable 7,220 rushing yards and 127 TD, driving his team to four 5A state championships. Despite the gaudy numbers, he was ranked in the mid-20s of running backs in his recruiting class, and eventually signed with the Hokies.
Evans' transition to college football was a bit more difficult than your average freshman. He became a dad at 17, so the challenges of navigating fatherhood at such a young age, having to leave his son back with his family in Indiana, and the rigors of everything that come with being a high-level college athlete led to the Hokies redshirting him for the 2007 season. With a year under his belt –and his son and girlfriend finally with him in Blacksburg– Evans took off in 2008.
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He wasn't the starting running back to start the season, yet still scored in his first six games - a first in Virginia Tech history. A mid-season injury to starter Kenny Lewis elevated Evans to the starting role in mid-October, where he gained 104 combined yards in two losses to Boston College and Florida State. With their ACC Title hopes slipping away, Tech needed Evans to step up the next week against No. 23 Maryland on a Thursday night in prime time. He answered the call in a major way, running for a then-program record 253 yards and a TD as the Hokies upset the Terrapins, 23-13:
What you saw in this game is what you got from Evans as a runner. He had the ability to move laterally on interior runs, but it's not like he was outright juking dudes in the open field. He was built to run upfield, physically, as Maryland safety Terrell Skinner experienced firsthand:
Having his son and the rest of his family present for it was the cherry on top of a school-record performance in an important win. It also set the stage for Virginia Tech salvaging their season. The Hokies won two of their final three regular season games, clinching the ACC Coastal. They beat Boston College in the ACC Title (Evans ran for 114 yards and a TD), then beat Cincinnati in the Orange Bowl - where Evans won MVP honors with 153 yards and a score. His 1,265 rushing yards made him the first Tech freshman to cross the 1,000-yard barrier. The main reason you probably don't remember Evans' time at Virginia Tech is because another player had a rise similar to his the next year.
Evans tore his ACL in summer 2009, costing him the whole season. In his place, dynamic redshirt freshman Ryan Williams took the ACC by storm, running for 1,655 yards, and 22 TD. With both back in 2010, it looked like Virginia Tech had one of the best running back combos in the country. The Hokies went 10-4 and won the ACC again, but neither back reached the heights of their freshman seasons. Evans (854 yards, 9 TD) and Williams (477 yards, 9 TD) split time with the emerging David Wilson, and both declared for the NFL Draft after the season.
I always struggle with how to end columns about some of the more unknown guys I write about who then didn't go on to have great NFL success. Evans went undrafted and never logged an NFL carry, but made the practice squads for the Indianapolis Colts in 2011, then the Tennessee Titans in 2012. He played football at a much higher level than myself, or surely anyone else reading this ever did, and ran for 2,119 yards and 22 touchdowns in just two seasons of major college football. I'll always salute that, and make players like Darren Evans part of RB Respect Month.
Other notable things
- Funny how life comes full circle:
- Speaking of coaches - Maryland Head Coach Ralph Friedgen was on Frank Beamer's Murray State staff in 1981:
- If this doesn't sum up Beamer Ball:
- Evans' 253 yards against Maryland were a school record until Bhayshul Tuten had 266 vs. Boston College in 2024.
