All 105 is a Nittany Sorts Now series profiling each Penn State football player. In this edition, we will be profiling true freshman receiver, Omari Evans.
Height: 6-feet
Weight: 179 pounds
Hometown: Killeen, Texas
Before Penn State: Evans comes to Penn State after a four-year career at Robert M. Shoemaker High School.
Evans played quarterback in high school and became a dangerous duel-threat, eclipsing 800 yards in both rushing and passing as a senior and picking up eight touchdowns apiece in the air and on the ground.
He also performed well on defense, earning second-team all conference honors at defensive back as a junior.
247Sports, On3 and Rivals all had Evans rated as a three-star recruit, and ESPN had him as a four-star. He picked Penn State over Baylor, Rutgers and Vanderbilt, committing last October.
Where he stands: With Kaden Saunders, Anthony Ivey and Tyler Johnson all receivers beginning their freshman season at Penn State, Evans will have enough competition among his classmates, let alone the entire team.
With Parker Washington, Mitchell Tinsley and KeAndre Lambert-Smith all returning, Penn State likely won’t need the young guys to step up much barring unforeseen circumstances.
Evans will also be getting used to the receiver position, since he played elsewhere in high school.
A quote about Evans: “He came to camp,” Penn State coach James Franklin said on early singing day in December, “and had one of the more impressive workouts that we’ve seen in terms of his 40, in terms of his broad jump, vertical jump, triple broad, pro-agility, and caught the ball extremely well. He did not drop a ball in our workout.
“It’s interesting, because he’s playing out of position in high school. I don’t think people understand what we got there. But based on the in-person workout we had, special. So that was a different situation. Here is a young man that really came to workout for us, outside of the footprint. There were no real connections there.”
