Mike Evans recalls his first recruiting visit to Texas A&M

There are few combinations remembered as fondly by Texas A&M Aggies fans that the Johnny Manziel to Mike Evans combination that highlighted their early years in the SEC. Now, the two appeared together again on Manziel’s show Glory Daze, where they opened up about their time in college.

Evans was not a particularly highly recruited player, which made Texas A&M unique among the teams that recruited him. That also made for a unique recruitment to the school, which Evans remembered looking back at his first visit to Aggieland.

“It was actually Jim,” Mike Evans said. “It was Coach Jim Turner out of Boston, man. He saw the raw talent that I had. He saw the potential that I had. I went on an unofficial visit to A&M. We were getting ready for LSU in the Cotton Bowl. Before I go meet Coach [Mike] Sherman, talk to him in his office, Coach Turner comes to me and says, ‘You’re gonna go in the office, and he’s going to offer you, and you’re going to take it.’ I just looked at him and said, ‘Yes, sir.’ I thought he was playing around with me.”

Mike Evans played his high school football at Ball High School in Galveston. There, he was a three-star recruit in the Class of 2011. He was just the 113th-ranked receiver in that cycle. His big-time college offers, as a result, were limited.

“I go into Coach Sherman’s office. Big office. I’ve never seen an office like this at the time. 17 years old. He lists off things that I’m good at, which wasn’t many. He says, ‘You’ve got some okay hands, not a great route runner. You don’t have great energy.’ Things like that. He said, ‘But we’re gonna offer you a scholarship because we see the potential.’ He said, ‘We need to know soon.’ I was like, ‘Wow, this is how it goes,'” Evans said. “Then something told me to just commit right then and there. Well, it was Jim Turner, but then I felt like it was God telling me as well. Just take this opportunity. It’s close to home but not too close.”

Mike Evans would admit that his only other visit was to Colorado State. Ultimately, while he liked the Rams, it wasn’t comparable to what Texas A&M was offering as a program. That landed him with the Aggies and the rest is history.

While at Texas A&M, Evans played 26 games over two seasons. In that time, he had 151 receptions for 2,499 yards and 17 touchdowns. Of course, that was after changes on the coaching staff led to Kevin Sumlin taking over.

Since then, Mike Evans made the jump to the NFL and became one of the best receivers in the game. With the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, he has gone to the Pro Bowl six times and won the Super Bowl. He’s currently playing in the final year of his contract.