Palmer Ridge’s Ty Evans has a competitive edge that makes him stand out on the football field
Ty Evans hates losing.
It doesn’t matter if it’s with his Palmer Ridge teammates on the football field or by himself when he’s playing pickup basketball at lunch against one of his friends.
“We play one-on-one in basketball every day at lunch and it gets heated,” Evans said. “We start throwing elbows and it gets very physical. That’s the way I am and that’s the way I like being. That’s what has gotten me to this point.”
“This point” is his standing as one of the top quarterbacks in the state of Colorado. His talents have also made him a target for some notable football programs in the country.
But his goal has never been to be good enough to get college offers. He wants to be great. His work ethic and attitude have him on track to do just that.
Back in January he decided that he was staying close to home and play for the University of Colorado.
Since then he has picked up offers from Michigan, Texas A&M, Ole Miss and Alabama. With every new offer, he gets asked about changing his commitment. He’s done it before, so what’s to stop him from doing it again?
“I usually don’t go into it in-depth,” Evans said. “It’s gotten to the point where I do look at people and tell them that it’s my decision. Back off. You don’t have to go to workouts at 6 a.m. every day. It might seem cool on Twitter to commit to Texas A&M or wherever, but it’s my journey and that’s where I feel like I need to be.”
When he says it like that on a hot June day, sitting in a Starbucks in Monument, there is no need to press further.
For the last two years he has been preparing himself for the next stage of his football life. And yes, originally it was supposed to be in Arkansas. But things changed. He decided that Boulder was the best fit and he has put himself in a position to graduate in December and enroll at CU in the spring. That way he can get going on spring football where he can hopefully get a head start on his collegiate career.
“Even if I was staying here for the last semester, it’s not like I’d be chilling and not doing anything,” he said. “If I was here, I’d be working out twice as much.
“I see it as I can either stay here and finish out my senior year or I can go to Boulder and start the next chapter and start pushing myself in other ways,” he added. “You know, mentally into the groove of what college football is like. Getting the speed down. It’s honestly just an easy decision to make.”
But before he packs his things and heads up to Boulder, he still has a few loose ends to tie up. Next week, he’ll compete alongside some of the best football players in the country at The Opening in Dallas.
He earned his way there through his performance at the Elite 11 camp earlier this summer. Notable alumni of the Elite 11 camp include NFL quarterbacks Matthew Stafford and Andrew Luck.
That’s pretty good company considering that Evans often hears whispers that his size (he’s listed as 6-2, 190) and his home state don’t set him up to play a high level of football. He hears it quite often and refuses to let it get to him.
“You hear it from other guys on other teams all the time,” Evans said. “It’s more the national guys. ’He’s from Colorado. He’s skinny. He’s a three-star. Why would we offer him?’ Stuff like that. Okay. We’ll see. Every team that doesn’t recruit me, respectfully, you made a mistake.”
His numbers can’t tell the whole story, but they certainly add some substance. He has thrown for 6,788 yards and 73 touchdowns. His career competition percentage is over 60 percent and he’s only been picked off 12 times in his 687 passing attempts.
He was named the Class 3A player of the year, and the Gatorade player of the year in Colorado — the first junior to do so since Christian McCaffrey in 2012.
All this, of course, helped Palmer Ridge win the 3A championship last fall.
On the sideline of any given Palmer Ridge game, local writers and television reporters often stand in awe as he slings the football all over the field.
The chatter is often the same week in and week out. Evans is a dude. And dudes win football games.
“People look on Twitter and they see a nice guy, a QB, all those things,” he says. “When it comes to what’s happening between those hashes, there’s nobody else that’s going to be as competitive as me. We have a job to get done and I’m going to stay calm, cool and collected but I am going to get that job done.”
He wants to get the job done next week at The Opening. He wants to get the job done 14 more times this fall and try to lead the Bears to back-to-back state championships. He wants to get the job done at CU and earn that starting job.
“Personally, I always get to the point where I’m thinking about what’s next,” he said. “What’s the next thing I can be getting ready for? After the state championship game it was about going and winning another one. After that, it’s about going and getting the starting spot at CU no matter how long that takes. Then you have to perform and just keep building on that.”
And that’s what makes him on of Colorado’s standout athletes heading into the 2018-19 year. He never takes the time to rejoice or brag about his most recent victory. He instantly turns and looks at the next task to accomplish.
He enjoys moving forward. And high school sports fans in Colorado enjoy watching him along the way.
