Evans turns to the ‘dark side’

Freshman Mitchell Evans is Darth Vader.\nAt least that’s how the IU defense sees it.\nEvans said that ever since he’s moved to quarterback from safety, where he played last season, his former defensive backfield has jokingly given him nothing but grief.\n“It’s definitely weird,” Evans said about switching to quarterback. “The defense always says I went over to the dark side.”\nThe decision to move Evans back to quarterback is largely because of chance circumstances. With the suspension of last season’s starting quarterback sophomore Kellen Lewis and an injury to backup freshman Teddy Schell, the Hoosiers were left thin at quarterback. \nIU coach Bill Lynch said he and offensive coordinator Matt Canada decided to make Evans the temporary backup to freshman Ben Chappell, much to the delight of Evans, who played quarterback in high school.\n“When we suggested it to him, he got that look in his eye,” Lynch said, adding that nothing seems to bother Evans while he’s playing quarterback. \nLynch said that even when Schell returns from injury and Lewis’ indefinite suspension ends, there’s still a chance Evans could stay at quarterback. \n“I think a lot has to do with how he does, and he’s pretty good,” Lynch said. “Once we get through spring, we’ll sit down with him and figure out what’s best for him.” \nThe opportunity for Evans to play quarterback at IU looked to be entirely out of the question last season, largely because of his performance against Western Michigan in the second game of the season.\nEvans entered the game after starting sophomore safety Nick Polk was injured, and promptly intercepted two passes in the Hoosiers’ victory. Evans became the first true freshman to pick off two passes in a game since current NFL draft hopeful Tracy Porter. \n“I knew I was done (playing quarterback) last year, but you never know what the future will hold,” Evans said. “I used to throw a little bit last year, joking around, but not nearly as much as I have the past few days.” \nWhen asked what position he would prefer to play, Evans said he would prefer whichever position gave him the most chance to get playing time. When asked if he could only pick one, he still couldn’t decide.\n“They both have their perks,” Evans said. “Safety is fun to try and pick off passes, but offense, there’s more pressure and let’s you make more plays.”\nWhile playing quarterback in high school, Evans said his school always ran their plays out of the shotgun, just as IU does. Evans said the biggest challenges for him will be learning the various reads and sets of the spread offense, as well as getting used to playing against Football Bowl Subdivision defenders instead of high school ones.\n“I need to get used to the speed of the college game,” Evans said. \nWhile Evans gets to go back to playing the position he did in high school, there’s still the matter of his former defensive backfield teammates trash talking him over his defection to offense. \nSophomore safety Austin Thomas denied any trash talk from the defensive side of the ball and said quarterbacks tend to be by themselves. Thomas said it isn’t strange to see Evans at quarterback, and he offered Evans his support.\n“We first met him as a quarterback,” Thomas said. “We just hope he’s happy.”