Oklahoma football spotlight: Freshman QB Nick Evers

With a 22-member 2022 recruiting class and 13 additional players picked up from the transfer portal, almost one-third of the Oklahoma football roster for the coming season is made up of newcomers.

Periodically into the summer months, we will introduce you to these new faces. Today we introduce incoming freshman QB, Nick Evers. Evers was the No. 77 overall recruit in the country and the 7th-rated QB according to On3, good enough for a high four-star rating.

Who is Nick Evers?

Nick Evers is a 6-foot, 3-inch, 190-pound QB from Flower Mound, Texas. He was a finalist at the elite 11 in 2021 and was a highly sought-after player. He had initially committed to Florida but chose to decommit after the coaching change at Florida. He was named first-team QB for Texas 6A-6 District.

During his high school junior and senior seasons, Evers threw for nearly 5,000 yards and 44 touchdowns and also ran for 18 more. Evers held at least 26 offers but ultimately chose Oklahoma after a conversation with new offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby. Fellow Florida decommitment WR Jayden Gibson joined Evers.

Depth Chart and impact for Oklahoma

Make no mistake, the Oklahoma starting QB in 2022 will be UCF transfer Dillon Gabriel, who has the team’s confidence as well as that of the coaching staff. Gabriel also has a history of working with Lebby back in his days at UCF However, aside from Gabriel at one point, Evers was the only other scholarship QB on the Sooner’s roster this offseason. That has changed with the additions of JUCO transfer General Booty and Pitt transfer David Beville.

However, Evers is easily considered the most talented player of that trio, and should something happen to Gabriel; his number will likely be called on. Oklahoma has Big 12 championship and College Football Playoff aspirations, so Evers will need to be ready to go. Afterward, if Gabriel leaves for the NFL Evers and five-star 2023 QB Jackson Arnold could have one heck of a QB competition next summer.

Scouting

Evers is a long and athletic QB, he even ran a 4.5 40 already as a high school senior. Evers has considerable arm talent, he is accurate and has a whip of an arm. Flower Mound mostly utilizes a deep and intermediate passing game, so we do not see as much short stuff from Evers on tape, but he has great anticipation, and throws the ball with quality placement. Evers also appears to have a good grasp of coverage concepts as his eyes are often in the right place, he does at times show perhaps too much confidence in his strong arm as he is a risk taker. Still, he only was intercepted 14 times over his junior and senior seasons.

In Lebby’s veer-and-shoot scheme, there are a ton of long throws, not only down the field but towards the sidelines with the long WR splits. Evers shows natural arm talent that would work well in the scheme and does a good job of getting the ball out quickly and on time.