The No. 1 overall prospect in the recruiting class of 2020 released his top five schools on Tuesday, and Ohio State made the cut.
Zachary Evans, a running back from North Shore High School in Houston, Texas, announced Tuesday that he has decided to focus on five schools, in no particular order: Ohio State, Alabama, LSU, Oklahoma and Georgia.
— T H R E E (@Runzekerun01) May 28, 2019
Evans' list of schools came as a surprise, as it did not include any of the schools in his list of 247Sports Crystal Balls – Texas, Texas A&M and Oklahoma State – and instead includes five out-of-state schools.
What stands out about the five schools he did choose, though, is that they include some of the best teams in the country in recent seasons, and he told 247Sports' Chris Hummer that the potential to compete at the highest level was a big factor in narrowing down his list of schools.
“It’s just … you don’t know how to put it,” Evans told 247Sports as a part of a wide-ranging interview. “I don’t want to be disrespectful. I ain’t saying (Texas) can’t win a natty. It’s just at the moment [Texas is] not quite there. You beat Georgia but you barely beat Georgia. What about when it comes to a Bama or go to a Clemson?
"Texas is a good school, they coming up. It's just ... I don't know."
Ohio State's inclusion in the top five also comes as a surprise, because the Buckeyes have not been strongly connected to Evans during the recruiting process. The Buckeyes' top two targets at the running back position for the class of 2020 have been fellow five-star running backs Kendall Milton, from California, and Bijan Robinson, from Arizona.
Nonetheless, Evans' decision to include the Buckeyes in his top five suggests that at the very least, the top-ranked prospect in 247Sports' composite rankings for 2020 believes Ohio State is a school that warrants consideration as one where he could have a chance to compete for a national championship.
