Transfer Tracker: Missouri wins big recruiting battle
Mark Pszonak contributed to this report.
The transfer portal never stops grinding. Tulsa transfer defensive back Akayleb Evans committed to Missouri over Notre Dame on Friday night, giving the Tigers a huge addition to their secondary.
Recruiting: Evans initially committed to Kansas, but then flipped to Tulsa a couple of days after the Hurricanes offered during the summer leading up to his senior season. He also had offers from Iowa State and North Texas.
At Tulsa: Evans played in 18 games, with 11 starts, during his first two seasons at Tulsa. During this time he totaled 47 tackles, 6 passes defended and one tackle for a loss. In 2019 he only played during the first three games of the season before a shoulder injury sidelined him. Returning in 2020, he finished with 29 tackles, one sack and three passes defended.
Farrell’s Take: Tall, rangy defensive backs are popular in the transfer portal and guys who like to tackle and can play the ball so well like Evans with good size are obviously going to get a ton of attention. Many big time teams jumped in here with Texas, Notre Dame, Georgia and others as the biggest threat but Missouri pulled this one out and should also land his teammate Allie Green as well. Missouri trailed heading into Friday to Notre Dame but offering his teammate was the key and now they will be getting two talented defensive backs from Tulsa. Evans will play early with his size and length and shores up a need at defensive back.
Impact Meter: 8.6 out of 10
IMPACT METER
The Transfer Portal continues to change the way college football programs recruit and mange their rosters so we here at Rivals.com continue to evolve our coverage. Each time a player of note enters the portal, we will examine their potential impact on the college football landscape and assign an impact rating, both when they enter the portal and when they choose a destination. The scale is from 1-10 and the description below explains the scoring scale.
1.1-4.0 — Not a big impact expected, likely a non-starter and down the bench depth player.
4.1- 6.0 — A solid impact can be expected in the right scenario and has the potential to battle for a starting job.
6.1-9.0. — A high impact player who won’t change a program but will certainly be a very good contributor and starter.
9.1- 9.9 — A very high impact player who should start the moment he steps on the field and will change the outlook of a program immediately.
10 — A franchise transfer who has a chance to be an All American and one of the elite players in college football.