Rashaan Evans All-Star Game

Rashaan Evans will choose on National Signing Day between Alabama, Auburn and UCLA. (Photo courtesy of 247Sports)

AUBURN, Alabama -- Some of Auburn's biggest commitments returned to campus last weekend in an attempt to convince the biggest piece to the Tigers' recruiting puzzle to commit to Auburn.

A handful of commitments visited Auburn for the second time in as many weekends. Why? They wanted to bond with five-star linebacker Rashaan Evans, who is deciding between Alabama, Auburn and UCLA with less than two weeks remaining before national signing day.



"It was a bit of a different feeling because I actually had players come back and spend time with me," Evans said. "They didn't do that at 'Bama. Just with that it made me feel a little bit better. The players actually care about me, so just with that it made me feel much different from previous official (visit) I had."

Evans visited Alabama last week, where he came away impressed with the coaching staff, and was told he will compete for playing time at "Sam" linebacker if he signs with the Tide.

Several players made unofficial visits to Auburn over the weekend to be with Evans, whose official visit ended Sunday afternoon. Williams, an inside linebacker, four-star linebacker De'Shaun Davis and four-star cornerback Stephen Roberts were on campus for the second time in as many weeks.

"I told him as soon as I got here, I said, man, Rashaan, I'm not going to recruit you," Williams said. "This is a weekend for you, this is a weekend for you to have fun."

The weekend was also a fact-finding mission for Evans, who has a "good idea" where he will sign, but is still looking to nail down specifics about his future position.

Evans and his father, Alan, spent most of their time during the visit with coach Gus Malzahn. They drove around town in Malzahn's truck and had a sit-down discussion at the coach's home. Malzahn also laid out what the future could look like at linebacker with Evans, Williams and Davis lined up in defensive coordinator Ellis Johnson's 4-2-5 scheme.

The pressure is mounting on Evans, too. The state's top prospect is one of a few high-profile recruits to not yet pick a school.

"He's low key with it but we just want Rashaan," Davis said. "We wanted to have fun with him and we didn't want to push the recruiting part too much."

The Auburn High star faces pressure no matter his decision on national signing day (Feb. 5). He grew up with Auburn in his backyard, and his father is a former Auburn player.

"The whole community, his school, his coaches and everybody, quite naturally, they want him to go to Auburn and he's trying to handle that pressure part of it," said Alan Evans, who played two years behind Bo Jackson. "Trying to get past that and trying to make a good, concrete decision on where he wants to go and that's what we plan to do over the next week or so. We'll take the facts that we've learned today and discuss it and try to come up with a decision."

Evans still plans to take an unofficial visit to UCLA on Jan. 31.