Indiana Football: James Evans meets with the media

can we go to mat I guess we've asked some of the guys you've played with about being sort of the one of the senior voices in that special teams room in the past and you've talked about you know whether it's Shawn or you know Chuck or anybody just looking up to to some of the older guys now you're one of those guys what's different for you maybe trying to fill that leadership role in the same way that you saw those guys do it in in the recent uh I think the biggest thing is just being more vocal um like I've always try to the right thing and lead by example and and like how I conduct myself as far as my preparation and what I do at practice and trying to stay busy um but just being more vocal and being supportive the young guys and showing them like the right way to do things so go Matt in the second row on your right and then Mike hey James I remember when you first got here the coaches talk about you were so new to college football that you would take your helmet off when you were still on the field stuff like that just talk about how much growth you've made from that first year till now and just how much I guess slower the game is for you and how much more you you knowledgeable you are about college football um I think definitely I think my first year everything kind of was just so new to me um and with having good guys around me good coaches around me and just experience in games and practice uh I think I just grow mentally I don't think there's like a tremendous difference as far as my physical ability from year1 to year4 but I think mentally as far as my preparation my routine um and the kind of confidence that I bring to every game it's definitely evolved positively so standing right with Mike and then Owen yeah what's the transition like when to the new staff have they you know done anything differently with special teams or your approach and and kind of how has that transition been um it's been really good uh schematically for me uh slight change but more or less the kick types are the same so I hasn't been uh to I guess great of a a difference um but yeah really really liked working with Coach Kane so far um in December I guess when he was appointed as fish I reached out to a few if his like older I guess specialist he had in C and they all spoke very fondly of him and so yeah it's been a great experience so far you did that research on your own yourself yeah yeah I reached out to some people and what did you learn about him um I Le like one they said they all spoke very highly of him as a person like he was a genuinely good guy um as far as his coaching style I kind of like that he respects my technique and the coaching that I've had and he'll I mean he'll ask me like if something was to go wrong ask me what went wrong but he won't like try to overcorrect things you know so he'll be very uh I guess open to communication and uh willing to listen so that's been really good Owen in the front and then Todd yeah if I remember correctly last year you told us kind of during the spring fall um area you were staying after practice getting extra rep with potential returners you still getting that extra work in anyone anyone particularly helping you out um I guess over the summer we have a group chat with theist all texting them when we're going on py um so Miles Kean Solomon they've all been getting a lot of reps looking comfortable back there um so yeah I think those three right now are the guys they're primarily working with and I think all three of those guys have gotten game experience in the past and they're confident and comfortable back there so yeah on your left to Todd and then Jack uh tell me about the relationship with your long Snappers Mar and Jackson at this point how's that that's been good um so Jackson was H Lost season M got here in January uh so we being lucky I guess have a full off season working with them like I mean field goal snapo kick up on Snap kick so yeah it's been really good they both good dudes they both work really hard and they both care a lot so it's made my life easier Jack and Seth yeah I guess just going into your final season is there anything you're sort of challenging yourself to do or you want to specifically improve on yeah um I guess the biggest thing last year was probably my pin deep ping um which became a little difficult I got I had injury in the third week of the season so I like didn't really have like true like guys in my range I guess it'd be like knowing like your distances with your golf clubs like my pitching which goes 130 yards whatever so knowing that um so being pretty locked in on that and being able to pin teams deep inside like the five the 10 that's probably the main thing and then in the open field probably directionally especially right uh like I have a tendency to drop pull inside kicking right so working on putting it dropping it on my hip just outside my hip and hitting a clean ball that turns over left or right go SE Pete yeah I mean you talked about just how much more comfortable you've gotten through the years you know haven't never really played football before coming here I mean if you if somebody told you coming into you know your career at IU that you know after not really playing much that you be this guy on the watch lists I mean just you know what would you thought back then and you know how did you get to this point oh it's been a pretty surreal Journey um I'd say just realizing how much work it would take to kind of get here um and like I guess the biggest thing for me is probably just setting goals and having measurable things that I want to attain and then walking and setting a plan and a a routine to achieve them um so yeah I guess early on with uh you know how new everything was you know you're just trying to like get by almost but you know as I kind of grew uh physically and mentally and became more comfortable and confident you know just keep pushing through Pete secondly on your left yeah the fact that you're on the great guy list um how special is that and again that kind of reflects on on your development and growth from being a fresh I mean it's pretty cool I like it's a preseason watch list though so like doesn't really mean anything it'd be nice to win it um but yeah we'll see I mean it's nice to be anytime you get any kind of recognition and um you know you're listed among like the top guys in college football is pretty cool but you know now I guess I got to go out there and prove that I'm worthy of it so to Matt second row on your right a lot of guys from where you came from Pro kick obviously great college success in a number of them have gone on to the next level I'm assuming that's something you're thinking about and do you ever do you have a relationship with any of those guys up at that level about what it's like and what you have to do to to get up there um so I trained with uh Tori Taylor played football Iowa just got drafted um so I haven't really spoken to him I know his life's probably you know full go right now in training camp but U I was lucky enough to train with him um you know that is the goal of line obviously this year means a lot um being able to put good things on tape to kind of solidify a case to to get there but um you know I've had also had the opportunity to train with guys that play in the NFL in the past and it's kind of nice to pick their brain and then also using that as kind of like a measuring stick for like where I need to get to if you know if I want to play at that level so awesome thanks James appreciate you