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Looks like he's heading to UCLA.
Really good article from the SBT on the transfer.
Really good article from the SBT on the transfer.
SOUTH BEND — Patience.
In the days leading up to wide receiver Shaquelle Evans decision to march into Notre Dame head football coach Brian Kelly's office Monday and declare his intent to transfer, it was the factor that most impeded his climb to the top of the depth chart.
"It would be easy for me to say, ‘He just needed to be patient,' but he didn't see it that way," Kelly said Tuesday. "We were happy with his development. He was moving in the right direction. It was (just) going to take a little bit longer.
"Sometimes that's the difference today, when we're in a society where, ‘I want it now, I've got to have it right now.' "
By leaving now, the 6-foot-1, 205-pound sophomore from Inglewood, Calif., does have a chance to land at a school that hasn't yet started classes and still be eligible to play the entire 2011 season.
Kelly said he wouldn't restrict the list of schools from which Evans could pick. Predecessor Charlie Weis wouldn't release transferring players to schools he knew would appear on upcoming Irish schedules.
"He's a West Coast kid," Kelly said. "I think he'd like to go back to the West Coast to be closer to his family. We'll release him to any school he chooses that's the right fit for him."
That would include presumably Irish arch-rival USC, where Evans committed initially as a high school senior before flipping to the Irish. However, it appears Evans will end up at the Trojans' crosstown rival, UCLA.
Those close to the program characterized the transfer as a done deal late Tuesday afternoon with only some administrative kinks to work out.
"We have contacted Shaquelle," Bruins coach Rick Neuheisel said after practice Tuesday."
UCLA, on the quarter system, doesn't begin classes until late September. Former Irish tight end Joseph Fauria transferred there in the summer of 2009 and is currently the No. 2 tight end.
Evans, a former prep All-American and No. 44 prospect nationally in the 2009 recruiting class, per analyst Tom Lemming, is the second Irish player to announce a transfer since Kelly was hired last December. Freshman cornerback Spencer Boyd transferred in July to the University of South Florida.
Evans was not immediately available for comment, but his mother, Kallisha Wright, said Tuesday her son is still attending classes at ND until he finalizes the transfer.
Evans battled homesickness and depth-chart doldrums as a freshman in 2009. He had seven catches for 61 yards in 33 minutes of playing time last season. Four of those catches for 34 yards came during what appeared to be a breakout game against Washington in game five of the season.
However, those turned out to be his final Notre Dame career statistics. The only one of ND's final seven games of 2009 in which he saw cameo time was a blowout of Washington State on Halloween night.
"After the Washington game, I didn't play anymore, for reasons that are unknown, still," Evans said back in the spring. "I don't know why (the coaches) wouldn't let me play anymore. I wasn't hurt or anything."
Kelly's hiring offered Evans a new beginning, and by all accounts, he took full advantage of it. In the summer, he earned a reputation as one of the team's hardest workers.
But it wasn't enough to get him into a starting role.
Junior All-America candidate Michael Floyd locked down one receiver spot. Evans then was moved to challenge freshman TJ Jones at the X receiver position, but he couldn't get past him.
Ultimately, he settled in at the slot receiver position, but converted running back Theo Riddick earned the top spot there.
"I think you have to look at it that he's still a young receiver developing," Kelly said of Evans. "He was better suited in the slot position for us, and Theo Riddick was outstanding. (Riddick) clearly had a skill level that could put him in a position to play right away."
Kelly said Monday's meeting with Evans was a one-way conversation and that the coach didn't try to talk him out of the decision.
"I am not really good at talking anybody out of staying with a football team," Kelly said. "I just have never been down that road. I'll point out some things that I think it's important to point out, but I don't know my role really is to talk somebody out of quitting.
"I always will say, ‘Have you talked to your family? What are your family's thoughts about this? Have you clearly talked to them?' Because if they haven't talked to their family, that's a red flag for me. He said he's talked to his family about it, and that's why we wish him the best.
"Sometimes those decisions are ones that we really won't be able to understand. And maybe in five or 10 years, you look back on it and go, ‘That was a great decision, that was a poor decision.' I've been doing it for 20 years, and anytime a player leaves, it's disappointing."
In the days leading up to wide receiver Shaquelle Evans decision to march into Notre Dame head football coach Brian Kelly's office Monday and declare his intent to transfer, it was the factor that most impeded his climb to the top of the depth chart.
"It would be easy for me to say, ‘He just needed to be patient,' but he didn't see it that way," Kelly said Tuesday. "We were happy with his development. He was moving in the right direction. It was (just) going to take a little bit longer.
"Sometimes that's the difference today, when we're in a society where, ‘I want it now, I've got to have it right now.' "
By leaving now, the 6-foot-1, 205-pound sophomore from Inglewood, Calif., does have a chance to land at a school that hasn't yet started classes and still be eligible to play the entire 2011 season.
Kelly said he wouldn't restrict the list of schools from which Evans could pick. Predecessor Charlie Weis wouldn't release transferring players to schools he knew would appear on upcoming Irish schedules.
"He's a West Coast kid," Kelly said. "I think he'd like to go back to the West Coast to be closer to his family. We'll release him to any school he chooses that's the right fit for him."
That would include presumably Irish arch-rival USC, where Evans committed initially as a high school senior before flipping to the Irish. However, it appears Evans will end up at the Trojans' crosstown rival, UCLA.
Those close to the program characterized the transfer as a done deal late Tuesday afternoon with only some administrative kinks to work out.
"We have contacted Shaquelle," Bruins coach Rick Neuheisel said after practice Tuesday."
UCLA, on the quarter system, doesn't begin classes until late September. Former Irish tight end Joseph Fauria transferred there in the summer of 2009 and is currently the No. 2 tight end.
Evans, a former prep All-American and No. 44 prospect nationally in the 2009 recruiting class, per analyst Tom Lemming, is the second Irish player to announce a transfer since Kelly was hired last December. Freshman cornerback Spencer Boyd transferred in July to the University of South Florida.
Evans was not immediately available for comment, but his mother, Kallisha Wright, said Tuesday her son is still attending classes at ND until he finalizes the transfer.
Evans battled homesickness and depth-chart doldrums as a freshman in 2009. He had seven catches for 61 yards in 33 minutes of playing time last season. Four of those catches for 34 yards came during what appeared to be a breakout game against Washington in game five of the season.
However, those turned out to be his final Notre Dame career statistics. The only one of ND's final seven games of 2009 in which he saw cameo time was a blowout of Washington State on Halloween night.
"After the Washington game, I didn't play anymore, for reasons that are unknown, still," Evans said back in the spring. "I don't know why (the coaches) wouldn't let me play anymore. I wasn't hurt or anything."
Kelly's hiring offered Evans a new beginning, and by all accounts, he took full advantage of it. In the summer, he earned a reputation as one of the team's hardest workers.
But it wasn't enough to get him into a starting role.
Junior All-America candidate Michael Floyd locked down one receiver spot. Evans then was moved to challenge freshman TJ Jones at the X receiver position, but he couldn't get past him.
Ultimately, he settled in at the slot receiver position, but converted running back Theo Riddick earned the top spot there.
"I think you have to look at it that he's still a young receiver developing," Kelly said of Evans. "He was better suited in the slot position for us, and Theo Riddick was outstanding. (Riddick) clearly had a skill level that could put him in a position to play right away."
Kelly said Monday's meeting with Evans was a one-way conversation and that the coach didn't try to talk him out of the decision.
"I am not really good at talking anybody out of staying with a football team," Kelly said. "I just have never been down that road. I'll point out some things that I think it's important to point out, but I don't know my role really is to talk somebody out of quitting.
"I always will say, ‘Have you talked to your family? What are your family's thoughts about this? Have you clearly talked to them?' Because if they haven't talked to their family, that's a red flag for me. He said he's talked to his family about it, and that's why we wish him the best.
"Sometimes those decisions are ones that we really won't be able to understand. And maybe in five or 10 years, you look back on it and go, ‘That was a great decision, that was a poor decision.' I've been doing it for 20 years, and anytime a player leaves, it's disappointing."
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