Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
UCF lineman handles pain
Aaron Evans takes toughness to new level
Somewhere along the way, Aaron Evans learned to lean into the pain.
He bought $7 dollar tattoo ink from Amazon, grabbed a sewing needle and pricked himself repeatedly on his left thigh. The end result was a tattoo drawing of an astronaut. He later repeated the process to add a lazer gun, which he filled in himself with red ink. In total, Evans has six tattoos, but he takes more pride in the two he drew himself.
It hurt, of course. But to Evans, a senior left tackle on the UCF football team, pain is a state of mind.
“It’s just something fun to do,” he said with a wide smile.
He doesn’t mind taking the pain. Evans, the Knights’ longest tenured starting offensive lineman, expects to absorb the most blows if he’s having a productive day taking care of UCF quarterback McKenzie Milton. Evans will look to put in another hard day’s work Friday when No. 15 UCF (10-0) hosts rival USF (9-1) before a national ABC audience at 3:30 p.m. The winner will advance to the American Athletic Conference championship Dec. 2.
It’ll be a clash of the offensive and defensive titans when the teams meet. UCF boasts the best offense in the league — and is among the best in the country, averaging 522 yards per game. USF leads the conference in defensive play, limiting offenses to an average of 323 yards per game.
The stakes, the emotions and rewards are high. And Evans wants to be a more generous giver than recipient when it comes to hits Friday.
“Physically, Aaron’s played through injuries, changed his body around. When he hits you, you feel it,” UCF offensive line coach Greg Austin said. “And when he hits you, he means to hit you. He wants to knock the crap out of you every time he hits somebody.”
Austin, a former assistant offensive line coach for the Philadelphia Eagles, said Evans’ level of toughness is rare in college football. He commits to going hard on every block on every play in practice and in games.
“The 0-12 season really changed how I viewed work and how I viewed attacking work,” Evans said. “You have to work hard and smart. You have to work effectively.”
Since his freshman season in 2013, Evans added an estimated 60 pounds to his frame. He packed on the last 30 pounds since last spring under the guidance of UCF strength and conditioning coach Zach Duval.
Evans said he drank three protein shakes and scarfed down 12 eggs along with four meals a day to keep his weight up thanks to his naturally high metabolism.
“If I miss a few meals on the weekend, I will lose five to six pounds on a weekend, easy, no problem. It’s almost annoying now, eating for me,” Evans said. “It’s exhausting, but that’s what I have to do to do my job.”
The added weight gave him more sturdiness so he could absorb more hits in the trenches and push back.
The external work, however, came easier than the internal work of becoming a stronger leader.
“He’s always been a go and do it guy instead of bringing people along guy,” Austin said. “And I really tried to emphasize that with him since the end of last year.”
Evans said it was sophomore center Jordan Johnson who helped him to relax his leadership style. The two initially butted heads, he said, but now Evans is one of the guys dancing around on the field between periods.
“A lot of times college football can be seen as a job and you’re out here straining every day,” Johnson said. “When you see a guy dancing around in between periods just trying to have fun, [we have fun.]”
Left guard Jake Brown said Evans, along with right tackle Wyatt Miller, took the lead creating stronger chemistry among the line.