Transfer Tracker: Illini offer highly-coveted CB Akayleb Evans

It was clear during spring ball that the Illini need to add depth in the defensive secondary, especially on the edge,

To that end, Coach Bret Bielema offered Tulsa transfer cornerback Akyaleb Evans, one of the hottest names in the transfer portal.

Starting starting cornerbacks Tony Adams and Devin Witherspoon are solid, but after that it gets dicey, particularly with former top recruit Marquez Beason moving to wide receiver this spring. Incoming freshmen may need to see the field right away.

It's not an ideal situation in the defensive backfield, and Illinois will continue to try to plug holes my mining the portal.

Evans would give the Illini another veteran to plug into the rotation, and possibly start. While he didn't put up big stats at Tulsa, he's considered a solid cover corner and an aggressive run stuffer.

In four seasons at Tulsa, Evans had 80 tackles, 10 passes defended, and zero interceptions. He appeared in 30 games from 2017-20. Evans’ junior season was limited by a shoulder injury and his senior campaign was reduced to nine games due to the pandemic.

PFF graded Evans with 73.1 overall on defense, putting him at No. 101 among all DI cornerbacks. He posted 72.5 PFF in pass coverage. His highest grade was tackling at 84.6, which ranked No. 36 among CB's.

Illinois has company in the recruiting battle for Evans, jumping into a very competitive pool of suitors.

Since entering the transfer portal earlier this month, Evans has added offers from from Mizzou, Texas, Notre Dame, Nebraska, Washington State, Minnesota, TCU, SMU, Mississippi State, West Virginia, Oregon State, Louisville, Texas Tech, and Kansas State.

Others taking a long look include Ohio State, Northwestern, Florida, Oregon, and Tennessee.

A grad transfer, Evans has one year of eligibility remaining.

Mike 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. He's clearly taking a step up to the Power Five level and as a Texas native keep an eye on TCU and perhaps Texas if they jump in with an offer. More offers will come on a daily basis. Based on what I've seen this kid could be an immediate starter for someone.

Impact Meter: 8.6 out of 10

The Transfer Portal continues to change the way college football programs recruit and manage 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.

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