BLOOMINGTON — Ahead of Indiana football’s big game against Michigan in November 2024, guard Drew Evans felt something strange.
While hitting a sled in practice during the week leading up to the game, Evans felt like someone kicked him in the back of the leg. He turned around to look and see who did it, and nobody was there. IU’s starting left guard quickly realized he had a serious problem.
Then a redshirt sophomore, Evans suffered an Achilles injury that ended his season early, just as the Hoosiers prepared to enter a critical stretch run.
“That was a really devastating moment,” Evans said on Wednesday. “I was really excited. The Michigan D-line, they were really tough last year. I thought it was a good opportunity to prove myself against some of the top guys. Obviously, really kind of heartbreaking. But a good opportunity to get some adversity.”
If, indeed, adversity is what Evans wanted, he got more than he could’ve bargained for. He went from playing a quietly important role in a historic season for IU football every week to being unable to handle basic physical activity for six weeks.
He’d never endured anything like the recovery process he was about to begin. He faced major hurdles — not only physically, in working through his injury to get back on the field for 2025, but mentally as well.
In the short-term, he couldn’t suit up for Indiana’s biggest contests of the season: the Michigan game (when the team set a single-season program record with its 10th win), the showdown at Ohio State, the Old Oaken Bucket game against Purdue, and the College Football Playoff game against Notre Dame. Longer term, it meant he’d spend spring ball working separately from his offensive line teammates.
“It’s always hard to sit out and watch your friends play without you,” Evans said. “Watching — especially the first few weeks, when my friends are going to go play good teams without me, and I feel like I can’t be there without them. Obviously, that’s tough.”
Evans said he got through those mental challenges by focusing on one day at a time throughout his recovery, and reminding himself the process would end eventually.
Physically, he had to ease back into activity. After taking things easy for six weeks to let his Achilles start healing, he worked his way back into simply walking again, later turning into light treadmill work.
“It’s a very, very slow process,” Evans said. “Once I got back lifting and started to see some strides in my calf strength, (it was) kind of more uplifting. But still, just (a) very gradual, slow process.”
Evans transferred to Indiana from Wisconsin ahead of the 2023 season, following his offensive line coach Bob Bostad. He was a walk-on in Madison, but went on scholarship after transferring.
IU tight end Riley Nowakowski overlapped with Evans at UW, and was excited to reunite when he joined the Hoosiers in December. He said he was disappointed to hear about Evans’ injury last season, but saw him attack the rehab process in Bloomington with a good attitude.
“He’s the type of guy that just puts his head down and just gets through anything; just the kind of guy he is,” Nowakowski said on Wednesday. “He’s always going to come in with a smile, he’s always going to work hard. So it’s been great seeing him out there now.”
During spring camp, IU head coach Curt Cignetti said he expected Evans to be ready to return to practice for fall camp. But that didn’t necessarily mean as a full practice participant, or that he’d be ready to slot in at guard for game action. There was plenty of remaining uncertainty as fall camp began.
But Evans has looked ready to roll. He may not be at a full 100 percent, yet, but that seems the final hurdle for him to clear in this long process.
“I don’t have equal strength in my right calf as my left calf. But it was a very slow process to build that confidence and get back to running and all that,” Evans said. “The first practice, I’d say — the first fall camp practice — (I) was like, ‘Alright. I’m here. I’m back.'”
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