Eric Evans returned to Dayton in the 2014 season for his second stint on the Flyer football staff. The 33-year-old Evans, who was a graduate assistant at UD from 2004 to 2006, coaches the Dayton quarterbacks and is the team's offensive coordinator.
Under Evans' guidance, quarterback Will Bardo completed 190 passes for 1990 yards and 14 touchdowns.
During his first term at UD, Evans coached tight ends and was part of the offensive staff that transitioned the Flyer attack from running the option out of the I formation to its current spread passing attack. One of Evans’ pupils, Matt Champa, was Dayton’s first tight end All-American in 55 years.
From Dayton, Evans went to Northwestern University where he was a graduate assistant for two years. He assisted with the quarterbacks, wide receivers and tight ends and helped build the Big Ten Conference's top passing offense at 307.9 yards per game.
He then went to the University at Albany, where he was a member of the football staff for five seasons. He coached wide receivers and handled offensive quality control. Two of his wideouts, Ryan Kirchner and Tim Bush, finished first and second in career receptions at Albany. The Great Danes won Northeast Conference championships three times in those five years. They won the Gridiron Classic in 2008 and played in the NCAA FCS playoffs in 2011. Also in 2011, Evans participated at the NCAA Coaches' Academy.
Before coming back to Dayton, Evans also spent one season at UAB. As the running back coach for the Blazers, he coached Jordan Howard, who finished second nationally in rushing yards by a freshman. Howard would go on to be drafted by the Chicago Bears in the 2016 NFL Draft. Another one of his pupils, Darrin Reaves, signed in 2014 with the Carolina Panthers as an undrafted free agent.
As an undergraduate at DePauw University in Indiana, Evans spent four years as a student assistant. He was involved in game preparation and gained experience coaching tight ends, wide receivers and quarterbacks. He was the 2003 recipient of DePauw’s Kenneth Brooks Holland Memorial Award.
He received his B.A. in kinesiology with a minor in history. A native of St. Charles, Ill., he earned a master's degree in exercise science from Dayton in 2006 and is just shy of another master's in liberal studies from Northwestern. His senior thesis at DePauw was “History Of The Passing Game From 1900 To The Present.”
Evans and his wife Rebecca live in Dayton.
