Evan Washington made a deal with his dad a couple of years ago that changed his athletic career.Washington started out as a basketball player at DeSoto High School in DeSoto, Texas. But his father, Marvin, convinced him to switch to football after his basketball career didn’t quite flourish.”Evan just wanted to go play basketball,” said Claude Mathis, Evan Washington’s high school football coach. “He made a deal with his dad that if his dad didn’t see him being the basketball player he thought he would be, he was going to bring him over his sophomore year, and he did.”The younger Washington, a 6-foot-5-inch, 285-pound offensive lineman from DeSoto, Texas, committed to LSU to play football last week. He was LSU’s 16th commitment for the class of 2010. Two more recruits have committed since then — West Monroe defensive end Jordan Allen and Archbishop Shaw defensive tackle Elliot Porter — bumping LSU’s total up to 18.Evan Washington, a Scout.com four-star recruit, had offers from just about every major football program, including LSU, Auburn, Miami, USC and every Big 12 school.”If I told you all of them, we’d be on the phone for a long time,” Mathis said with a laugh. “Every BCS school — you name it, he had [an offer].”Marvin Washington has had quite the influence on Evan’s football career. He played in the NFL for 11 seasons with the New York Jets, San Francisco 49ers and Denver Broncos.”If it weren’t for his dad, he wouldn’t be playing [football],” Mathis said.Mathis said Evan Washington didn’t really become a good football player until he finally developed a mean streak during two-a-day practice sessions last season.”I told him, ‘You’ve got to get mean. You’re not mean enough.’ And he did,” Mathis said. “When he put a kid on the ground on his back that day in practice, I’m like ‘Yeah, he’s going to be a heck of a player.'”Mathis said Evan Washington is just as good of a pass blocker as he is a run blocker and that his quick footwork allows him to finish blocks.”When Evan gets you locked up, he finishes the block,” Mathis said. “He makes sure that you know he’s there.”Mathis said Evan Washington’s quick feet can also be attributed to his time spent playing basketball.”Basketball has helped him out a lot until he got to football,” Mathis said. “After football, [his quick feet] just became even better. So I think basketball had a lot to do with it.”Mathis said Evan Washington will be able to pick up the college game quickly because of his work ethic.”When he gets to the college level, it’s just going to be touching this kid up,” Mathis said. “He is an unbelievable worker. He gets the job done. So when he gets to the college level, if I had to try to find something, it would probably be his first step, where he’s planting. That’s about it.”Mathis said the only LSU coach he has talked to about Washington’s commitment is wide receivers coach D.J. McCarthy. He said McCarthy likes Evan Washington’s mean streak, footwork and size.”How can’t you like a kid that’s 295 pounds full of muscle?” Mathis said.—-Contact Robert Stewart at [email protected]