Is Ryan Williams leaving school? Yeah. Is Darren Evans? Maybe not…

It’s the question Hokie fans have been dreading to hear the answer to, but the time has come to face it once and for all.

Ryan Williams is ready to bolt to the NFL...Darren Evans may not be so sure.

The Orange Bowl is less than a week away, which means the impending NFL Draft decisions of Virginia Tech’s running back tandem of Darren Evans and Ryan Williams is near.

Both players submitted paperwork to the draft’s advisory board earlier this month, and are still waiting to receive feedback on where they figure to be drafted.

The consensus opinion is that Williams is a second-round pick, no worse than early third-round. Evans, on the other hand, seems to be a fifth-round selection or worse.

After speaking to people close to Williams in a variety of capacities, I can guarantee that, barring a major injury in the Orange Bowl, he will forgo his final two seasons of eligibility and enter the draft.

It’s a smart move. He’s rebuilt his draft stock enough in the final month of the season that he needs to bankroll that success now. As running backs coach Billy Hite has always said, if you are a second-round pick, get paid now.

Evans, on the other hand, is in a precarious situation. He’s had an incredibly productive season despite splitting carries with Williams and David Wilson. His son, James, is now four years old, and without any real knowledge of his financial situation, you tell me if a 22-year-old college kid has all the means necessary to raise a child – not to mention with a potential million-dollar career is a possibility.

Also, Evans is six credit hours (two classes) from earning his degree, something that is extremely important to him.

“My main focus is just getting my degree. That’s really about it, to be honest. I mean, I care about football and I love football to death. I just think me being here eight hours away from home, four years away from home, missing my mom the way I do, missing my family as much as I do, if I don’t get that degree, it would just be four years of my life just wasted down the drain. So that’s basically my biggest thing,” Evans said earlier this month.

He does, however, have the dangerous label “injury-prone” thanks to a torn ACL that forced him to miss the entire 2009 season. It’s the only serious injury he has ever suffered; yet it’s going to raise red flags on every draft board.

In order for Evans to shake the injury concerns and low draft stock, he would need to withdraw from school and train vigorously in preparation for pre-draft workouts. Even then, there’s no guarantee that he moves up the boards very far, it at all.

The scare for Evans is clear. Leave school, get picked up late in draft, get cut during training camp, and be unemployed with no degree and no way to go back to school.

The crop of running backs for this year’s draft is potentially much stronger than it would be a year from now. If Alabama’s Mark Ingram and Oregon’s LaMichael James bolt for the draft this season, it would leave the 2012 running back class with only one headline player, Ingram’s teammate Trent Richardson. Evans could go from a fifth or sixth-rounder this year to a second-round pick next season.

He could also return to school and split carries with Wilson next season, as was the case for four games this season hen Ryan Williams was out with a torn hamstring. In that stretch, Evans averaged 5.8 yards per carry and scored seven of his 11 touchdowns this season (after Williams returned, he was the primary goal-line back).

There is also, of course, the concern of the pending NFL labor negotiations, which if it does not cause a lockout, is expected to restrict rookie salaries significantly starting in 2012.

Alabama coach Nick Saban publicly urged his players to stay in school and avoid the mess altogether, while pro agents are taking a different approach, trying to convince prospects to take the money while you can.

“With the labor situation and the strike [potentially] coming up, it could really affect how much a guy could develop this year if there is no minicamp, there is no training camp. It will be much more difficult for guys to learn the system and make an impact,” Saban said.

Clearly, there’s a lot weighing on Evans’ mind at this point. Even though Williams appears to be as good as gone, it’s not certain his mentor will follow him out the door just yet.