defensive end LT With a five-star rating, Overton was one of eight recruits in Texas A&M’s historic, top-ranked 2022 high school recruiting class. However, after spending two seasons in College Station, he only managed four starts and one sack due to what Overton views as a less-than-ideal fit with the Aggies’ defensive scheme.
In his first interview with media since moving to Alabama last winter, Overton stated on Tuesday, “I feel like I wasn’t being used to my best abilities back then, when it came to dropping [into coverage] most plays.”
Overton was rated as “one of the nation’s best defensive line prospects across multiple classes” and as a “potential impact player at the upper-tier P5 level with long-term high-round NFL Draft potential” by 247Sports national scouting analyst Gabe Brooks after he graduated from high school. Overton stated on Tuesday that although he weighed roughly 280 pounds when he got to Texas A&M, he had to lose weight in order to play the part the Aggies coaches wanted him to. That meant going from being listed on Texas A&M’s roster at 265 pounds to the 245–50 range, which meant shedding more than 30 pounds.
The thinner, lighter Overton was ineffective. Shortly after Texas A&M fired Jimbo Fisher on December 5, he signed up for an NCAA transfer portal. After formally committing to play for Alabama two weeks later, Overton joined the squad for Rose Bowl preparations in Los Angeles.
When Overton went on the scale Tuesday morning, it read 284 pounds, indicating that he had gained all that weight back. That’s about the standard weight for the hand-in-the-dirt “Bandit” defensive end position in Kane Wommack’s system, which can shift inside or outside while playing both run and rush the passer.
“Now that I’m now mostly a hand-down, man-down person, I feel like I can use my abilities to the best,” Overton stated. “I feel like it gives me more of an opportunity to free rush, play my type of game that I would like to play in, and really just be explosive on the ball.”
Overton trailed fifth-year senior Jah-Marien Latham, who is listed at 278 pounds, as the second-team Bandit during the spring and the first few weeks of fall camp. But when coach Kalen DeBoer talked about the pass rush on Tuesday’s GoJo and Golic show, he included both Latham and Overton. Additionally, Overton showed up on the practice field in August after missing a few sessions due to sickness.
Defense coordinator Kane Wommack said on Tuesday that lineman Latavius Thomas “has a great skill set and you can tell he’s honed in his pass rush ability.” “He has excellent complementary responses to his fastball. He’s a fantastic sprinter; he’s probably completed a million sprints in his lifetime. Additionally, he has the ability to sense if the offensive lineman is on his top or bottom hip and knows when to retaliate by going outside or back. He’s an extremely skilled on-body rusher, in my opinion, so once he gets the upper hand, he can counterattack with lightning speed.”
Alabama is no stranger to Overton. Milton Overton, his father, served as Alabama’s senior assistant athletics director from 2009 until 2015. From 2009 to 2019, Eunice Thomas, his mother, worked as Alabama’s academic coordinator. LT played his first year of high school at Bessemer Academy, which is close to Birmingham, where he recorded 19 sacks and 42 tackles for a loss.
“I took planes to every Nick Saban game. I was on the aircraft with him for even his first game,” LT Overton recounted on Tuesday.
In 2017, Milton Overton was appointed athletic director at Kennesaw State; he then transferred to Milton High School in Georgia. Before reclassifying to the 2022 class, Overton was ranked by 247 Sports as the top overall player in the 2023 high school class. Despite having a choice of universities, he declared on Tuesday that Texas A&M and Alabama were “really in a battle” to graduate from high school.
“Just because of the relationships that I had with both coaches — Coach [Freddie] Roach and Coach [Terry] Price,” he said. “But I feel like I had a better relationship with Coach Price before Coach Roach.”
During Overton’s first season at Texas A&M, Price served as the defensive ends coach. He passed away in June 2023. Roach was a major factor in Overton’s choice to select Alabama from the gateway, which was made just weeks before Nick Saban announced his departure.
Overton stated of Roach, “I felt the biggest connection with him.” “We were aware that they would appoint a [new head coach] who could preserve the legacy that former head coach Nick Saban left behind. I felt I would be alright as long as they kept Roach.”
After the coaching change, Overton has been accustomed to Wommack’s defense and showed promise in last Saturday’s scrimmage.
According to linebacker Deontae Lawson, “LT was making plays,” on Tuesday. “He was the only one pressing the quarterback. We are glad to have it, we need it, and we’re looking forward to what lies ahead for him.”
Furthermore, it affects more than simply quarterback rushes. He’ll have to use his bulk as a Bandit as well.
“It makes things really challenging to establish runs when you have a 280-pound ass-kicker over there,” Wommack said.
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