Five-star defensive lineman Lebbeus Overton, the No. 1-ranked prospect in the 2023 high school football class, is reclassifying to the 2022 class to enroll in college this spring.
Overton is a 6-foot-3, 265 pound prospect out of Milton High School in Milton, Georgia. Even though national signing day has already passed for the 2022 class, Overton and his family have decided he will reclassify and enroll in a university earlier than expected.
“He’s a 4.0 kid, he’s been taking AP classes and so he’s got quite a few college credits already and was already in position to graduate this spring,” Overton’s father, Milton, told ESPN. “I would say just the last month or two, he kind of evaluated things after football season. His coach left, there are very few seniors left on the team … he wants to play for a championship.” The family has been discussing this decision for a few months and decided this would be the best option at this point.
Lebbeus Overton is looking at Georgia, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Texas A&M. His father said he plans to visit all five schools, then it’s expected he’ll make a decision of which one to attend around April.
“He knows there’s still a lot of work he’s going to do to prepare,” Milton Overton said. “He’s going to be going to up against top-notch 300-pounders that are four-and five-star prospects as well. So it’s not going to be a walk in the park— he realizes that. He’s very competitive, so he knows he’s got to compete for everything and he doesn’t have expectations to come in and start right away or anything like that. He’s going to work for it.”
Overton and his family now face a shortened window to evaluate the schools that are recruiting him, but those programs have been building a relationship throughout the past few years, and the visits will help provide the final pieces to the puzzle.
“He’s very appreciative of all the schools that recruited him, everyone treated him with class, with dignity and respect,” Milton Overton said. “This is all about finding the right fit for him and the decision that’s best for him. I’d say priority-wise, it’s always going to be school and academics, who’s going to provide the best academic opportunities for him in business and engineering. Secondly, it’s going to be where can he go and develop to become a better player, and that’s the order. So it’d be principle-based.”
Article by: Chris Steele, iHearts143Quotes Team member
