As the son of two former Alabama athletics administrators, defensive lineman LT Overton has as much of a history growing up around Alabama football as any player on the roster.
But Overton found it difficult to speak up last season when he returned to Tuscaloosa through the transfer portal after spending his first two college seasons at Texas A&M.
“I felt like, me coming in last year, especially us transfers — [center] Parker [Brailsford], as an example — we have this conversation all the time. I feel like we didn’t have much say,” Overton told the “Hey Coach” radio show Monday evening. “It’s different coming in from a different program, coming into Alabama, like, the standard of college football.”
Overton and Brailsford — who spent his first two seasons under Kalen DeBoer at Washington — decided against entering the 2025 NFL draft and instead returned to school. For Overton, it will be his fourth and final season of college football — and now he feels capable of leading.
“Now we realize we have a say,” Overton continued. “We put our stamp. We put our foot down on a lot of things, making sure that everybody goes by the standard of Alabama.”
How much did Alabama stray from its standard last season, and what was being done to maintain the standard? That remains a topic of conversation.
In an interview published Monday evening by ESPN, fifth-year Alabama linebacker Deontae Lawson said it was “kinda hard for [DeBoer] to come in and be the bad cop or whatever last year.” Now, Lawson told ESPN, “he’s still laid back and still wants the players to lead, but his fingerprints are on everything now — and he’s made it known that you better be locked in.”
DeBoer responded to Lawson’s comment to ESPN by saying, “It was more that we were in retention mode. I wouldn’t say we slacked off on any of the things that would be the standard of what we need to do and how you need to operate. But I do think there’s another level of an edge, a harder edge.”
Last month, Alabama fifth-year defensive tackle Tim Keenan said Alabama is, “Getting back to keep business, business. Not necessarily too many extracurricular things, but the work is the work. You gotta do it.”
That followed comments from offensive lineman Roq Montgomery in February, who said, “We just got to get back to the old days — to when Bama does nothing but win, and win championships. … You can’t be late to workouts no more. No more jewelry. No more necklaces. None of that. It’s not a fashion show. It’s football.”
Last October, then-Alabama senior tight end CJ Dippre said after two losses that players needed to, “Get back to what we’re supposed to wear — shirts tucked in, five minutes, 10 minutes early to meetings. Not all this late stuff. Not doing what you want to do.”
DeBoer responded a few days later by saying, “Whatever you’ve heard about this week, it’s not so much different than what it has been all the time. There’s part when you hear it and there’s parts when truly now, when your back’s against the wall, the strain we call it is understood and it’s real.”
