After receiving a Texas offer on Saturday during a sit-down in Mack Brown's office, 2012 Tatum athlete Jalen Overstreet committed on Sunday evening, solidifying future depth at the quarterback position by joining long-time commit Connor Brewer as a member of the 2012 class.
Overstreet is the 19th commitment in the class and choose Texas over offers from Texas Tech, Baylor, and Kansas as a quarterback, Michigan as a wide receiver, and Arkansas and Missouri as an athlete, an offer list that helps solidify his bona fides as both an athlete and a quarterback.
Brewer has stated in the past that he is comfortable with the Longhorns offering another quarterback in 2012 after defections from Connor Wood and Garrett Gilbert during the fall and Texas settled on Overstreet after scouring the state and inquiring about every committed and uncommitted quarterback in the class.
At 6-2 and 205 pounds, Oversteet is a well-built athlete who could project at WR, H-back, safety, or outside linebacker if he doesn't work out at quarterback and shows a strong ability to break tackles at the high school level, showing off his lower-body strength and balance in doing so.
His speed and acceleration are both in the adequate range and account for most of the reason why he is a evaluated as a solid three-star prospect by the recruiting services, although he does have good feet and shows the lateral quickness to both make defenders miss in small spaces and take the corner when available.
As a passer, the film on Overstreet mostly shows him throwing touch passes in the redzone for jump-ball touchdowns, something that he clearly does successfully. Given that some quarterbacks struggled to ever learn how to change speeds, the touch he can demonstrate is a good sign.
He can also throw the ball on the run and there is some film evidence of him being able to put some velocity on his passes in the short and intermediate passing game, though his release is a little bit low and is reminiscent of Vince Young.
Projecting the upside of Overstreet would take an evaluation of one or several games and isn't possible right now, so it's difficult to determine his chances of actually becoming an adequate college quarterback, but if Taylor Martinez can play the position for Nebraska, that sets the bar of competency as a passer pretty low.
The big news here is really for the depth chart, which could conceivably have entered next season with only two quarterbacks if Case McCoy continues to receive few opportunities and decides to transfer. Overstreet's commitment fives the Longhorns the depth to enter the season in 2012 with enough quarterbacks on the roster to feel comfortable getting through the season barring an absolute disaster.
Jalen Overstreet (early senior highlights) (via 247SportsStudio)