Camden Overton has been in this situation before, so it's not really surprising that he found a way to quickly make an impact for the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football team.
Overton was a sophomore tight end at Georgia's Marietta High School three years ago, when the Blue Devils won the GHSA Class AAAAAAA state title and were one of the most talented teams in the country. Their skill group on offense included quarterback Harrison Bailey, running back Kimani Vidal, tight end Arik Gilbert and receivers Taji Johnson and Ricky White, all of them eventual Football Bowl Subdivision signees. On the depth chart, Overton was behind Gilbert, who was rated as the No. 1 tight end in the country for the 2020 signing class and is currently a sophomore at the University of Georgia.
So 2019 was a learning experience for Overton.
"That was a crazy team with a lot of talent, and me being so young, it was a lot of talent that I could watch and I can learn stuff from them and implement it to what I do now," Overton said. "It was good for me to be able to watch and do those things within.
"I learned a lot about how to be versatile. Playing behind Arik, we weren't regular tight ends, we had to play out wide, we had to go put our hand in the dirt, so I learned a lot about being versatile and being able do adapt. That's the best thing I can do."
Fast forward to this year, when the 6-foot-3, 265-pound Overton joined the Mocs. He gets on campus and is behind junior Jay Gibson and sophomore Keshawn Toney, both productive players in their time at UTC. Yet he has taken those lessons from his high school days and applied them to the start of a promising collegiate career.
One of two true freshman consistently in the rotation at tight end for the Mocs, Overton has just four catches, but two of those have gone for scores, including a 36-yard touchdown in last week's 31-21 win over The Citadel.
"He's like a mini Jay Gibson with how worked up he gets and how competitive he is, and you love that, and his maturity has grown," quarterback Preston Hutchinson said. "He's been able to kind of reset in the middle of practice or in the middle of the game, whereas earlier in camp, he wasn't able to do that.
"He's a really good football player and a really good tight end, so we need him to keep working on his maturity and keep growing as a person. But I love having him; he's a great asset."
UTC's offensive staff realized the group would need more than just Gibson and Toney, so head coach Rusty Wright said they had to force feed Overton information to try and get him up to speed.
Now he's part of a team that is still in hunt for the Southern Conference title and a spot in the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs with two regular-season games remaining. The Mocs (7-2, 5-1), ranked 11th in the Stats Perform Top 25 and 12th by FCS coaches, host league leader Samford (8-1, 6-0), ranked ninth (coaches) and 10th (Stats), at 1:30 p.m. Saturday at Finley Stadium.
"He was a defensive lineman and a tight end, wasn't scared," Wright said of Overton as a recruit. "He's a big kid, and we're like, 'He's going to play football somewhere for us. Let's go get him.' We'll figure out where he goes.' But the thing is, he's embraced trying to get better, and he's worked hard to get better every week and become part of what we've got to do."
Overton has done so by being a sponge for information. Gibson and Toney talk; he listens. In some ways, it takes him back to being that 15-year old sophomore at Marietta, where he watched, learned and applied the information.
"They all had their separate talent, but they worked together and had connections off the field," Overton said. "It's just them as actual friends, not even football wise, because they already have that skill. It's about how you connect to your teammates, so that's a big thing. It's football; it's what you've been doing, that's what you know, but it's how you connect with people.
"You've got guys like Jay and KT (Toney) who have been in the system, who have been playing college ball. I'm taking any tip I can get from them, and I'm listening, I'm learning, I'm just doing what they're saying, and I'm seeing and I'm doing what they're doing, what's working."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3.