The name atop Alabama's 2018 recruiting board was the same from last summer through the end of the recruiting cycle.

Within this class headlined by two of the top quarterback prospects of the last decade, there wasn't anyone the Crimson Tide wanted more than Eyabi Anoma.

The five-star outside linebacker from Baltimore was the "no brainer" No. 1 target for Nick Saban and the Tide. And Alabama coaches are hopeful that Anoma can now help the Tide overcome the loss of rising star Terrell Lewis, possibly in a situational pass rusher role like the one Tim Williams played in 2015.

"What a blessing it is," one former Alabama staffer said. "With Terrell Lewis being hurt, you're losing one of the best in the country, but you have one of the most talented freshman pass rushers in the last probably five years coming in."

Anoma is 6-foot-5, up to about 260 pounds with some help from Scott Cochran and ran a 4.5 40 during the spring back when he was in the 240s. But it's that pass-rushing ability in particular that has Saban and his staff so excited.

There are certain names that don't come up as comparisons unless a prospect is truly special. One came up with Anoma.

His pass-rushing ability and explosiveness off the edge reminded at least some on the Alabama staff of not only Williams but also one of the all-time great players in Tide history.

Derrick Thomas.

"He's a really rare, really unique pass rusher," 247Sports director of scouting Barton Simmons said of Anoma, who was the fourth-best overall prospect in this year's recruiting class within the 247 Composite rankings. "Given that that's a position that's so valuable and given that typically that's a position that's pretty easy to identify -- the elite pass rushers in high school typically aren't busts at the next level -- he's really a guy that I feel like is a no doubt star and impact performer for Alabama's defense for the next few years."

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If not for one of his mentors, though, Anoma would probably still be playing basketball.

Through two years of high school, Anoma didn't even play football. If you had asked him back then, he would have told you he was going to get a Division I basketball scholarship and eventually make it to the NBA. But Messay Hailemariam, a coach at St. Frances Academy in Baltimore, had seen Anoma play youth football and convinced him in 2016 that he should make a comeback.

Before the end of that year, Anoma was already ranked among the top-10 players in the country and realizing it was probably in his best interest to give up basketball in order to focus completely on football.

"The first two weeks playing at St. Frances, you could tell it was new to him, like a deer in the headlights," Hailemariam said. "But one thing you couldn't take away is that he was unbelievably twitchy fast off the ball and relentless in his pursuit of the football and his natural instinct for it. But then, after two or three weeks, we were playing South Pointe down from South Carolina and that was his breakout game. He started to look different than everybody else. And since then, it's just kind of taken on a life of its own."

Alabama became aware of Anoma almost immediately after he started playing football. Mike Locksley, now the Tide's offensive coordinator, spotted Anoma at a Michigan-led satellite camp at St. Frances that summer. At the time, Anoma was less than 200 pounds and had yet to play a single down of high school football. Nevertheless, Locksley was intrigued enough after watching the athletic player work through drills that he asked St. Frances head coach Henry Russell, whom he's known for years, to make sure to keep him posted on Anoma.

Halfway through the season, Russell called with an update, "Mike, this kid's going to be special."

"They started recruiting him pretty hard right then," Russell said. "So Alabama was definitely on Eyabi from the get-go and probably ahead of almost everybody else."

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In two years at St. Frances, Anoma posted 50 sacks. He then had two more at the Under Armour All-American game in January.

The second one essentially sealed the win for his team with less than 40 seconds left in the fourth quarter. Trailing by just two points, the other team wasn't far from being in range for a go-ahead field goal -- until that sack from Anoma, who blew by five-star offensive tackle Nicholas Petit-Frere on his way to the quarterback.

WOAH! Alabama 5-star DE signee Eyabi Anoma (@TherealEyabi) delivers a HUGE sack for Team Highlight in the Under Armour All-American Game. pic.twitter.com/xtPsWwC7wI — Evan Petzold (@EvanPetzold) January 5, 2018

"The thing that just absolutely separates him is that first-step quickness, that twitch, that suddenness," Simmons said. "I think you just see it immediately. The Under Armour game was a great illustration of it. You're talking about the best of the best, and Eyabi Anoma was sort of startling. You could identify him just by his first-step quickness even in that setting against those elite-level players. ... It's rare to see a guy with that kind of edge quickness and athleticism."

It goes beyond that, though.

Alabama coaches will tell you that Anoma isn't your typical former basketball player -- that he plays with a mean streak, has some "dog" in him and has an impressive football I.Q. for someone who only played two years of high school football.

People close to Anoma, meanwhile, consistently mention a couple other characteristics they think will benefit him at Alabama -- his competitiveness and work ethic.

"He hates losing," said Russell, who has coached numerous other high-level college players such as former Tide cornerback Cyrus Jones. "It triggers something inside of him. It does not sit well with him. He will work and work and work until he drops. And he plays like that, too. He's going to keep coming and keep playing until he gets the result he wants. He was like that in the Under Armour All-American Game. He was yelling at his teammates to try and get a stop in the fourth quarter of an all-star game and you don't see a lot of kids that do that and actually mean it. But he means it. His work ethic, his will to win, it's as high as anybody I've seen at the high school level."

The word is he's already off to a great start with the Tide this summer, according to those around the program. And Alabama's opinion of Anoma hasn't changed: They believe he can have an immediate impact as a pass rusher.

"He knew Alabama was the place he had to be," Hailemariam said. "He wanted to put himself in a position where he's competing daily, if not hourly, to get better. I'm not surprised he's doing well, but I'm also not surprised that he's still on edge, that he doesn't feel content."