HAMMOND, La. -- St. Thomas Aquinas coach John White uses words like "beast" and "freak" to illustrate how his star defensive tackle Edwin Alexander plays on Friday nights. However, Alexander, the No. 15 player in the ESPN Junior 300, prefers a more colorful description.
On the back of a jacket Alexander wears to school regularly are the words "#Roux-Ga-Roux." Alexander says roux-ga-roux, a werewolf like creature that is legendary in Louisiana folklore, is a more accurate portrayal of his play and with scholarship offers from Arkansas, Florida, Florida State, LSU, Miami, Mississippi State, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas A&M and others it's hard to disagree with him.
"I've always been fascinated with the roux-ga-roux and it's become kind of my nickname," said Alexander, who also ranks as the No. 3 defensive tackle and second-best player in Louisiana. "People down here say it's a creature that roams around the swamps causing all sorts of problems. I'd like to think that's what I do to quarterbacks and offensive linemen on the field."
Alexander opening up about his nickname is a rare glimpse into what truly makes him tick.
Alexander is one of the few recruits who don't provide minute-by-minute updates of his interactions with college recruiters, because there are none. His twitter account has only around 110 tweets and most of those are retweets. The last original tweet from Alexander came back on March 3 and the one before that was on Feb. 7. At 6-foot-3 and 320 pounds, Alexander commands attention on the field, but off of it, he's quiet, reserved and even somewhat shy.
"You can even ask coaches, I don't talk a lot," Alexander said. "They try to get me to talk. I've always been that way, even when I was little. I've been one of those let my actions do my talking type of guys. I told myself 'I'm going to talk a little bit more my junior year.' But that's just not me. I don't like it. I don't like talking trash."
Both White and Alexander also admit the star defensive lineman is big on modesty because he's already been humbled a number of times. After a sparkling sophomore season that saw Alexander rack up more than 40 tackles for a loss and 15 sacks, he tore the meniscus in his right knee last April at a recruiting camp and spent most of the past year fighting through recurring knee issues that sidelined him most of his junior season.
"You work your behind off all off-season and you're ready for football and something like this happens, it's a setback," White said. "But he's a genuine person. He's a 'Yes sir, no sir' kid. He's very polite. He works hard and it had to be discouraging for him to not be 100 percent for most of the season. But he battled through it. It showed a lot about his makeup that he's fought through all of this, when he could have easily coasted because he already had all of these scholarship offers."
College recruiters say Alexander needs to get back into sophomore year form, but nobody after him seems too concerned that he won't. Everybody at St. Thomas Aquinas expects Alexander to be 100 percent for his senior season, and when he's healthy it's hard to find a more dominating defensive line prospect in the country.
"He's very athletic," White said. "We have boxes about 42 inches high and he can hop on it like a cat. For our defensive purposes, we move him from nose to end. When we play a midline veer team, we'll put him at nose to stuff the run. When we play a spread team, we'll put him at end, so he has a one-on-one pass rush situation. When you have a guy like Edwin, you have to use him.
"He has a lot of athletic ability. He can run. He can jump. He's very, very talented."
Where Alexander is guided to in college is still up in the air.
After receiving a scholarship offer from LSU on Nov. 20, 2013, Alexander jumped on it just three days later. It was a commitment that lasted five months before Alexander decided he needed to explore his options a little bit more. Alexander's decision to open things up quickly resulted in new scholarship offers from Texas A&M, Florida State, Miami, Tennessee and others.
"I called Edwin and he said 'Coach, I want to be recruited. I love LSU. It's a great school, but I want to be recruited.'" White said. "He was only a sophomore. The recruiting process is just different and has become so different than what it was 10, even five years ago. Four or five years ago, a guy like Edwin would have never been put in this type of situation when he would be criticized like he was when he decommitted."
Since his decommitment, Alexander has taken "around three unofficial visits to LSU," including a trip for the Tigers junior day in early February. LSU is still considered the strong leader for his eventual signing, but other schools certainly have his attention and are going to get a serious look.
"I have my top three schools -- LSU, Auburn and Florida State," Alexander said. "I'm going to try get down there to them this summer for camp. I want to visit their schools and show them how I work. There's pressure to say home and play for LSU, though. Athletes really have to think 'What if I don't do well in college? What if I get hurt?' Athletes think about that all the time. That's a lot of pressure, especially if you went to a school that wasn't LSU and tried to come home."
But Alexander also knows he will always have a connection with Louisiana no matter what he does later on in life. The evidence is written on the back of his jacket.