Brenham DE a sleeper no longer

With early recruiting becoming more and more prevalent each year, it becomes rare that a player seemingly come out of nowhere his senior year to see offers roll in. However, there have been a few exceptions the past few years in the state of Texas such as defensive linemen Tevin Mims and Eric Humphrey who signed with Texas and Oklahoma, respectively, the past two years.

The class of 2011 does not look to be an exception as another big defensive lineman looks to be ready to burst onto the scene. Brenham, Texas defensive end Brandon Alexander recently added a BCS offer to up his total to two, with more assuredly on the way.

"I have two offers," the 6-foot-6, 230-pound Alexander said. "One of them is from Texas A&M and one is from UL-Lafayette. Texas A&M offered me Friday and UL-Lafayette offered me over the summer."

Though he plays for one of the top Class 4A programs in the state, there is a reason Alexander has only recently emerged. He played last season at tiny Opelousas (Louis.) Louisiana Prep. The now-defunct school was not in a league, instead playing programs made up of home schooled players and the like.

"My dad got a coaching job at Blinn (College in Brenham)," he said. He was the head coach for us at Louisiana Prep and he got offered a job at Blinn and took it."

Alexander knew he had been on the radar of A&M defensive line coach Terrell Williams, so the offer was not a huge shock. He was able to speak with Williams and head coach Mike Sherman this weekend, though.

"It came as a bit of a surprise but I knew they had been watching me," he said. "They were at my game and they told my coach before the game that they were offering me. He told me after the game.

"They wanted me to commit, but they understand that I'm not really ready to do anything like that. I talked to the head coach and the defensive line coach. They just told me that they offered me and they had a fun time watching my film from the Huntsville game the first week of the season."

Alexander, who is also a standout basketball player, says he is nowhere near ready to make a commitment anywhere. Instead, he is just looking forward to seeing what other programs plan to offer this season.

"I've never really watched any particular school growing up," he said. "Nobody is really sticking out to me right now. I'm very undecided. I'm just sitting back and seeing what's going to happen.

"I'm not really hearing from any other schools that I know of. I mean, I think a lot of them are showing interest but I don't really do that, though. My head football coach helps me out with all that and he talks to the recruiters and everything. I want to see all my options and see what happens."