Do-it-all Alexander again key cog in Southern offense

Advocate staff photo by MARK SALTZ
Southern’s Evan Alexander scores against Bethune-Cookman during last season’s game in Jacksonville, Fla.
By Joseph Schiefelbein, Advocate sportswriter
E.A. will be in the game, sure enough. But where?
What exactly is Southern University junior Evan Alexander?
He’s a tight end. He’s a fullback. He’s an H-back.
Now that he’s wearing No. 27 in practice and has trimmed his body, he’s starting to look like a running back, but he’ll never be a tailback.
What is Alexander? He’s going to be a key cog to the offense, which will offer more two-back sets.
Just say he plays Swiss Army knife. That might be easier.
“He can catch. He can block. He can run. He’s the total package,” running backs coach Elvis Joseph said. “Wherever you ask him to line up, he’s going to get it done.”Alexander is still a tight end, working that position with senior Trent Thomas. But in what started as a small experiment at times last fall got more lab work in the spring and has blossomed.
“I don’t mind doing anything,” Alexander said. “I feel like I’m a good enough athlete to do whatever they ask me to do. If they feel like I can do it, I feel like I can do it.”
Alexander looked awkward running the ball in the spring game in April, and, really, he still looked like a tight end.
“It wasn’t something I was accustomed to doing,” Alexander said. “I’m accustomed to going away from the line of scrimmage. I had to read different keys. It was a different look for me. But I felt like I could get better every day.
“That’s all I’ve been doing — working hard, getting with my coaches and trying to figure out what I need to do to get better.”
These days in preseason camp, he’s lining up more and more in the backfield, and he put in the work in the summer to change his body.
“They told me last spring they wanted me to move to the fullback position, so I had to prepare myself,” said Alexander, who had eight catches for 53 yards and two TDs last season and has 18 catches for 136 yards and the two scores in his career. “I worked hard in the summer to get my body ready for more running.
“It’s just a different type of shape. Running backs run every play. I had to get used to that type of running. It’s not just, I’ve got a route here and I’m coming back and blocking. Now, I’m running every play.”
His body looks like that of a running back now — bigger than a tailback but not the bowling ball that is junior Alvin Fosselman, either. And he runs like he knows what to do as well.
“You can see right now, the transition has been made,” Joseph said. “It’s smooth now. He’s running low. His shoulder pads are down.”
Alexander has benefited from being with two solid tight ends, the do-it-all Dedrick Shelmire, who excelled especially as a blocker from the H-back position, and last season with All-Southwestern Athletic Conference tight end Brian Washington (236 yards, team-best seven touchdowns).
Alexander’s career more parallels Shelmire’s in that both played on the defensive line as well as offense in high school, both had knee injuries early in their careers at SU and both were more “football players” instead of being pegged to a position. And both can be effective from that H-back/fullback spot.
“We’re trying to get the best personnel on the field,” Southern coach Pete Richardson said. “He can play a dual role for us, and that expands what we can do offensively.”
Alexander, who redshirted as a freshman in 2004 after a knee injury in camp, said he plans to graduate within the year with a degree in business management and return next fall as a graduate student.
The former Class 4A All-State and Academic All-State honorable mention at Edna Karr in New Orleans was once recruited by Tulane, Georgia Tech, Auburn and Memphis.
He’s been on the dean’s list the last three semesters.
“Good kid, hard worker, very intelligent,” Joseph said. “He’ll pick up anything, real quick. That’s the kind of player you want around. He’s a leader. You ask him to do anything; he’s going to get it done.”