Shaun Alexander had plenty of heavyweight options when he was coming out of Boone County (Ky.) High School in the winter of 1994-95, but Alabama was the school that won him over.
The former Crimson Tide star said Wednesday on AL.com’s “Beat Everyone” podcast with Ben Flanagan that the pull toward Tuscaloosa came from more than football. Alexander said he was drawn to the way Alabama presented itself, and the standard he believed the program represented.
“Alabama was always special,” Alexander said. “I was a kid that knew what I wanted when I was in high school, the kind of program I wanted to go to - class, leadership, championships, just the way they carried themselves was excellence.
And it was humble excellence, which is what class is. … There was this (thought) ‘Who could go through the test of time?’
And I knew that Alabama would be able to. And I love it because there’s this sincerity, there’s this honesty, there’s this truth of who they are, where they’ve been, where they’re going, and we just have not turned off those things.
“It’s like I always say ‘We want to be just great men of God, great men of integrity that happen to play great football and we’re passionate about it.’ And so Alabama fit all that, you know what I mean?”
Alexander’s choice paid off in a big way. He helped Alabama win the 1999 SEC championship, finished his career as the school’s all-time leading rusher, then went on to play nine seasons in the NFL. His pro résumé included league MVP honors and a Super Bowl appearance after the 2005 season.
But Alabama was only one of the blue bloods in the mix. Michigan and Notre Dame were also in his final group, and Alexander said the other programs kept pushing hard to land him. He was a Parade All-American and a five-star recruit, and he crossed paths during the recruiting process with Charles Woodson and Randy Moss, two future stars who were also part of the same conversation.
Asked which school he would have picked if Alabama had not been the answer, Alexander pointed to Michigan.
“I think Michigan,” Alexander said. “I was good friends with Charles Woodson, and I knew he went there.
And I loved the running backs coach, Fred Jackson. Yeah, I think I would have went to Michigan.
So they might have won a couple of national championships instead of just the one.
“… Randy Moss was in our class, too. I remember (then-Notre Dame coach) Lou Holtz saying, ‘Hey, if you three come to our school, we’re gonna win the national championship three years in a row.’
And I said, ‘Why not four?’ He said, ‘Because y’all won’t be here four years.”
Alexander also said he had no direct connection to Alabama growing up, but he had admired the Crimson Tide from a distance for a long time. Even now, he remains a devoted fan.
You can watch the full Shaun Alexander interview by clicking the link at the top of this page.
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