How Lance Leipold, Kansas football landed 4-star CB Austin Alexander: ‘It felt right’
Kansas football coach Lance Leipold and his staff have been on quite the recruiting hot streak.
The Jayhawks secured two class-of-2024 verbal commitments over the weekend — from three-star offensive lineman Harrison Utley and three-star linebacker Jacorey Stewart.
On Monday, Leipold and his staff landed one of the highest-ranked commitments of Leipold’s KU tenure.
Four-star cornerback Austin Alexander announced a verbal commitment to Kansas on Monday. He visited Lawrence over the weekend.
“I picked KU because I loved what they were offering,” Alexander told The Star. “My parents loved it. I had other options, but this is the biggest one that felt right to me.
“It felt right because I didn’t have a reason not to commit. I tried to look at anything that didn’t look right, but I couldn’t find it.”
Verbal commitments aren’t binding and can be fluid until a player signs their National Letter of Intent.
Alexander picked Kansas over offers from Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa State, Purdue and other schools, according to his 247Sports recruiting page.
“I wanted to be different,” he said. “A lot of the other schools had great things to offer also, but at Kansas, everyone felt genuine. Everybody felt like I would make a big impact and I felt that myself,” Alexander said. “It felt right.”
Alexander believes he can be a key addition to KU’s secondary in the future.
“I can add a great lockdown man-(coverage) corner,” Alexander said. “I’m great on an island by myself. I compare my game to (Kansas cornerback) Cobee Bryant. I feel like I can add more, if not (match) where he’s at.”
Still, he knows he has work to do before he arrives in Lawrence next year.
“I can improve on my off-man skills,” said Alexander. “Coach (Jordan Peterson, KU defensive backs coach) said he could definitely help me with that. … That’s a big part of my game I need to focus on because presses are going to get (me) tired.”
Last season, the Jayhawks (6-7, 3-6 Big 12) made their first bowl game in 14 years. That played a big factor in Alexander’s commitment to KU.
“I wanted to join a program that was on the rise and help them accomplish even more of what they were accomplishing,” Alexander said.
The 6-foot-1, 165-pound cornerback from Chicago Heights, Illinois, is the No. 40-rated cornerback in the class of 2024 (per the 247Sports Composite ) and No. 411 nationally.
KU now has eight commitments in the class of 2024.
