Meet the Men Clearing the Path for Leonard Fournette's Heisman Run
We have already put LSU running back Leonard Fournette in the clouds among the immortals in college football. He has arms and legs that look like they are covered in plates of armor. He is a bold runner who can trample defenders just as easily as he eludes them. His 1,352 yards rushing in seven games lead Division I this season. He was the first player in SEC history to reach 1,000 yards rushing in the first five games of a season.
There are two other things you should know about Fournette.
First, he is not blocking for himself (though sometimes it seems that way when he lowers his shoulder). Second, he may not be the best story on the LSU football team.
.jpg?w=256 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
LSU senior offensive tackle Vadal Alexander was 17 years old in July 2011. He was about to bloom as an offensive lineman, one of the best in the country as a rising junior at Buford High School, north of Atlanta.
Preseason workouts had just started, and Alexander was on the field working his way through drills. Suddenly, he felt a tingling in his toes and then a slight numbness in his feet.
"I just thought my [ankle] tape was too tight, or maybe I tied my shoes too tight," Alexander said.
His feet started to become more numb. Suddenly, it wasn't just his feet; his legs were beginning to feel numb, too.
"Hey, you know, I'm just having a bad practice," he said to himself.
Alexander tried to raise one of his legs. He couldn't.
Then he fell down.
He was helped to the training room and then taken home. It was mysterious, to be sure, but he went to sleep in his own bed that night.
The next morning, Alexander, one of the best high school linemen in the country, couldn't feel his legs.
"Scary," Alexander said.
Somehow, his family got him in the car, and his father, James, drove him to a hospital. Alexander stayed there for three days as doctors did tests and diagnosed him with Guillain-Barre syndrome, a disorder where the body's immune system attacks part of the nervous system.
The treatment was a plasma exchange, and Alexander said he improved because the illness was caught early. Still, he was no longer a football player. He started rehabilitation, but that was for the basic functions of walking.
"I didn't know when I could play again. I didn't know if I could play again," he said. "A lot of people didn't think I was going to play football again.
"I worked all summer to get back, and I came back the eighth game of that season. I worked my butt off."
The college recruiters who stayed on Alexander in recruiting as he went through rehabilitation wouldn't leave him alone. He grew, in their estimation, because of his work ethic.
"They liked me even more," Alexander said.
The offensive line—even the famed War Pigs who blocked for Barry Sanders at Oklahoma State (1988) and the Badgers who bashed for Ron Dayne at Wisconsin (1999)—seldom gets appropriate applause when a running back is dominant. The blockers get shoved right off stage.
For the record, the guys behind Fournette's stampede to the Heisman Trophy are actually the guys in front of him: left tackle Jerald Hawkins (6'6", 305 lbs, junior), left guard Maea Teuhema (6'5", 327, freshman), center Ethan Pocic (6'7", 309, junior), right guard William Clapp (6'5", 303, redshirt freshman), right tackle Alexander (6'6", 315) and tight end Dillon Gordon (6'5", 308, senior). There is also guard Toby Weathersby (6'5", 292, freshman), who is squeezing himself in for some snaps.
Then there is fullback J.D. Moore (6'4", 235, sophomore), who is frequently a lead blocker in the hole for Fournette.
When No. 4 LSU (7-0) plays at No. 7 Alabama (7-1) on Nov. 7, you should pay particular attention to Alexander, who is No. 74. It is not just that he is having a sensational season; it is really a second comeback from the brink. First, he overcame his initial bout with Guillain-Barre, and then he came back from a weight issue.
Almost two years ago, Alexander weighed 360 pounds. He was sluggish. A knee injury and other nagging ailments were not helping his college football career.
Alexander started to take off the weight in the spring of 2014. He had a new offensive line coach, Jeff Grimes, and the whole culture of the offensive line started to change. Grimes uses lessons from ancient history to motivate players in his meeting room and preaches aggression and power. You couldn't be sluggish and play for Grimes.
In Alexander's junior season in 2014, he was a decent player the first half of the season as he continued to rehab his physique. The second half of 2014, Grimes said, Alexander started to show his potential. He filled out the paperwork for the 2015 draft, but Alexander decided there was more work to do. He skipped the draft, not only to polish himself as a player, but also to make sure he was on track for his degree in sports administration.
Now, he is one of the leaders of an offensive line that moves those tacklers out of the way for Fournette.
"He worked hard in the offseason to get the weight down and get himself in better shape," Grimes said. "He's an unusual combination of a guy that is pretty tall but really broad, with a big barrel chest and really heavy hands. He is pretty nimble for a guy [that size].
"This guy is night and day over what he was last year."
Grimes said he texted Alexander on Sunday night following last Saturday's 48-20 win over Western Kentucky and asked Alexander how he thought he played.
"Crappy," Alexander said.
Grimes had to chuckle at that. The coach gives out a rug every week to the offensive lineman who plays with the most aggression and toughness. There is a Latin verse on the rug: "Oderint dum metuant." Let them hate so long as they fear. The rug has the picture of a sledgehammer because Grimes tells his players, "Always be the hammer, not the nail."
For his "crappy" game, Alexander got the rug this week.
Grimes has experience with superstars, Heisman hopefuls and national championship runs...and offensive lines that go unnoticed. He was the offensive line coach for Auburn's 2010 national championship team, which featured quarterback Cam Newton, who had 1,473 yards rushing, 2,854 yards passing, won the Heisman Trophy and led those Tigers to the national championship.
Fournette is having a similarly spectacular season, but there is a difference. The offensive line for Newton's Tigers did not feature as many potential NFL draft picks as Fournette's Tigers. Auburn's Brandon Mosley, a tackle, is the only one of the interior lineman (tackle to tackle) who has played significantly in the pros.
LSU center Pocic is a legitimate NFL prospect. So are Alexander and Hawkins. The freshmen may turn into Sunday players, too.
The LSU offensive line might be more talented than the Auburn line, but it is still showing the same traits of togetherness and toughness as the Auburn line, Grimes said.
"We have a lot of chemistry; they're coming together," Grimes said. "We have a unique combination, young guys at guard. Center and tackles are older. The older guys are taking responsibility for the group."
The Tigers will not have a bigger test this regular season than the Alabama defensive line, which is loaded with NFL-type talent. The Crimson Tide are fourth nationally, giving up 78.5 yards per game rushing.
If this LSU line clears some holes against the Crimson Tide, maybe it can squeeze onto a little corner of the Fournette stage and have an even bigger audience for their stories—his and theirs—in January.
Ray Glier covers college football for Bleacher Report. All quotes obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
