BYU Commit Therrian Alexander is Ready to Take a Unique Path from Atlanta to BYU
Prior to receiving an offer from BYU, three-star Georgia cornerback Therrian "Tre" Alexander III knew relatively little about the BYU football program. He knew of a few former Cougars in the NFL, namely Jamaal Williams, Fred Warner, and Zach Wilson. He also recalled a BYU upset (or two) over Texas. Beyond that, he didn't know much about BYU and he had never visited Utah.
Fast forward to last August when Alexander committed to the Cougars over competing offers from Ole Miss, Mississippi State, NC State, UAB, Western Kentucky, and Georgia Southern among others. So how did he go from a coveted recruit in Georgia, with no connections to BYU, to a BYU commit? We caught up with Alexander to discuss his unique path from Atlanta to Provo.
When asked what makes him the most excited about attending BYU, Alexander said, "I'm excited to bring my little swagger out West." I want to be a freshman All-American. I really want show everyone that BYU is a place you can go and you can have your own footprint, you can create a legacy. You don't have to go to some of the bigger-name schools to get what you're trying to get, you can do it from a school like BYU."
A Unique Path to BYU
"Coach [Kelly] Poppinga came to meet me at the school when he came to Atlanta," Alexander said on his first interaction with the BYU coaching staff.
Due to the nearly 1,600 miles between Provo and Atlanta, BYU has never consistently recruited the talent-rich state of Georgia. When Kelly Poppinga coached at Virginia, he was responsible for recruiting the Atlanta area, so when he returned to BYU after multiple years away, Coach Poppinga wanted to recruit kids from Atlanta to BYU. Tre Alexander was one of the first Atlanta natives to receive an offer from BYU under the new BYU defensive staff.
After meeting Coach Poppinga, he got in touch with BYU cornerbacks coach Jernaro Gilford. "Like a week later, Coach Gilford came to the school and saw me in person," Alexander said. "He offered me and then he told me my offer was committable. So ever since then, our communication has been great."
Since then, Tre has grown close to the BYU cornerbacks coach. "Our relationship is great," he said on his relationship with Jernaro Gilfor. "It's like a big brother, little brother relationship because, you know, we're both take chances. He's taking a chance on me being a kid from Atlanta and I'm taking a chance, you know, going all the way across the country."
BYU became a legitimate player in Alexander's recruitment over the Summer thanks to consistent communication from the staff. "I took a couple of unofficial visits. I went to Ole Miss and NC state, but the love I got from BYU was different. Like all the time, they always contacted me, let me know that if I need anything that I can call them. So the communication with them was constant and they never pressured me into anything."
Ultimately it was the relationship with BYU's coaching staff that made the difference in his recruitment. "[My relationship with the staff ] played one of the biggest roles because there's a lot of schools to offer, but you always wanna go where you feel the most love. You don't wanna just go somewhere because of the name."
In early August, Alexander committed to the Cougars, sight unseen. To this day, Alexander has still not made the trip out to Provo, although that will change in a few weeks when he takes an official visit.
Upcoming BYU Visit
"I'm looking forward to it," Tre said on his upcoming BYU visit. "When I'm there, I really just want to see how the environment is around the school. I'm not a person who needs a whole lot, but I just want to make sure it's somewhere I can be comfortable, which I know it's going to be because I have a friend out on team, one of my closest friends is Keelan Marion the receiver, he's from Atlanta."
Marion, who transferred to BYU from UConn earlier this year, has been in touch with Tre throughout his recruitment. "We've been in touch a lot," Alexander said. "It's crazy cause before I committed, his dad reached out to me...he was saying how we should get more guys [from Atlanta] out there. And I told him I was like, 'You gave me something to think about.'"
Once he committed to BYU, Marion's father reached out again. "He was saying the program is gonna take care of me," Tre recalled.
While he's visiting BYU, he'll get his first look at Lavell Edwards Stadium. He has been impressed by the atmosphere in Lavell Edwards Stadium from afar. "The atmosphere is crazy," Alexander said. "I remember when I committed, one of my coaches stopped me in the hallway at school and he was like, 'Man, I watched the BYU game last night. Man, it was rocking.' I think it was the game when they played Cincinnati...I'm really excited to see it in person cause I've never been to Utah and being able to see the mountains like that. It's going to be a great experience.
Enrollment Plans and Life Outside of Football
It won't be long before Alexander will be enrolling in classes at BYU. He plans to graduate in December and be on campus in January, meaning he'll be available to participate in Spring camp. He'll spend part of his time on his official visit securing housing for the upcoming semester.
Outside of football, Alexander is a self-described "goofball" that likes to play video games with his friends or go fishing with his Dad. "If I'm by myself, I'll probably hop on to game and play a game with my friends. But if I'm going somewhere, I probably go fishing or something with my dad. That's something he would do. That man fishes everywhere....he'll probably be fishing on the visit I'm not gonna lie.
"I'm a kid that's, you know, a goofball off the field. So if you see me not being serious before, right before the game and stuff like that, don't worry, like I'm always locked in. I have a different way of preparing my mind and when the game starts, like, I'm a whole different person....Once the ball is snapped, I'm serious because coming from a place like Atlanta, there's a lot of neighborhoods around here that if you don't make it out or if you don't do something with your life, you can very quickly end up dying in that neighborhood. So football is everything to me and it's not something I just do for play, I'm really passionate about it. I'm ready to get up there and I'm ready to like make a footprint."
Tre Alexander is exactly the type of defensive back that BYU needs in Jay Hill's scheme. He's part of a defensive recruiting class that is quietly coming together very nicely. If this core can stick together, they could be part of a very good BYU defense in a few years.
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