All Star Team Alumni Report All Star Team Alumni
Catching Up With
KWON ALEXANDER
by Mickey Shadrix
Just over 10 years ago TV24 began an annual tradition of naming the Pigskin Roundup All Star Team, spotlighting the best high school football players at each position in the East Alabama area. And looking back over the last 10 years it’ s easy to see why East Alabama is considered such fertile recruiting territory for college football coaches. Over 200 players now call themselves Pigskin Roundup All Star Alums, and many of those players have gone onto outstanding careers at the collegiate level. And some have even made it to the NFL. Which brings us to this year’ s alumnus, a 2010 All Star Team member.
After a stellar prep career at Oxford High School, Kwon Alexander signed with LSU and quickly became one of the top LB’ s in the highly competitive SEC. Then after declaring for the NFL draft following his junior season, Alexander took the NFL by storm last year earning a starting position for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as a rookie.
Mickey Shadrix caught up with this Pigskin Roundup All Star Alum over the summer when he returned home to hold a football camp for local kids in the city of Anniston.
Q: You had a very productive rookie season with Tampa Bay. Talk about the transition from college football to the NFL.
A: The transition was crazy coming from LSU, which is kind of like an NFL school already. It was a challenge learning new plays, moving around to different positions … it was hard but I got through it and I’ m making the best of it now.
Q: It’ s widely assumed that the SEC is about as close to pro football as you can get in college. Do you think playing in the SEC helped prepare you for the NFL?
A: The SEC is mostly made up of NFL type players, so when I got to Tampa Bay I was used to going up against big and fast players … and I feel like I was ready for whatever I came up against.
Q: Your coming out party on a national basis occurred in week 8 at the Georgia Dome against the Atlanta Falcons, just two days after your brother, Broderick Taylor, was killed. In that game, you had 11 tackles, an interception and a forced fumble and recovery, and you were named the NFC Defensive Player of the Week. Talk about the inspiration behind your performance that day.
A: I did it for my brother, who had gotten killed a couple of days before … and I was just playing for him. Really, the majority of the plays he did himself through me. I just played for him that day.
Q: Heading into your second NFL season, are there certain areas of improvement you are focusing on?
A: I would like to improve on everything. Try to get smarter with the schemes we use … and I want to be as great a player as I can be with the God-given ability I’ ve been blessed with.”
Q: With the changes that have been made to the roster and the coaching
20 | 2016 Pigskin Roundup the Magazine