Kansas lands Austin Alexander the top corner in Illinois

June was supposed to be a busy month for Austin Alexander. The top-ranked cornerback in Illinois had four official visits set that would take him through the end of the month.

Last weekend he went on his first official visit to Kansas. Alexander met with the coaches and players to learn more about the program. His host was Damarius McGhee, who transferred in January from LSU.

Alexander said he gained a lot of information being around the players.

“The visit was great,” Alexander said. “All the coaches showed me love, but the best part was spending the time with the players because they really gave me the rundown of how much they care for you. One of the players who was my host came from LSU, and he told me it's a big difference. You don't commit to a logo and that they're building something at Kansas.”

Kansas cornerbacks coach Jordan Peterson is the lead recruiter for Alexander. He met with Alexander and his family several times on the visit.

“Coach Peterson, he's cool,” Alexander said. “When I asked the players, they said he is probably one of the coolest coaches, and he understands each player.”

After talking with Peterson about the possibility of making a college decision, Alexander talked about it with his family.

“I sat down with my parents after Coach Peterson told us to go talk about it,” he said. “And I just never had a question about why not. It was more that, but that's one of the reasons. All the other schools that I had planned to visit, I had questions of why I should commit. With Kansas it was why shouldn’t I?”

The next step was meeting with Peterson and head coach Lance Leipold to tell them the news he was ready to be a Jayhawk.

“He was cool,” Alexander said of Leipold. “I like how straight up and honest he was with me and his expectations after my commitment. That was real nice. A lot of coaches don't give you that honesty.”

Alexander, who plays at Marian Catholic, said he canceled visits with Illinois, Purdue and Indiana. He had offers from Michigan, Nebraska, Michigan State, Iowa and several other schools. The visit to Kansas sold him on the program.

“They had a lot of things in their facility that even the big schools I went to didn't have,” he said. “That kind of caught my eye. I wouldn't say that's what made me commit because everybody has different things, but I could definitely say that they definitely had different things at Kansas.”

Alexander just needed one visit to make the call for Kansas. Now, he can focus on the rest of the summer and his senior season.

“It feels great knowing that I don't have to worry about five, six coaches texting me a day,” he said. “I just have to worry about one. I can lock in for my season, and not worry about the other stuff. That feels great.”