COLUMBIA, Mo. • For Van Alexander, there wasn’t much of a decision to make when Missouri’s football coaches offered him a scholarship in 2002. A junior linebacker at Columbia’s Rock Bridge High School, Alexander came from a family of Mizzou grads and dreamed of playing for the Tigers. His head coach was Barry Odom, a former Mizzou linebacker. The team’s top assistant was A.J. Ofodile, a former Mizzou tight end. Neither pushed him to choose their alma mater, but nothing made more sense than for the four-star prospect to play for the hometown team.
“In my heart, I couldn’t see myself going anywhere else,” said Alexander, 29, who lettered at MU from 2005-08.