On Twitter, he's Professor Finesser - "finessin' my way into hearts since '94." That's the year Aziz Shittu was born.

He was the baby of the family, the only boy after three girls. "He was spoiled," sister Moriam said with a laugh. "Everything he wanted, he got."

Their father, Olayiwola, and mother, Adejoke, both born in Nigeria, stressed education. Around the dinner table one night, the family counted its blessings: one daughter at San Diego, one at USF and one at St. Mary's.

Twelve-year-old Aziz piped up: "I'm going to the best school in the whole United States."

Eight years later, the baby of the family is 6-foot-3, weighs 275 pounds and is finally ready to make his mark in Stanford's defensive line as a junior.

As a freshman from Buhach Colony High in Atwater (Merced County), he got into five games. Last season, he played in 10 but made only five tackles.

Did the coaches get what they wanted out of him last year? "No," defensive line coach Randy Hart said. "And even if we did, I wouldn't admit it to him."

David Bernal/Stanfordphoto.com

In spring practice of this year, something took hold in Shittu's game. He started to really push himself. Head coach David Shaw pronounced him the MVP of the team during those drills.

He's competing with Blake Lueders, a converted linebacker, to start at defensive end opposite Henry Anderson. The coaches like what they're seeing from Shittu now that he's back in practice after missing a few days because he was injured.

"He's so quick and explosive," Shaw said. "He can play anywhere across the front."

Shittu said he rededicated himself, starting in the spring. "I had to re-evaluate my process and figure out how I wanted to go about things and why I need to work hard at practice to be the best player I can be," he said. "I had to do it internally. ... I wouldn't say I was not a good practice player, but I wasn't as focused on the details as I needed to be."

His name is pronounced Ah-ZEEZ Shih-TU. His full name is Abdulaziz Oluwatosin Shittu. His first name means "king of all kings" in the Yoruba language. His middle name means "God is worthy to be praised."

On the field, he's easy to spot among the Stanford defensive linemen. He's the one wearing No. 7. "I like single digits; I wore 8 in high school," he said.

Last year, Shittu might have had the same problem Anderson had a couple of years earlier, when he was in and out of the lineup. "You feel you have to do everything perfectly when you get in the game," Anderson said. "This year, he's settled down. He's got more experience under his belt."

According to Hart, "He's improved by leaps and bounds."

Maybe Shittu decided he really had a shot at the NFL if he could put together two strong years. He tweeted: "Working hard now so my mother won't have to later."

It's tempting to wonder how different life would have been for Shittu and his family had his parents not come to the United States and attended Cal State Stanislaus after they got married in Nigeria.

Nigeria is in the grips of the Ebola epidemic. More than 1,000 people have died in West Africa and nearly 2,000 have been sickened, according to the World Health Organization.

Aziz was just 5 years old when his family took him on his only visit to Nigeria. His parents have been back every other year, most recently in June. "We have a lot of relatives back there," said Adejoke, a nurse at Coalinga State Hospital. "We pray they'll continue to be safe. For us, it was a blessing to have an opportunity to come to the States."

Her husband was a mental-health counselor until he took a medical retirement.

Their outgoing son, a Pac-12 All-Academic honorable mention as a sophomore, enjoys giving his opinions on Twitter ("A breakfast is not a breakfast without bacon") and issuing movie reviews. He tweeted hard for Nigeria during the World Cup.

He also wrote a note to potential Cardinal recruits: "If you take a trip to Stanford with your family, 9 times out of 10 you are going to commit!"

Shittu was recruited by 17 schools, but he and his parents quickly fell in love with the Farm. Now he wants to finesse his way into Cardinal hearts.