You have got to pay a price when you make mistakes. That’s the way the world is. He did. I think we owe it to kids to give them a second chance. – Former Utah State coach Gary Anderson

SEATTLE — Some fortunate people get a second chance. Few make the most of it.

First-year St. Louis Rams safety Maurice Alexander wasn’t one to waste his second opportunity.

Packing up in the visitor’s locker room at CenturyLink Field, slung over Alexander’s shoulder was a game-worn Seahawks jersey. The jersey number was 22, that of Alexander’s teammate at Utah State, Robert Turbin.

“Yeah, Robert and I are pretty tight,” Alexander said. It’s always good to see Turb and Bobby (Wagner). "Did you know they were my hosts during my recruiting visit to Utah State?

“It’s a blessing, just to be playing this game,” Alexander added. “It’s even better to see those guys again, and see them doing so great.”

While the Rams finished outside the postseason for the 11th consecutive year with an NFC West worst 6-10 record, defending Super Bowl champion Seattle secured a first round bye and home field advantage throughout the playoffs with the 20-6 win.

That an Aggie alum made it from jail to the NFL says something about the soft-spoken Alexander’s ability to make amends.

Alexander came to Logan’s campus in 2011 after starring at Arizona Western College. During a postseason party, a fight broke out between Alexander and teammate Joey DeMartino. With one punch, Alexander fractured both DeMartino’s orbital bone and his cheekbone, requiring emergency surgery.

Soon, Alexander was more than just kicked out of school: He had a 365-day jail sentence. Twelve days in, the judge suspended all but 45 days of Alexander’s term.

A St. Louis native, Alexander moved back home and began taking correspondence courses and working as a janitor at Edward Jones Dome, the Rams' home stadium.

“You have got to pay a price when you make mistakes,” said Gary Andersen, who was Alexander’s coach at the time of the incident. “That’s the way the world is. He did. I think we owe it to kids to give them a second chance. As coaches, the way we run our program is to hug them real hard when it’s good, and if its not good, we’re going to correct it and move on.

“Hopefully we’re there to help them grow to manhood at some point,” Andersen added. “From all I know and all the conversations I had with him through the process, he’s changed his life for the better.”

Taking care of his legal and personal problems, Alexander returned to Utah State and the football team in the fall of 2013.

Alexander said it was “never a question” whether he thought of transferring to another school for a fresh start. “I always wanted to come back if I got the chance,” Alexander said. “We’re tight. We’re a tight-knit group. They’re like my brothers.”

Turbin said it wasn't hard for Aggie football players to welcome Alexander back to campus.

“If you just look around the room wherever you go, everybody has their own world,” Turbin said. “You have no idea what their world is all about. You might know the person but very rarely does a person know the world of another person. As a team, as teammates, all we can do is support him and help him and try to help him and try to understand. When he came back, there was no lack of trust or anything like that. It was just about him fixing what was going on in his world. And he did. That’s why I’m so proud of him.

“You don’t leave anybody by themselves, no matter what.”

When Alexander returned, Matt Wells had taken over head coaching duties from Andersen.

“Coach Andersen was the one who had to take all that on,” said Kevin Clune, Alexander's former position coach at Utah State. “And that’s a hard thing. There’s rules that have to be followed. The behavior was unacceptable. But you’re also talking about a 19- or 20-year-old young man who messed up. You can’t just give up on them. Coach Andersen really had to walk a fine line with that.”

With his return, Alexander had more than a change in coaching to deal with: He had to learn a new position. The Aggies moved Alexander from outside linebacker to safety.

“His last year there were a lot of good things there, but there were a lot of mistakes,” Clune said. “But in the last six games, he really worked on it and really owned the safety position. Right when that happened, we really found our identity. We began really playing great defense. Having Maurice really lock down the safety position really made a difference. He has it in his makeup to really get things right.”

Former Utah State assistant head coach Mike Sanford has 38 years in the coaching profession, with 13 different stops in Division I and the NFL. He says Utah State’s eye for spotting talent is near the top of the charts.

“I think the most important evaluation of a player is instincts,” Sanford said. “The other is being able to project what a guy can become, what he can develop into. I think (Matt Wells) is outstanding.

"At a place like Utah State, they do a great job of finding the guy who doesn’t have a huge recruiting reputation and who's a little under the radar and developing them," Sanford added. "I’m beginning to do something similar here at Indiana State. I learned a lot from Gary and Matt in evaluating players."

St. Louis drafted Alexander with its fourth-round pick to help shore up its secondary. Since progressing to the NFL, Alexander has played defensive back, safety and strong safety for the Rams.

“Maurice is a special young man that I thought deserved a second chance,” Andersen said.

“For the first time in my life, I had to really deal with adversity,” Alexander said. “I fought, and I got back.”

After the game, no one in Seattle looked more happy that Alexander had made it back to school and now the NFL than the person who first showed him around Logan.

“I just had a genuine love for the guys I play with because, you know, we’re all we got,” Turbin said. “We go out there, and most people don’t understand some of the struggles that we’ve had to go through, especially in college.”