Mason Alexander, a freshman football player at the University of Pittsburgh, was killed in a car crash Saturday night in his hometown of Indiana. He was 18.
Alexander was a passenger in a 2016 BMW sedan that was traveling through the northeast Indianapolis suburb of Fishers, local NBC affiliate WTHR reported.
The BMW tried to pass another car on a two-lane road around 9 p.m. but swerved back to its initial lane when the driver saw an oncoming car, according to the Indianapolis Star. The BMW driver lost control, traveled off the road, hit a tree and the car burst into flames.
The Hamilton County sheriff’s office is investigating the wreck. The condition and identity of the BMW driver were not immediately released.
Alexander enrolled at Pittsburgh in January following a standout career at Hamilton Southeastern High School in Fishers. He was rated as a four-star recruit at cornerback and considered the eighth-best player in the state of Indiana.
In addition to Pitt, he received scholarship offers from Auburn, Florida, Miami, Mississippi, Oregon, Tennessee and Texas A&M, among many others. In his first interview as a Panther on Wednesday he said he picked Pitt because of his relationship with defensive backs coaches Archie Collins and Cory Sanders.
“They’ll treat you like family, like you’re their sons. That stood out to me,” he said. “[They’re] both two really good coaches who put a lot of people in the league and that’s where I wanna be when I get to that point. That’s my end goal, to be in the NFL.”
Alexander was slated to play for the Panthers starting with the 2025 season but had already made an impression on the coaching staff during his first weeks in Pittsburgh.
“I received a call this morning that no parent, teacher or coach ever wants to get — the sudden loss of a young and promising life,” Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi said in a statement. “Mason was proud and excited to be a Panther, and we felt the same way about having him in our Pitt family. He will always be a Panther to us.”
With News Wire Services
