The folks back home have reminded Chris Braswell not to get any ideas.

After finding the end zone for a second straight week during Alabama’s win over Texas A&M, the senior edge rusher brazenly mentioned that he played a little running back before his college career.

That might be a bit of a stretch.

To be fair, Braswell is telling the truth. Before developing into a five-star defender, he spent his freshman year of high school as a running back at Baltimore powerhouse Saint Frances Academy. However, despite his recent heroics with the ball in his hands, don’t expect the 6-foot-3, 255-pound edge rusher to be switching positions anytime soon.

“He was awkward and skinny,” said current Saint Frances head coach Messay Hailemariam, who served on the staff during Braswell’s high school days. “He was not as big as he is now. I always compared him to Olive from the show Popeye. You know the really skinny woman, that’s the way he ran. We always knew he’d end up being a hand-in-the-dirt kind of guy.”

Braswell finished his high school career with more than 30 career sacks. Although when it came to plays out of the backfield, he hardly cracked the stat sheet.

“He did not make any plays at that position that were noteworthy. You can tell him that if he tries to state otherwise,” former Saint Frances head coach Henry Russell said with a laugh. “He had boats for feet. He had size 15 shoes in the eighth grade. Watching him do running back drills at some of our camps and running back drills as a freshman, it was like ‘damn this kid’s athletic, but he just looked different doing it.”

Seven years later, it’s still a bit strange to see someone Braswell’s size galloping down the field. However, Alabama isn’t arguing with the results.

Over the weekend, Braswell blocked a field goal before scooping it up and returning it 70 yards for a touchdown that was wiped away by a flag on Dallas Turner. The week before, his touchdown stood as he intercepted a tip pass from Mississippi State quarterback Will Rogers before churning 28 yards to the house.

"He's super athletic I'll tell you that,” Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe said. “It was no surprise to me how fast he was. I think that was the biggest thing, everybody was so shocked that he stretched away (from Texas A&M), but in the offseason, he clocked out at 21 miles per hour.

“As a defensive player you don't see that too often so we used to laugh and joke, try to race and stuff like that. He talked about how fast he is and stuff like that. We cracked jokes every now and then but yeah he's pretty fast."

Braswell said he was clocked at 21.9 miles per hour by Alabama over the offseason. For perspective, Miami Dolphins receiver Tyreek Hill topped out at 22.01 mph during a 64-yard catch against the New York Giants last week, marking the fastest in-game speed in the NFL this season. Braswell might not have been booking it quite that fast over the last two weeks, but according to his teammates, his reported speed is indeed legit.

Best believe Braswell has let them know about it as well.

“You hear about it all the time in the locker room, of course,” Alabama safety Jaylen Key said, “but he’s a tremendous athlete.”

While Braswell likes to brag about what he can do with the ball in his hands, his bread and butter is his ability to use his speed to shoot into the backfield as a pass rusher.

At the midway point of the season, he ranks fifth in the SEC with 4.5 sacks. According to Pro Football Focus, he’s earned a solid 81.6 pass-rushing grade, recording 28 pressures. Braswell’s stat sheet also includes his interception returned for a touchdown against Mississippi State as well as a forced fumble during the opener against Middle Tennessee State.

That’s more what they’re used to back home in Maryland.

“His length, his bend and the ability to move the way he does, he’s not an everyday kid walking around the earth,” Hailemariam said. “We could see he was going to be special from the start.”

Following his freshman foray as a running back, Braswell started the next three seasons at defensive end for Saint Frances, adding his name to a long list of elite talents to come out of the private school powerhouse. Saint Frances has been a pipeline school for Alabama, producing current Alabama starting offensive lineman Darrian Dalcourt while also sending the Crimson Tide a pair of highly-rated defenders in five-star edge rusher Eyabi Anoma and four-star inside linebacker Shane Lee in recent years.

So far, Braswell has been the best of the bunch.

“Eyabi was kind of at a whole nother level at the time I coached him in high school, and I didn’t think I’d ever see anybody close to that,” Russell said. “Then Chris came in and he was right there. By the time he was a senior, he was just incredibly quick and very athletic for as tall as he is. That’s one thing I’m glad to see him maintain at Alabama.”

Despite signing with Alabama as the No. 24 overall player in the 2020 class, Braswell experienced a slow climb to success at the college level. He didn’t play a snap during his freshman season in 2020 and was passed over by Dallas Turner the following year after Drew Sanders missed time with an injury. Last year, he developed a role in the Tide’s “cheetah package,” but was still forced to play behind Turner and future first-round pick Will Anderson Jr. in a stacked edge rushing unit.

Hailemariam said he was approached by several programs looking to gauge Braswell’s interest of a possible transfer over the past two offseasons. However, that was never a real option for the patient defender.

“He saw what happens when you wait your turn at Alabama,” Hailemariam said. “Chris is a very smart kid, very intuitive. He turned away a lot of people that he could have gone to because he made his own decision that he was going to make it over there. It wasn’t easy, but he’s a lot more mature beyond his years, and he knew his opportunity would come.”

Now fully in the spotlight, Braswell believes that patience has paid off.

"At Alabama, there's a lot of talent here," Braswell said Tuesday. "Sometimes you just have to wait your turn."

Speaking of waiting, Braswell is still holding out a flicker of hope that his recent highlights might prompt Alabama’s coaching staff to test out his skills on the other side of the ball. However, he isn’t holding his breath.

“I have thought about it in my dreams that maybe I'll get a little halfback toss or something like that at the goal line,” he said with a smile. “Maybe run a little run, throw me the ball or something like that. Maybe. Coach Saban probably won't let that happen.”