COLUMBIA, Mo. –

Over the last three weeks, Danario Alexander's splendid senior season has morphed into something else entirely.

A stretch that has made him worthy of All-American honors has, in fact, rivaled any such span in the history of major-college football and left even the most intimate onlookers groping for descriptions and explanations.

His blend of size (6-foot-5), field awareness, sticky hands, agility, speed with the ball (perhaps a notch faster than the 4.4 40-yard dash time he thinks he'd run now) and ability to transform himself into a whirling ball of knives after the catch has quarterback Blaine Gabbert labeling him a "freak" and coach Gary Pinkel shaking his head and calling him "a creature."

And then there's Iowa State coach Paul Rhoads, who in one breath compared Alexander to both the world's fastest man and arguably the greatest running back in NFL history.

"He's got a little Jim Brown to him," Rhoads said. "You look at him on the field and you think he's done … and then he comes out of the blocks like the Olympic guy (Usain Bolt) from Jamaica."

Alexander laughed at the thought, saying Brown was a running "monster" to whom he couldn't be compared. As for Bolt, he said, "That's pretty funny. I never heard anything like that."

Yet as his recent exploits defy description, he continues to confound the competition.

In MU's 34-24 win over the Cyclones, Alexander had 11 catches for 173 yards — 27 yards short of becoming only the third receiver in NCAA history and second since 1965 to gobble up 200 or more yards in three straight games.

Entering Saturday's game with Kansas at Arrowhead Stadium, Alexander is third in the nation in yardage (128.27 a game), receptions (8.36 a game) and receiving touchdowns (12).

More personally, he's already shattered Jeremy Maclin's MU single-season yardage record (1,411 to 1,260) and is 11 catches and two touchdowns from establishing Mizzou records in those categories, too.

In his texts and conversations with Maclin, now with the Philadelphia Eagles, he says Maclin has been nothing but encouraging about pursuing the records.

"I guess he kind of knows it's going to happen," said Alexander, who exudes confidence but not cockiness and says of it all, simply, "It's been remarkable."

That's particularly so considering the background from which it came.

Since his promising freshman year, Alexander had been beset with injuries. A broken wrist and three knee surgeries later, it almost was impossible to foresee such an eruption.

Pinkel suggested before the season that if Alexander had been healthy, he would have been viewed among the nation's top 10 returning receivers. But Alexander had sat out spring practice recovering from his latest surgery and was inconsistent and at times tentative in fall camp.

Then, with 10 catches for 132 yards in the opening victory over Illinois, Alexander began gaining emotional traction.

Even so, offensive coordinator Dave Yost said, he looks like "a different guy now" than he did then.

"It took time to, I guess, get in his head that he could do everything he has," said Gabbert, whose own improved health also has been a key factor for Alexander in the last few games.

Since Alexander was relatively uninhibited by the knee brace he planned to shed after that game, he's worn it since but more as a precaution and perhaps even superstition than anything else.

Since then, week by week, his array of maneuvers seems to have increased, a development Pinkel believes owes as much to subconscious confidence in his health as actual dexterity.

Staying unhurt game after game, after all, has "never happened to him" before, Pinkel said.

Adding to the marvel, MU receivers coach Andy Hill and Yost believe Alexander is not yet 100 percent.

"Top-end speed, I think he's there," Hill said. "Side to side, I think he's limited somewhat by just the brace."

Matter of factly, Alexander said that without the brace, "I'd be more elusive and faster."

For all his physical attributes, though, Alexander has other virtues that help distinguish him.

"What sets him apart is his smarts," Gabbert sad. "He knows where to go on every play. He reads the coverages just like a quarterback does."

Almost literally.

"I try to learn the routes through the quarterback's eyes," Alexander said, adding, "What's Blaine see? Where would he want me to be in different situations?"

From Pinkel's perspective, it's Alexander's heart and competitiveness that make him a singular force that amasses so many yards after contact.

His sense of purpose never was better illustrated than on a key reception against Kansas State when he kept scrapping after his helmet was knocked off.

"Here's a guy with his helmet off, and I think he got hit twice in the head," Pinkel said. "That just kind of defines who he is as a competitor."

That shows up on play after play after play, Yost said, because Alexander always thinks end zone and never assumes, "Oh well, he's tackling me."

When he gets the ball, Yost added, "Really, the play has just begun."

Alexander is quick to note that none of this would be happening without blocking, including downfield blocks by fellow receivers, and Gabbert. It also wouldn't happen if Mizzou coaches weren't trying to present a variety of formations and looks to keep defenses off-balance.

If he doesn't get jammed up at the line or the opponent doesn't pressure Gabbert, it's hard to find an antidote because of his size, speed and savvy.

"Once you get him down the field, he's going to make plays over smaller defensive backs … and he can run after the catch," MU linebacker Sean Weatherspoon said. "So your best bet is blitzing and getting to the quarterback, I guess."

Kansas likely will put a premium on that. It may or may not work.

But whatever happens Saturday, Alexander is grateful on this Thanksgiving for his health and the chance to become who he is at last.

"It's a big deal for me," he said.

Pinkel is grateful, too, not merely for himself and MU but for Alexander.

"I feel deeply for him, because I know what the guy's been through," he said. "Nobody can really understand all those hours and hours and hours with (athletic trainer) Rex Sharp."

And even if nobody can really understand how to put it all in words, maybe Pinkel said it best after all.

"I just wish," he said, smiling, "he was a junior."