Try as you might, you may find no cleaner player in the entire 2016 NFL Draft process - from an off-the-field standpoint - than Kaiwan Lewis. Lewis, the former South Carolina Gamecock who decided, in the wake of a family tragedy, to spend his final collegiate season closer to home, taking on middle linebacker duties for the Rutgers Scarlet Knights this past year, already has his long-term life plan all mapped out.

Graduate school - he's already well into his master's program, working toward a degree in urban planning - then law school, and finally a future helping the less fortunate as, Lewis hopes, a criminal defense attorney.

Even now the aspiring NFLer holds football camps for young players, has hosted them in New Jersey and South Carolina for a couple of years now, and regularly schedules speaking engagements for troubled youths.

"I want to help people," Lewis told Headlines & Global News recently. "I enjoy helping people."

It's the kind of post-playing days plan and charitable bent that would make any NFL scout, coach or front office member stop and take notice, mark a big "X" in the character column of their evaluation.

But for Lewis, it's not time for all that just yet. Right now, it's training. It's the draft, and it's the NFL. And if Lewis is going to get himself picked later this month and stick with one of the league's 32 squads come the summer, he's got to prove he's as squeaky clean - or close to squeaky clean - on the field as he is off it.

Lucky for Lewis, he's got the brains and, he thinks, the physical playing style to carve out a significant role as a professional.

***

Lewis grew up in Pleasantville, N.J., but found his way to Columbia, S.C., as a heavily recruited high school prospect - Lewis was a four-star recruit, according to ESPN - eyed by a majority of the major SEC programs. Lewis played for the Gamecocks for three seasons, initially as a special teams ace, and then later as part of a platoon at middle linebacker.

Strong showings during his sophomore campaign against the highly touted Georgia Bulldogs and eventual NFL stud Todd Gurley (12 tackles, including one for loss), the Missouri Tigers (two tackles, a tackle for loss and his first career interception) and in S.C.'s Capital One Bowl victory over the Wisconsin Badgers (a team-leading nine tackles, one interception and a fumble recovery), looked to have Lewis' stock headed in exactly the right direction.

But late in what proved to be an especially difficult junior year, Lewis was given the news that would forever change his life: his brother, Bilal, had been killed.

"I can't even describe - it was just crazy," Lewis said. "You never expect to lose somebody so close to you at such a young age. But death has no age. My head was all over the place."

Lewis finished that season for the Gamecocks having appeared in just eight games with only one start. More important, Lewis knew he needed to be closer to home in order to support his family.

It wasn't an easy transition, making the leap to Rutgers, and Bilal, even now, is never far from his thoughts. But it's an experience, painful though it may have been, that Lewis is ultimately thankful for.

"I matured a lot," Lewis said. "That was big for me. That helped me take my game to a higher level in different facets. I became a better leader."

***

It's that leadership, that responsibility that Lewis has come to crave.

He doesn't just want to take it to the opposition - he wants to get his teammates into position to make impact plays of their own. It's the classic middle linebacker trait - the leader, the field general - and it's exactly who Lewis is, who he wants to be in the NFL.

"I'm very downhill. Aggressive," Lewis said. "I like to take over when I'm out there as far as lining people up, having that control. Having total control out there on the field."

However, Lewis, like every NFL draft prospect, comes with his fair share of questions. He weighed in at South Carolina's pro day at just 6-foot-2, 228-pounds, which is very light for the position, even in today's NFL where guys like USC's Su'a Cravens - 6-foot-1, 226-pounds - another top NFL draft prospect, is viewed by many teams as a linebacker, not a safety.

But for Lewis, the concern isn't just his size - it's the speed that comes along with it.

Lewis, even at that light weight, clocked just a 4.95 in the 40-yard dash, almost two full tenths of a second off the average for inside linebackers at the combine.

No matter, says Lewis. Teams know he plays faster than he times. And it's not just straight-line speed that allows you to succeed in the NFL - it's instincts and the ability to diagnose a play, sniffing it out before it can fully develop.

"If you go back and watch my sophomore year I think, against UGA in Athens, I ran down the fastest running back at the combine, Keith Marshall," Lewis said.

Marshall, projected as a fifth- to sixth-round pick in the upcoming draft, dropped an absolutely blazing 4.31 at the NFL's rookie scouting combine in February. To Lewis, the ability to track down a guy like that, in-game, trumps all the stopwatches and workout warrior nonsense that the NFL world always seems so taken with this time of year.

"I probably came from behind him at least 30 yards, and he looked like he was off to the races," Lewis said. "Game speed is different than just running sprints."

Interesting too, for Lewis, size may also be a concern when it comes to his physicality. Not in the sense that Lewis lacks a physical edge to his game - quite the contrary, in fact.

"I like to get to the ballcarrier, impose my will on him," Lewis said, the excitement obvious in his voice.

But it's probably fair to wonder how a smaller guy will hold up against the run in the NFL. League annals are littered with smaller players who went on to excel at the position - Ray Lewis famously came into the league at just 6-foot-1, 235-pounds - but the odds will be against Kaiwan until he can prove he has the ability to hold up over the long term.

At this point, though, Lewis has already put on tape what he can. Now, he's hard at work adding to his skill set. These days, it's learning the route tree, honing his coverage skills, and it's also pass rushing. Not that teams have been asking him to work on that, but ever the responsible player, Lewis just wants to add whatever skills he can to make himself more of a threat on the field come Sundays.

"The more you can do, the more valuable you are, the longer you can play in the league."

***

Lewis didn't play special teams during his lone season at Rutgers. The lack of depth made him too valuable to the defensive coaching staff to risk a torn ligament or a twisted joint running down on kick coverage.

But every other season of his collegiate career, Lewis took pride in manning a spot on the often-overlooked third phase of football. And though he may not have played on special teams during Scarlet Knights games, you better believe Lewis practiced them.

"Every week. Every day," Lewis said, adding that he considers himself a "humble player."

Humble. Responsible. Leader.

Lewis may not be flashy, may not bring a high profile with him to the draft - though he's garnering interest from plenty of teams, about eight in total at this point, including the Oakland Raiders, New York Jets and Giants and the Philadelphia Eagles - and may even wind up as a priority free agent depending on how things shake out later this month.

But to the man with the post-playing plan and the desire to lead, exceed and excel, it doesn't matter what path he takes to the NFL. Lewis knows he'll get there - at that point, it'll be up to him to make it last.

"I can't control how hard someone else works," Lewis said. "What I can control is how hard I work and being the best person and football player I can be."