“At that point he said, ‘We’re not going to lose.’ He’d made his mind up that we weren’t going to lose.Īnderson has worked with Meals on Wheels and Habitat for Humanity. “That was unbelievable,” Dutchtown High School defensive coordinator Will Rogers said. He had the game-clinching sack facing a double-team with the running back chipping him, dragging the quarterback down with one arm. Against Jones County High School, he had five sacks and a quarterback pressure that forced an interception. The hard work started paying off during his junior season. “It really became a passion for him, and he put his all into it,” Fedd said. On every spring break and winter holiday break, he’d message his high school coach to make sure he’d get extra work in. His parents hired two trainers to work on his outside pass rush, including footwork, hand placement and dedicated training to get faster. No one could have known then what his future held, but the only goal was to outwork everyone else. That’s when he dedicated himself fully to getting better. “The first thing I told these girls was, I said, ‘All right, y’all might get him crying picking on him now, but one day, he’s going to be bigger than all of y’all.’”īasketball was Anderson’s second sport until an injury led to his concentrating on football. Or they’d have him play defense so they could perfect driving to the rim in basketball. When they were younger, they’d have Will set the ball at the net in volleyball so they could practice spiking. One played softball, and another played volleyball, too. But I think it just kind of stuck with him.”Īll five of Will’s sisters played sports. “I used to think that was such a terrible thing to say. “Big Will used to tell Will, ‘You know, on the field is where you get to hit people for free,’” said Tereon Anderson, Will’s mother. That led to a little disagreement within the house. That’s when I think football kind of became fun for me.” Even if you didn’t have the ball, I started hitting you. I’m tired of being the nail.’ After that, they moved me to linebacker, and I just started hitting people for no reason. I think after he did that, I was like, ‘OK, you know what, I’m gonna be the hammer. I was crying, like I really don’t want to play football no more. “One practice, he was bullying me,” Anderson said. The turning point came after a collision with Kevon Glenn, now a linebacker at Georgia Southern. He spent more time pulling grass out of the field and getting yelled at by coaches than he did actually trying to get better. “I used to suck at football when I was little - literally, I was terrible,” Anderson said. He played defensive tackle and on the offensive line, and he had no success other than being on the receiving end of hits. He hated it because he wasn’t very good at it. (Courtesy of the Anderson family)Īnderson hated football at first. At the same time, his competitive character was stoked by his five older sisters: Shawnta, Shanice, Chyna, Endia and Teria.įive older sisters provided stiff competition for Will Anderson growing up. They supported and nurtured his athletic dreams. When Anderson was growing up, his parents emphasized hard work and education above all else. I’m probably harder on myself than my coaches, anybody, because of the expectations I have for myself and the standard I have to hold myself to. “I’m always harder on myself,” Anderson told The Athletic. But the highest expectations for Anderson are internal. The expectations of a year ago have now climbed even higher. He was named FWAA Freshman of the Year and earned conference and national championship rings. He went from zero sacks in his first seven games to finishing second in the SEC with seven for the season. He was beating himself up pretty hard.”Īround midseason, Anderson’s confidence grew. “He wasn’t making plays, right?” Fedd said. So he called his coach at Dutchtown High School, Clifford Fedd. But he’d earned the Crimson Tide’s starting Jack linebacker job for a reason and needed to be reminded of who he was. Stats aren’t the only metric to determine production, and Anderson had plenty of pressures. He had just one tackle for loss and no sacks. In the first five games, the erstwhile prep star didn’t show many flashes of what made him such a sought-after recruit and a Day 1 starter. He was paralyzed by his thoughts, fearful of making a mistake and taking the brunt of a Nick Saban rear-end chewing.
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