Will Anderson Jr. opens up about his dad's impact on his career ahead of Father's Day

Alabama Crimson Tide star edge rusher Will Anderson Jr. joined the Paul Finebaum Show on Friday ahead of Father’s Day and gave his dad a timely, nationally televised shoutout.

“He’s meant everything to my career,” Anderson told the SEC analyst. “My dad’s a big influence on my life, sports-wise and not even sports-wise, just overall. He’s done so much for me. He keeps my head sharp and he’s a great person to talk to just whenever I’m going through something. He’s been a tremendous dad.

“I give all the praise and love, and a big shoutout to my dad because my mom, she overtakes everything because she’s a big football mom and my dad stays in the back, but I have to shoutout my dad because he’s done a tremendous job raising me and getting me to the point where I’m at. Putting me in training, he was working late nights but in the morning, he would try to talk to me and stuff like that. He’s been a big help in the whole process I’ve been going through.”

How family shaped Will Anderson Jr.

When Will Anderson Jr. arrived at Alabama, he was a five-star and the No. 18 overall prospect in the nation, according to the On3 Consensus. But he wasn’t always an elite talent.

“I used to suck at football when I was little — literally, I was terrible,” Anderson told The Athletic last year during his monster sophomore campaign. “I was horrible.”

Anderson’s dad, along with his mom, Tereon, and his five sisters, Chyna, Endia, Shanice, Shawnta and Teria, all contributed in the creation of “The Terminator.”

“If you look at Twitter or something it’s like ‘Oh, Will had a great game,” Tereon Anderson recounted. “But then the girls talk about it, ‘Baby you came out flat. You look like you didn’t know what you was doing.’”

“‘You look slow out there,’” Anderson’s dad added, mimicking his daughters. “They make my job very easy.”

When the linebacker left his childhood home for Tuscaloosa, he encountered someone with a similar upbringing.

“It wasn’t just his sisters, it was his whole family,” Nick Saban shared. “Whether it’s grandmas, grandpas, sisters. Everybody had that same sort of competitive spirit about them. And I appreciate that because that’s kind of how I grew up.”

Anderson is the only defensive player in the nation currently hovering near the top of the odds for the Heisman Trophy. If he puts together another year like 2021, with 17.5 sacks, 34.5 tackles for loss and 102 total tackles, he’ll be right back in the picture, along with his teammate, reigning Heisman Bryce Young.