Alabama outside linebacker Ryan Anderson had more to accomplish at the college level when he announced in January that he was returning for his senior year.
He made one of those goals known this week.
Anderson made one of the biggest plays of the Crimson Tide’s young season last Saturday at Ole Miss, when he slammed into Rebels quarterback Chad Kelly early in the third quarter and caused a fumble that noseguard Da’Ron Payne scooped up for a 3-yard touchdown. Adam Griffith’s ensuing extra point knotted the game at 24, and it completed the erasing of a three-touchdown deficit in Alabama’s eventual 48-43 victory.
“I had missed him like two or three times, so that was a big relief for me,” Anderson said this week in a news conference. “I want to sack every quarterback I play this year, and I had missed him like three times. It was good to finally take him down.”
Sacking every quarterback he faces this year is an impossibility at this point given that Southern California and Western Kentucky used multiple quarterbacks, but the 6-foot-2, 253-pounder from the Mobile suburb of Daphne still has a chance on a game-by-game basis. Anderson had a sack in the 52-6 opening win over the Trojans and was credited with half a sack in the 38-10 triumph over the Hilltoppers.