Last season, Will Anderson Jr. was the best player in the country. Period. He earned my Heisman vote. He did win the Bronco Nagurski “defensive Heisman,” along with a U-Haul truck worth of awards. Few people have been able to change a game from a defensive spot like Will did, and though some have come close, we haven’t truly seen that kind of one-man dominance since Ndamukong Suh was a wrecking crew with Nebraska a dozen years earlier.
What Anderson did was simply mind-blowing. He averaged over a sack a game, led the nation in total sacks, and had so many other records (including setting a record for combined TFL/Sacks), that it beggars belief.