All Things CW: Some of the Rat Poison Surrounding Will Anderson Jr. is also Truth

It's still too early to make comparisons with the all-time greats, but the second-year linebacker us undoubtedly the Crimson Tide's best defender this season.

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Even though he had already left the University of Alabama when Nick Saban first used the phrase at Texas A&M in 2017, Lane Kiffin has become an expert in "Rat poison."

That's as in both sensing it and setting his own bait.

The Ole Miss coach certainly did his best to spread some around this week as No. 12 Ole Miss prepared to visit No. 1 Alabama at Bryant-Denny Stadium. This will be Kiffin's first game back as a head coach and it could be a Heisman Trophy showdown as most oddsmakers favor Matt Corral and Bryce Young in the early race for college football's most prestigious award. 

Add in last year's 63-48 shootout and there's the potential for a whole lot of distraction before Saturday's game. 

So what did Kiffin do? Lay some traps.

He started last week by saying that the new transfer rules were like free agency and Saban could fill depth chart holes with the likes of Henry To'oTo'o and Jameson Williams (although Ole Miss did the same thing). 

Kiffin then called this year's Crimson Tide team, which has yet to come close to its potential, a step up from last season's national champions who nearly swept the major individual awards.

“I think they’re even better," Kiffin said. "I said last year was a great team, maybe his best team ever, and I think people thought maybe I was just saying that leading up to the game. But then you look and they run the table and not really close games. 

"I think somebody said, in the last two years, only Florida and Ole Miss have scored over 24 points against them. I think they’re better on defense with the Tennessee linebacker added in. [Will Anderson Jr.] is now older and as good as any rusher in the country. We’ll have our hands full.”

But Kiffin wasn't done yet. During the SEC coaches media teleconference he made the ultimate comparison regarding Anderson. 

"He looks like Derrick Thomas, which is amazing at his age," the coach said. "I mean, the guy’s just a freak. I guess from who we played over time, I mean, he’s not as tall as Myles Garrett but (he’s) as disruptive as that. They’ve got great players all over, but he’s the best of all of them.”

Calling Anderson the best player on the Crimson Tide defense was nothing but truth.  The outside linebacker is tied for second nationally in tackles for a loss with 8.5, and he's already faced two ranked opponents. 

Moreover, he played hurt at Florida after taking a helmet to the knee against Mercer. 

"I think a lot of college players, you know, they think just the opposite of pro players," Saban noted last week. "You know, pro players think, I’m going to play no matter what because I’m getting paid to do a job and I don’t want anyone else to take my job. College players seem to think, I've got to be 100 percent to play. You have an opportunity when you’re not 100 percent to show that you’re a warrior, that you can go out there and play, be player of the week, when you weren’t 100 percent and he wasn’t 100 percent. 

"He didn’t practice all week and he got tired in the game ... He showed a warrior mentality, that creates tremendous value to me for any player who can do that and he did it."

Despite the prolific start to just his sophomore season, Anderson is still a work in progress. Plus, he no longer has the benefit of having Chris Allen at the other outside linebacker spot after suffering a season-ending injury. 

Either way, comparisons to Thomas have to be considered extremely premature, especially since he's in the College Football Hall of Fame and the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and has to be on the short list for any greatest-Crimson Tide-player-of-all-time discussion. His 27 single-season sacks and 52 career sacks would be NCAA records if sacks had been considered an NCAA record back in 1988 when Thomas won the Butkus Award. 

But notice that by doing so Kiffin put the attention on a player coming off an injury and away from his quarterback before he played probably the biggest game of his career.

Studying Zion Nelson but Will Anderson Jr. shot out of cannon here is worth highlighting. Talk about twitched up 👀 pic.twitter.com/hSm1zFfnWo

— Brandon Thorn (@BrandonThornNFL) September 13, 2021

Turning a Comparison Into an Advantage

Thursday afternoon, during a teleconference with reporters, former Alabama safety-turned SEC Network analyst Roman Harper noted that Anderson reminded him of former Texas A&M linebacker Von Miller ("I don't think he has a pass rush ability of Derrick Thomas but that's my opinion").

For two years, 2008-09, Miller had Joe Kines as his defensive coordinator, who also coached Harper at Alabama.

In 2009, Kines let Miller loose, moving him from weakside linebacker and to the defensive end/linebacker hybrid as the Aggies' primary pass-rusher (the same spot where Anderson now plays). He led the nation in sacks with 17 and was fourth in tackles for a loss with 21. 

Kines also coached Thomas at Alabama. He told Miller he had the potential to follow in his footsteps. Consequently, the now three-time All-Pro and Super Bowl champion started to study and learn from him.

"I got a lot of film on Derrick Thomas, I like the way he plays the game," Miller said back in 2011. "Joe Kines told me a long time ago that I had similar attributes to my game that he had. Right then and there, I looked him up and just watched him. I try to emulate some of the stuff he does. You can’t do some of the stuff he does, but I try my hardest to be like Derrick Thomas.

"Just his mentality about the game. I don’t think it’s his physical ability that I try to emulate. It’s the way he played the game with a relentless fanatical effort with every play That’s what allowed him to make the plays that he made."

That's how you successfully deal with rat poison. 

Father Knows Best

The Kiffin-Saban contrast in coaching styles, which has captured national attention again this week, is a little different for me as the first NFL/college team I ever covered was the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. 

This was back around the time when the franchise switched from the creamsicle orange to the pewter, red and black. Trent Dilfer was the quarterback, with Warrick Dunn and Mike Alstott in the backfield. Warren Sapp headed the defensive line ahead of linebackers Derrick Brooks and Hardy Nickerson. Ronde Barber was at cornerback and John Lynch the safety.  

Herm Edwards was the assistant head coach, Mike Shula was the offensive coordinator and the defensive coordinator was Monte Kiffin. 

I could seriously sit and listen to Monte Kiffin talk about football four hours. I wasn't the only one who felt that way, either. 

"Lane’s dad was really instrumental in a lot of things," Saban said. "I remember, I think he was at Nebraska way back when I first started coaching. I can’t remember if I was at West Virginia, I think I was at West Virginia and we went and visited him and Pete Carroll was actually with him at the time. He was really the first coach, that I remember, that actually coordinated the front and coverage. Where you over shift the front one way and balanced the coverage back the other way and tied it together in a way that was very, very effective. Then he gets a lot of credit when he was in Tampa for Tampa 2 [scheme] and I think he was the first person to do that and it caused people a lot of issues for a long time. I always had a ton of respect for Lane’s dad, Monte. 

"He visited here a few times when Lane was here. I just think he’s a wonderful man and his legacy as a coach is, not necessarily because he won a lot of games or was a great head coach but what he did to impact the game was probably as significant as anybody I know."

Monte Kiffin was the franchise's first assistant coach inducted into the team's Ring of Honor on Sept. 19. Lane was able to attend the ceremony and called it "awesome."

Derrick Henry's Staggering Start 

If you think former Crimson Tide running back Derrick Henry isn't getting the credit he deserves, you're right. 

Not only has he had 17 100-yard rushing performances over his last 25 regular-season games played, but during that same stretch his 3,276 rushing yards are the most in NFL history (by any player over a 25-regular-season stretch). 

Barry Sanders had the previous mark with 3,192 yards during the 1997-98 seasons. 

Of those 25 games, 11 were on the road and Henry topped 100 yards in all but one, when he had 98 at Green By on Dec. 27, 2020. 

Sunday against the Jets, Henry will try and become the first player in NFL history with at least 175 rushing yards in three consecutive road games, or he could join Earl Campbell an O.J. Simpson as the only players to top 150 in three straight. He had 182 rushing yards at Seattle two weeks ago, and finished the 2020 regular season with 250 at Houston. 

More Alabama in the NFL ... 

• Per CBS, Denver's Kareem Jackson has been on the field for 115 passing plays this season, but with only five attempts thrown against him. So far opponents have one completion and had one pass picked off. His passer rating against him is 0.0. 

• Cowboys cornerback Trevon Diggs appears to be having a breakout year as he's the only player in the NFL with an interception in each of the first three weeks of the season, including a pick-six last week against the Eagles. He was the third former Alabama defensive back to win Defensive Player of the Month, joining Landon Collins (Nov., 2016) and Eddie Jackson (Nov., 2018). 

• Speaking of Diggs, he told reporters this week that he doesn’t participate on social media because Saban convinced him it was “Rat poison."

See how we came full circle there?

Did You Notice?

• After a Decade of Misery, Taulia Tagovailoa Is Resurrecting Maryland's QB Position

• The Next Frontier in College Sports: The Unionization of College Athletes

• 2022 College Football Playoff Championship Betting Futures Breakdown & Odds

Christopher Walsh's notes column All Things CW appears weekly on BamaCentral.