Some clouds. Low 68F. Winds ENE at 5 to 10 mph..
Some clouds. Low 68F. Winds ENE at 5 to 10 mph.
Mill Creek senior Jamal Anderson, pictured at Hammersmith Sports in Norcross, has committed to the Clemson Tigers football program.
Mill Creek senior Jamal Anderson, a Clemson commit, during a photo shoot at Hammersmith Sports in Norcross.
Mill Creek senior Jamal Anderson, pictured at Hammersmith Sports in Norcross, has committed to the Clemson Tigers football program.
Mill Creek senior Jamal Anderson, a Clemson commit, during a photo shoot at Hammersmith Sports in Norcross.
As other top high school football prospects racked up early offers, Mill Creek senior Jamal Anderson had to show a little patience.
After helping the Hawks to last season’s state quarterfinals, the athletic linebacker’s college options were lighter than he anticipated in early December of his junior year. At that time, he held a few offers, including noteworthy schools like Virginia and Georgia State.
“I was sitting at five offers in December and I’m like, ‘Dang, I don’t really have that many looks,’” Anderson said. “I’ve been talking to schools, but nobody’s taken a shot yet. Then it kind of shot up out of nowhere. By February, it was up to almost 30 (offers), so that was a crazy jump. It was just truly a blessing for me and my family. It’s exciting.”
Vanderbilt, Utah and Michigan State were part of the earliest December offers, and it snowballed from there, now extending beyond 30 schools. The four-star recruit, who ranks among Georgia's top 20 prospects and the national top 200, isn’t sure why his recruitment skyrocketed — his football season was over and he didn’t have any new highlights — but he’s glad it did.
“Yeah, nothing changed. I have no clue (why it took off),” Anderson said. “I know my sophomore year I started on varsity and I wasn’t really that active on Twitter. Starting my junior year, I started posting a lot more and maybe that blew up my recruitment more.”
Or maybe colleges finally took to heart what Mill Creek head coach Josh Lovelady had been telling coaches on visits to campus. Anderson has an attractive skill set, long and rangy at 6-foot-4, 205-pounds with speed, and he could be a linebacker or a nickel at the college level depending on how much weight he adds.
He’s athletic enough that he sparked some talks about his college potential on offense — Lovelady thinks Anderson could be a Division I tight end if he wanted. But his future looks to be on defense, where he has played extensively throughout his high school career.
He committed to Clemson in June, and his talents could fit into the Tigers’ defense in a role like the dynamic Isaiah Simmons, one of Anderson’s favorite players (“Growing up, it’s been my dream to make plays out there like him,” he said). Simmons, who transitioned from safety to linebacker at Clemson, was the No. 8 pick in the 2020 NFL Draft.
“(Anderson) went from playing on the back end, playing safety and running back as a young player, to linebacker,” Lovelady said. “We knew what we had, what he was growing into with his height. We wanted to put him at outside linebacker and that was a new thing for him. That transition was big for us, for him to get used to it and feel comfortable and be fast and physical. He’s extremely fast for his size. He flies around, really gets after it as far as his speed of play. … Clemson is talking to him about keeping him at linebacker. They like his length. They like his range. I think their plan is to put weight on him and maybe even slip him inside.
"The game in college there’s so much passing, you’ve got to have guys that can run. If he plays inside and he plays physical like he does in high school with the freshman 20 pounds, he could be a really physical linebacker.”
The height that adds to Anderson’s intrigue on the recruiting trail came as a bit of a surprise. His father, former Atlanta Falcons running back Jamal Anderson, was listed at 5-11. His mother Anna is 5-5.
“My grandma’s brothers are all like 6-8,” Anderson said. “Growing up, I was around the same height as everybody else and I started growing around eighth grade. In eighth and ninth grade, I had like a six-inch growth spurt.”
Lovelady remembers seeing Anderson in the Gwinnett Football League for youth games, though it wasn’t his height that stood out.
“That smile he has is kind of contagious,” Lovelady said. “That’s the biggest thing. He’s always smiling. He’s really relaxed, smiles all the time. He’s passionate about winning, don’t get me wrong. He’s intense. But I’d probably venture to say most of his teachers and coaches would say he’s always smiling. He wants to have a good time, and he’s always enjoying the moment.”
Anderson has fun on the football field, too, while creating havoc for opposing offenses. He made 78 tackles last season for the Hawks’ Class AAAAAAA state quarterfinal team, in addition to four sacks, two interceptions, five passes defended, one blocked kick and a sack for safety in his second season as a varsity starter.
He expects to see time on the other side of the ball this season, a flashback to his time as a ninth-grader, when he played running back and slot receiver, along with safety.
“Hopefully, I play quite a bit on offense this year,” he said.
Teammate Caleb Downs, the state’s No. 1 senior recruit and an Alabama commit, likes what Anderson brings on both offense and defense.
“(Anderson’s) very athletic,” Downs said. “He wants to play. That’s a big thing. He wants to make plays. He’s not afraid at all. He wants to be good and make an impact on the game.”
Making an impact in his final season at Mill Creek is very important to Anderson, the youngest of four siblings with three older sisters, including Mill Creek grad Mia Anderson, a thrower on the Georgia Bulldogs’ track and field team. The high school means a lot to him and so does the football program because of his years in the community — he has worn a Mill Creek football jersey since he began playing in the GFL as a 6-year-old.
He wants his final high school season to be a memorable one as Mill Creek navigates loaded Region 8-AAAAAAA, with 2021 state champions Collins Hill (AAAAAAA) and Buford (AAAAAA) both in the revamped region, and attempts another deep state playoff run.
“Mill Creek means a lot to me,” Anderson said. “I like how Coach Lovelady runs our program. I think he runs it pretty similar to how Clemson runs theirs with integrity. He holds people to high accountability. He makes sure you’re there on time and not only on time, but early, for everything. I think we play the game right. We don’t try to cheer, do any of that. We don’t recruit anybody. We just go out and play hard and play the game right.”
Scenes from the Super Six Football photo shoot with Mill Creek senior linebacker and Clemson commit Jamal Anderson at Hammersmith Sports in Norcross. (Photos: Dale Zanine) Click for more.
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Scenes from the Super Six Football photo shoot with Mill Creek senior linebacker and Clemson commit Jamal Anderson at Hammersmith Sports in No…
Sports Editor for the Gwinnett Daily Post and Regional Sports Director for Southern Community Newspapers, Inc. A Gwinnett native documenting Gwinnett County sports with the GDP since 1997.
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