By Charles Prince

The North Jefferson News



Brothers often share many hobbies together. For the Anderson twins of Fultondale—Jared and Julian—they enjoy sharing the same hobbies as well. Like crushing ball carriers and harassing quarterbacks.

The Andersons start at the defensive tackle slots for the Wildcats.

According to Fultondale defensive coordinator David Reed, “when the twins are playing well, they’re basically unblockable.”

Last season, the Anderson’s totaled 97 tackles—Jared had 51 and Julian had 46— and 10 quarterback sacks—with each brother nabbing five takedowns of signal callers.

“It’s fun to play alongside my brother,” Julian said. “We push each other. We like to push each other and make sure we play hard.”

“We expect more out of each other than our other teammates,” Jared said. “We motivate each other if one of us notices the other is looking fatigued late in a game.”

The two seniors came to the game late, not taking up the sport until the eighth grade. As a result, the Andersons don’t think they were good players until they became sophomores.

“I was pretty scared before games when I was a freshman,” Jared said. “I didn’t know what to do all the time and I didn’t know what my teammates expected of me.”

After starting as freshman, the Andersons made progress and gained enough valuable experience to become solid players, paralleling the progress of the Wildcats program itself.

“I learned from the techniques that coach Reg (Register) taught me and I started becoming a better player,” Jared said.

The two are adept at coping with just about any trick an offensive lineman can throw at them.

Jared can smell out a potential trap block and avoid it, in addition he’s also skilled at rushing the passer, using a swim or a rip move to get to the quarterback. Julian used to have trouble with double teams, but he often splits then with ease now.

“By our sophomore season,” Jared said. “the whole team started believing we could win.”

Julian said the attitude change affected everything the Wildcats did.

“Everyone began to come to practice ready to work and get better,” he said. “You could see that guys were working harder and they wanted to win.”

The Wildcats won three games that season, but the real payoff for the Wildcats dedication came last season, as Fultondale won seven times and reached the state playoffs for the first time since the 2002 season.



“Our team was older and stronger and we knew the game,” Julian said. “We were confident we could turn things around last year.”

“We had to learn how to win,” Jared said, speaking of the 1-9 season the Wildcats suffered through in 2005. “We had a different attitude last year. We knew we could win. You could see a different energy in the locker room.”

This year, both brothers say the Wildcats can improve on last year’s win total and reach the playoffs again.

“If we keep working hard, I think we can win the 2A state title this year,” Julian said.