Alabama sophomore right tackle Jedrick Wills Jr. has not allowed a sack in 402 snaps this season.Every Monday at noon during the college football season, the Southeastern Conference releases its players of the week in various categories.
Alabama is averaging one representative a week through its first seven games this season, with the accolades including receiver Jaylen Waddle earning freshman honors after the opener against Louisville and sophomore quarterback Tua Tagovailoa snagging offensive honors after throwing for 387 yards and four touchdowns against Texas A&M on Sept. 22.
Representing the top-ranked Crimson Tide (7-0, 4-0) this week is right tackle Jedrick Wills Jr., who is the SEC's offensive lineman of the week after grading out at a career-best 91 percent with four knockdown blocks during last Saturday's 39-10 victory over Missouri. The 6-foot-5, 309-pound sophomore from Lexington, Kentucky, aided an offense that amassed 564 yards - the seventh time this season Alabama has surpassed the 500-yard mark.
"It's something you work for," Wills said of his honor earlier this week in a news conference, "and once you get it, it's pretty special."
Wills is having a special season, with his 91 grade topping the 90 he earned the previous weekend in the 65-31 win at Arkansas. He missed just one assignment during 73 snaps against Missouri and has a 98-percent clip this season on made assignments. In his 402 snaps this season entering Saturday afternoon's game at Tennessee (3-3, 1-2), Wills has yet to allow a sack.
"He's a starter now, and he's gotten a lot of experience," Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban said. "He's a physical, aggressive player, and I think he's much more confident in knowing what to do, how to do it and why it's important to do it that way, so his mental errors have gone way down.
"He's playing very physical, and I think both of our tackles have played really well so far this year."
When Wills was a Rivals.com five-star prospect as a high school senior in 2016, Alabama's tandem of starting offensive tackles consisted of Cam Robinson and Jonah Williams, who was a freshman that season. Williams flipped from right tackle to left tackle last year to replace Robinson, who bypassed his senior season for the NFL, and Matt Womack beat out Wills at right tackle.
Womack broke his right foot before this year's spring practice session and missed all 15 workouts, and the redshirt junior broke a bone in the same foot in the middle of August. He has come off the bench in a couple of recent games.
With Williams possibly forgoing his senior season to enter the 2019 NFL draft, Wills could very well be Alabama's next great left tackle a year from now. Alabama is 20-1 during his time there, and Wills is more than eager to continue the winning ways.
Starting Saturday, when Alabama will enter Neyland Stadium as a 29-point favorite.
"We don't want to fall down," Wills said. "We want to make sure we stay on top of everybody and we do our job instead of being a top team that everybody is waiting to lose. If we just play our game, I think we'll be fine."
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.