Aztecs Tell Peterson to Stand in the Corner : Physical Wide Receiver Is Switched to Defense

The San Diego State University defense was in the middle of “Land Mine Team Pursuit,” an angle-tackling drill, when cornerback Randy Peterson sliced through some of the 17 blue tackling dummies that were laid out on the field, intercepted a pass and returned it 30 yards for an imaginary touchdown.

When he reached the corner of the end zone, he set the ball down, put his feet together and went into a touchdown dance.

He is used to doing that. Peterson was a wide receiver the past four seasons and had plenty of opportunities to score. But taking part in the defensive drills is something new to him.

The Aztecs are converting Peterson into a cornerback.

The move was made a couple of weeks before the start of spring football, which began on March 7. Coach Denny Stolz met with him one day and said, “Peterson, I’m going to try you out at cornerback this year.”

“It wasn’t up to me,” said Peterson, who is 5-feet 11-inches tall and weighs 175 pounds. “It was Coach Stolz’s decision. But I’m over on defense now, so I’ve got to play defensive back and play it all out, just like when I was a receiver.”

Peterson, who will be a senior next season, hadn’t given much thought to playing defensive back in college. He got his only experience there during his first year of football, as a senior at Manual Arts High School in Los Angeles. But he was a two-way player, lining up at his favorite position, receiver, on offense.

In two years at Santa Monica Community College and last year with the Aztecs, he was a receiver. But he also spent some time last fall on the Aztecs’ kickoff team, which is where he caught Stolz’s eye. Now Stolz was telling him he was a cornerback.

“He’s the most physical of our wide receivers,” Stolz said. “We found that out a year ago when he was covering kicks. Wide receivers are usually quick enough to cover kicks but not physical enough. Randy Peterson was a strong blocker on offense, and that indicates he’s a physical kid. I felt he could play cornerback on a regular basis for us.”

Said Peterson: “I felt like, ‘Who, me?’ To be honest, I wanted to play receiver, but after I started thinking, I thought he might have a point. I started picturing myself at cornerback and it was like, all right, I’ll do it. I was shocked, but not upset.”

Part of the reason Peterson is so willing to change positions, he said, is that he has a great deal of respect for Stolz.

“Not only did Coach Stolz do it for the team, he did it for me,” Peterson said. “He feels I can make it in the NFL as a cornerback rather than as a receiver. He’s been coaching so long that, if he thinks I can play cornerback in the NFL, I’ll play it with no problems. If he told me I’d have a better chance as a quarterback, I’d move there.”

Stolz doesn’t want to talk about the NFL angle.

“That’s between him and I,” he said. “We’ll have to see him play cornerback first. That’s a long way down the road.”

As a receiver, Peterson came to SDSU after the team’s Western Athletic Conference championship in 1986 specifically because of its wide-open offense. Peterson caught 38 passes for more than 500 yards and scored 7 touchdowns for Santa Monica in 1985, and he knew the Aztecs had one of the top passing quarterbacks in the country in Todd Santos.

He spent last fall as a second-team wide receiver and played in 8 of the Aztecs’ 12 games, catching 12 passes for 181 yards and a touchdown.

He missed four games because of an injury suffered in the Wyoming game. He was running a post pattern; Santos overthrew him, and when he stopped to avoid a Wyoming defender, cartilage ripped in his right knee. He played the next week against Texas El Paso but underwent arthroscopic surgery five days later.

The knee feels fine this spring, Peterson said. He’s more worried about his transition than he is about his knee, which he keeps wrapped inside an elastic brace.

“When I first came out this spring, the change was a little hard on me,” Peterson said. “For the first two days, everything was pretty hard until I learned some things.

“I played cornerback in high school, but in high school I wasn’t taught how to read the tight end, tackle or quarterback. I was asking myself, if we’re in a certain coverage, why do I have to read the tight end, tackle and quarterback? But it teaches you how to read the play before it develops--you can tell if it’s a passing or running play.”

The move was made because the Aztec coaching staff wanted better athletes and larger numbers on defense.

“I felt he could play cornerback for us on a regular basis,” Stolz said. “And we have good depth at wide receiver.”

“He’s basically a terrific athlete,” said defensive backfield coach Jon Hoke. “He runs and reacts really well. He has a lot of ability that you can’t coach--it’s natural.”

Peterson’s move, though, presents an interesting problem. One reason he was moved was that he’s more physical than the other receivers. And yet he doesn’t enjoy tackling and admits it’s a weakness.

“One of the hardest things about playing cornerback is coming up and hitting somebody,” Peterson said. “I just don’t like to tackle. But since I’m over there, I have to block all of that out now.”

Still, he is progressing. Not only has he been learning the most obvious part of defense--tackling, and the techniques that go with it--he has been learning the intricacies. For being new to the position, Peterson, who is listed on the second team, is doing a respectable job.

“In the last three weeks, he’s had to make a total change mentally,” Hoke said. “He’s learning. His strongest point is man-to-man coverage. He’s capable. He’s very capable.”

But can he work himself into the starting unit on defense?

“I think he has a chance to start,” Hoke said. “He has the ability. It’s up to him, basically. He knows what he needs to do to improve.”

Aztec Notes

DeAngelo Mitchell, the senior receiver who caught the pass that gave Todd Santos 10,000 career passing yards, has withdrawn from school for academic reasons, Coach Denny Stolz said Thursday. Mitchell caught 11 passes for 230 yards and 2 touchdowns last season. His 20.9-yard average per catch was second to Patrick Rowe’s 21.9. . . . The Aztecs held their final scrimmage Thursday before taking a 10-day break. Scott Barrick completed 9 of 14 passes for 118 yards with 1 touchdown and 1 interception. Brad Platt was 11 of 13 for 138 yards with one interception. The Aztecs return April 4 for two final weeks of spring practice.