Joseph Peterson will play what may be his last game as a linebacker at Georgia State on Saturday at Georgia Southern.
He will leave as the leading tackler in each of his four seasons and as the leading tackler in school history.
He also will leave with a career record that includes less than 10 wins.
“I would trade every one of my tackles for some more wins,” he said.
But none of those things will be his legacy.
As strange as it may sound, Peterson won’t be remembered for anything that has happened in the past, unless the Panthers defeat the Eagles on Saturday and become bowl-eligible. Instead, Peterson will be remembered for what Georgia State’s football program will become in the next few years, according to coach Trent Miles.
“It’s a way of life when are you building something,” Miles said. “It’s like that guy who goes out and is the construction foreman. He’s the one making sure the foundation is poured right.
“But when the keys are handed over it’s the real estate person or the contractor or the bank guy that gets all the glory. It’s not the guys that oversaw the foundation of the building of the home.”
Peterson is the foreman leading the construction of the building of Georgia State’s program.
“He taught these guys how to handle themselves off the field,” defensive coordinator Jesse Minter said. “His legacy will be teaching these guys how to get the job done on this level as a Division I player.”
That’s why Peterson appreciates so much the fight the team has shown in its past few games. After starting 1-5, the players could have easily given in to the morass of losing for the third consecutive year. Instead, sparked by Peterson, quarterback Nick Arbuckle and others, they fought to win four of their next six games to set up Saturday’s showdown in Statesboro.
Asked for the lesson he has learned during this winning streak, Peterson’s head dips for a second before he speaks, his bass voice, framed by a bushy beard, filling the room.
“Now that we are winning, to be able to be humble,” he said. “I’ve been on the other side where we weren’t doing too well. Getting the program turned around my senior year is awesome.”
Peterson won’t take the credit and isn’t sure he agrees with being tabbed as the “foreman” of the team. That modesty, that seriousness, is what coach Bill Curry liked about Peterson when his staff was recruiting him out of Dothan, Ala.
“He had confidence without bravado,” Curry said.
Despite a prodigious high school career that led to all-state selections and all-star game appearances, Peterson was lightly recruited. Perhaps it was because he was undersized (6-0, 210 pounds) to handle the rigors of linebacker on the FCS level, much less the FBS level.
Peterson signed with Georgia State, starting fifth on the depth chart in the media guide at inside linebacker. He quickly proved that size isn’t everything.
He started the opener against South Carolina State and had eight tackles.
After Curry retired from coaching that season and Miles and his staff took over for the 2013 season, Minter said they targeted Peterson as a potential leader. They wanted him to become the face of the defense and the example of the culture they were trying to set.
Peterson relished the role and learned from his own mistake. He was suspended from playing in the third game of his sophomore season at West Virginia because he violated team rules. Because of that Peterson has used himself as an example to do things correctly on and off the field. He hasn’t been suspended since.
Peterson has shown his durability by starting 42 of 46 games (three missed because of injury), making at least four tackles in all but three of the games he played. He has played hurt. He has sacrificed his body, struggling to even weigh 200 pounds by the end of his freshmen and sophomore seasons as the calorie- and strength-draining campaigns took their toll.
But he kept playing, taking pride in his ability to be coached, even when some of the losses were by lopsided margins.
That selflessness is why Peterson’s legacy will become what happens with football, not what has happened.
“He’s meant everything to this program,” Minter said. “If this thing keeps going the way I think it’s going to go, he’s going to mean as much to that as he did on the field.”
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