2008 Recruiting: WR Deangelo Peterson

via www.nmnathletics.com.edgesuite.net
Deangelo Peterson
Desire Street Academy
Baton Rouge, LA
6'3" 190#

There were some anxious moments in the recruitment of Deangelo Peterson.  He committed to LSU early, but then flirted with other schools like Alabama and Florida State.  In the end, he stuck with his commitment to LSU, and becomes part of a very solid wide receiver that includes Jhyryn Taylor, Chris Tolliver, and a couple other recruits whose grades are in question (more on that another day).

Peterson's videos are scant at best, but reports out of camps are that he was absolutely dominant, including Florida's Friday Night Lights camp and LSU's June camp.  He was offered based on his camp performance.

Peterson's a kid from New Orleans, and he came to Baton Rouge following Katrina to continue attending Desire Street Academy, where he was a wide receiver and defensive back.  As with his teammate Lavar Edwards, you are forced to wonder why Desire Street Academy was so bad with two D-1 prospects playing on the team.  However, when you consider that Desire may not have had much to work with given its unique situation of having to rebuild the program following the hurricane, and may have been undermanned at other positions, you can give him the benefit of the doubt.

He is definitely a big kid at 6'3" with a lot of room to grow.  There has been talk of moving him to defensive back, and his high school coach thinks he could even add enough bulk to move to defensive end.  It wouldn't be unprecedented, as Ezekiel Knight at Bama did it for a season before moving up to linebacker (and performed admirably, I must say).

If he stays at wide receiver, look for him to add about 20 pounds and play at 210#, where he would be a size mismatch for cornerbacks and a speed mismatch for safeties.  He may even bulk up more and become a Cornelius Ingram-like tight end/wide receiver hybrid.

While Peterson has a pretty good upside, I have to think that at this point he is a project, but given that so little film is available, I could well be wrong.  You love his athleticism, including his reported 4.5 speed and 34 inch vertical jump.  He could move to safety or linebacker, but at this point it looks like our more pressing needs for depth may be at wide receiver, given our problems with certain commitments possibly not qualifying.  I would look for Peterson to redshirt while he works on his body and his technique.  Then he'll be ready to compete for playing time in his second year.