Darrin Peterson is one of the Flames most promising young players. He has a deadly combination of height and speed, and is looking to become a breakout player in 2013. There were a lot of questions surrounding Liberty’s young receiving talent going into the season, and Darrin answered the call, amassing 106 yards on 5 receptions, already surpassing his 2012 season total in both receptions and yards. He was by far the most targeted receiver, and looks like the go to man this year. We caught up with Darrin after practice Tuesday to hear his thoughts on the huge change of role:

“I feel like I’ve got to try to be that player, I’ve got to try to be unstoppable. Every opportunity that I get, I’ve got to capitalize and make something happen”peterson

He assured us that despite the lack of experience, the Flames will be very effective through the air this season. “Last game we proved that even though we are young, we can make things happen through the air. The coaches have a lot of confidence in us and I have a lot of confidence in our receivers, running backs, and tight ends to get anything we need to accomplished.”

The season opener had high points and low points for the Flames offense. They did very little in the first half, but after a 58 yard pass to Peterson in the 2nd half, the Flames were able to open up the Kent State defense and take the lead at one point. We asked Peterson to take us through the game from the offense’s perspective. “The reason we lost the game is because of execution, we’ve got to come out and execute from drive one. We can’t wait until the 3rd quarter to start executing plays like we know we should”

He believes the offense could be potentially unstoppable if they execute from the beginning. “If we execute plays early, no one on our schedule can beat us, we could dominate this whole season.” “Our main focus (against Monmouth) is to execute. The passing game is there, the running game is there, we just have to execute”

Peterson did have two tough targets at the end of the game that he probably should have converted into catches, but remember Peterson is just a sophomore and was playing in his first start. There is no reason not to believe this guy won’t develop into a stud. In his first ever start he led all players from both Kent State and Liberty in all purpose yards. He said he’s been “working on every phase of the game” and wants to “become an all around player”.

He left us with his thoughts on getting his first start at Williams Stadium Saturday. “It’s going to be exciting, a lot of people are gonna be there, my family will be there, it’s going to be exciting to play.”

We appreciate Darrin giving us some insight as the Flames try to get their first win against Monmouth this Saturday.