AHS junior already has trio of DI offers

John Wild-Auburn-Opelika Tourism Bureau Caleb Peterson will be a junior this season, starting on the Auburn High offensive line

Auburn High offensive lineman Caleb Peterson has three scholarship offers under his belt, two of which are from Southeastern Conference programs. Those offers came to Peterson after just one year on the Tigers' B-team before moving up to varsity later in the season. He will be entering his junior year this fall.

Alabama, Auburn and Southern Miss have all expressed interest in the 6-foot-4, 293-pound tackle. Southern Miss was the first school to extend an offer to Peterson when his brother, Taylor, committed to the Golden Eagles in the winter. Taylor was also a tackle at Auburn High last season when the Tigers went undefeated and reached the state semifinals.

Alabama and Auburn offered Caleb in March and early April, respectively.

Peterson is also gaining interest from Georgia. He recently has been in contact with Georgia's offensive line coach Stacy Searels and has attended a camp in Athens this summer. This weekend, Peterson will travel to Southern Miss for a camp.

Although he is excited to be receiving attention so early, Peterson remains focused on his high school team.

"I'm not going to stop working," Peterson said. "Right now I'm not worried too much about college. I still have two years of high school left. I'm sure there are going to be coaching changes in that time. So I just figured I'll sit back for a little bit and watch, watch to see what programs do, what changes they make and what not. I want to help my team win a state championship this year."

Peterson and his family moved to Auburn two years ago from Peachtree City, Ga. As Caleb and Taylor are about equal in size, their potential to excel in football was undeniable at an early age. But because they attended a school that was more focused on soccer, the brothers weren't receiving the type of football coaching that could take them to the next level. After learning what Auburn High head coach Tim Carter and the school could offer, the Petersons transferred.

Auburn safeties coach Tommy Thigpen explained that more and more schools are extending scholarship offers to 10th graders like Peterson because of their potential. But that, he said, can be a slippery slope.

"It's funny how the evaluation processes are completely different between college and the NFL," Thigpen said. "The NFL will never draft a guy until they see his senior tape. And here we are doing the exact opposite. The NFL will evaluate, evaluate and evaluate, work you out, evaluate, evaluate. But we're in the ‘A, B and C school offered, now you've got to offer' and you don't know what the development will be like. It's tricky."

Thigpen added that in some cases, the program that offers a scholarship first ends up being the school that player selects simply because of the early interest.

"Kids remember who offered them first," Thigpen said. "You'd think the evaluation process would be the most important part, but now it's how fast they got the offer. That comes into contention as well."

For Peterson, he is not letting the early hype and offers go to his head.

"I was raised to know that arrogance is bad," Peterson said. "Right now I'm really dying for one of those (championship) rings, so all that other stuff can wait."

Throughout the summer, Peterson and the rest of the Tigers have been hitting the weight room on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Peterson is doing conditioning work on his own in efforts to improve his speed.

"I'll work out here in the mornings, then go home for a little bit," Peterson said. "Then I'll come back later to run and flip tires."

Although he does not yet have any idea of what school he will end up attending, Peterson is certain of the qualities he wants fulfilled.

"I definitely want a school with a winning tradition," Peterson said. "I really would like a school with good academics where their athletes have a high graduation rate. I'll know that I can get the type of help I need, if I need it. But I also want a coaching crew that's not going to give you any bull crap. One that is going to hold you accountable for what you do. If you do good, they're going to pat you on the back, but if you do bad then they're going to yell at you and help you fix it."

Peterson has recently received letters from the University of Southern California, Oregon and Texas A&M informing him that they will be recruiting him heavily as of Sept. 1.