Before there was Oklahoma’s Adrian Peterson, there was Georgia Southern’s Adrian Peterson. The original Peterson was an outstanding running back in his own right, carrying for a 6,559 yards in regular season games, which still stands as a Division I record. (Georgia Southern was an FCS school when Peterson was there from 1998-01.)
Peterson was selected in the sixth round of the 2002 NFL Draft and appeared in 106 games over eight seasons with the Chicago Bears. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in December.
And now he’s back in Statesboro.
Peterson was formally hired as Georgia Southern’s director of student-athlete development for the Eagles’ football program, where he will work to “provide communication to the football staff on the academic progress of all 100-plus student-athletes on the team.”
“Adding Adrian Peterson to our staff is something that means a lot to Georgia Southern and to our community,” head coach Chad Lunsford said in a statement. “He will serve a daily role in the lives of our student-athletes. His life experiences will definitely be of great benefit to our players and he will be able to serve them as a role model for them. We keep talking about the right fit and blue collar and no exemplifies that more than AP. He will be a huge asset to this program and I’m fired up to be able to get him back to Statesboro.”
“It’s an honor to be back at Georgia Southern, a University that helped me grow as a young man,” Peterson said in a statement. “Now I get the opportunity help our student-athletes grow on and off the field.”
One of two former Georgia Southern players in the College Football Hall of Fame, he is the second former Eagle running back to join the program in recent weeks. T.J. Anderson was hired last month as director of high school relations.