FIU’s Peterson embraces new role at linebacker, steps up after loss of teammate

“Luke, Luke, Luke …”

That’s what the FIU Panthers players chanted in the locker room following their season-opening win over Bryant University on Sept. 1.

The chant was in honor of fallen teammate Luke Knox, who died in the early morning hours on August 18 at the age of 22. No cause of death has been announced, but the Panthers players have not forgotten his cheerful impact on the team.

And if there’s one player who has stepped up to fill the void left by Knox, it’s fellow outside linebacker Shaun Peterson Jr.

“We said a prayer for Luke,” Peterson said of the players’ locker room actions following the Bryant game. “We want to represent him.”

Peterson said Knox’s death has taught the players some tough lessons.

“You have to realize you’re blessed,” Peterson said. “Every day is another opportunity, another blessing.”

Peterson, who played running back in his first four years at FIU, has seized his opportunity to switch positions.

In the win over Bryant, he had a strip sack with 19 seconds left in the third quarter and FIU trailing, 16-6. Bryant was at FIU’s 31-yard line when Peterson blitzed off the right edge to deny a scoring threat.

“The tackle didn’t pick me up,” Peterson said. “He blocked down, and I dodged the running back.

“It’s something I work on in practice. I work on it a lot, and it felt great.”

Peterson has gained 20 pounds since moving to linebacker and is now 6-3 and 240.

He said he needs the extra muscle to take on 300-pound offensive tackles who try to maul him on running plays.

On blitzes, Peterson said he mixes up “bull rushes,” where he shows his power, with speed moves that can leave a tackle flailing.

“Shaun is a freak athlete,” said Ricky Brumfield, who coaches FIU’s outside linebackers. “He’s strong, fast and quick, and it was a matter of when he would get our scheme locked into his head.

“On the sack, that was a player showing the pride, passion and determination to make a play.”

SECRET SWITCH

Peterson said the transition from running back hasn’t been easy.

In fact, current and former FIU running backs all tell him he has “gone to the dark side.”

One person — Peterson’s father Shaun Sr. — was even angered by the switch, which started during this year’s spring practices.

“He hid it from me,” Shaun Sr. said. “He knew I’d be upset.”

Shaun Sr. said he found out from Pembroke Pines Charter coach Keidran Willis, who told him: “You might want to call your son.”

The call was placed, and Peterson told his father that it was just a tryout, and he was doing whatever he could to help the team.

For Shaun Sr., the switch was emotional because running back was the position he played in his youth. It was the position he had trained his son to play, and he still believes it’s Peterson’s ticket to the NFL.

Shaun Sr. played running back in Fort Lauderdale Stranahan High, earning a scholarship to Northern Iowa Area Community College.

From there, he signed with the Iowa Hawkeyes, but he never played a down.

“I’m not afraid to say that I got into trouble,” Shaun Sr. said. “I was using drugs and selling drugs.”

When Shaun Sr. got locked up, Shaun Jr. was a 1-year-old.

Shaun Sr. did his time in Miami, and, by the time he was released, his son was 5.

“When I got out, I made a promise to never leave my son again, and I have stuck to that promise,” Shaun Sr. said.

Indeed, Shaun Jr. at age 5 went to live with his father while his mother, Shekinah Awofadeju-Major, finished her degree at FAMU. She and Shaun Sr. remain “best friends”, she said, and they have co-parented their son every step of the way.

“I’m in charge of the academics,” said Awofadeju-Major, who is proud that her son is set to earn his bachelor’s degree in criminal justice in December. “On the field, I’m for whatever makes my son happy.”

Shaun Sr., meanwhile, got his son into sports.

“When he was in high school, I made him do 200 to 300 pushups a day,” Shaun Sr. said. “That’s the workout I had in prison. I would tell him, ‘You will thank me later.’

“Now he looks like a bodybuilder. I just hope he doesn’t lose his speed.”

‘A NATURAL’

Peterson Jr. played running back and linebacker at Davie Nova High, rushing for more than 1,000 yards in each of his final two prep seasons.

But he wasn’t getting scholarship offers until he attended a camp at FAU in the summer before his senior season.

According to Shaun Sr., things changed suddenly at that camp when Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh started working with Peterson as a defensive end.

“Once he took interest,” Shaun Sr. said, “the others followed suit.”

Peterson orally committed to South Florida, but he backed away when the Bulls talked about putting him on defense.

Only FIU, which at that time was led by coach Butch Davis, and Georgia Tech offered Peterson the chance to play running back. And even Georgia Tech was too late, offering a scholarship one day after Peterson had committed to FIU.

Once at FIU, however, Peterson was stuck behind running backs such as Anthony Jones, Napoleon Maxwell and D’vonte Price.

Peterson got just 11 carries his first year (2018) and eight his second. His best season as a running back came in 2020, when he got 28 carries for 188 yards, two touchdowns and a 6.7 average.

Last year, he averaged just 3.7 yards, totaling 217 yards on a career-high 58 carries.

All of that led to the switch.

“I spoke to [coach Mike MacIntyre and running backs coach Eric Hickson], and they say he is a natural at linebacker,” Shaun Sr. said. “Hickson said my son is way better at linebacker than at running back.”

MacIntyre seems pleased with the switch.

“Shaun is really good,” MacIntyre said. “It was a good move by him to play outside linebacker because he’s a special player. We’re really excited to have him there.”

Shaun Sr., although disappointed overall by the switch, is coming around to seeing his son on defense.

“I wish he could play both positions,” Shaun Sr. said. “But when he got the [strip sack against Bryant], I was overwhelmed, joyful and excited. I yelled, ‘It’s about time!’

“It’s like he’s playing for me. That’s how I feel. I must have looked at that sack video about 200 times. I tell him I need more.”