Peterson, Ross hope for homecoming victory
Coach, cornerback have Fresno ties
The new arrival has a new arrival.
Now, for Lobos first-year safeties coach Jordan Peterson, it’s back from whence he came.
The Lobos’ trip to Fresno, Calif., this weekend will mark a return to the San Joaquin Valley, as well, for junior cornerback D’Angelo Ross.
Thursday, Peterson’s wife, Missy, gave birth to their second child. Emery Gayle Peterson joins sister Ellie, 3, in the brood.
Missy actually had been due to give birth this week, with her husband preparing to leave for Fresno — the couple’s home the past five years, when Jordan was an assistant coach at Fresno State. The Lobos (3-2 overall, 1-1 in Mountain West Conference play) face the Bulldogs (3-2, 2-0) Saturday night.
The coaching profession being what it is, Peterson was out recruiting last week. The Lobos didn’t have a game last weekend.
The couple decided to take full advantage of the narrow window between trips.
“I was on the road recruiting Wednesday night, and we had scheduled Missy to be induced on Friday,” Peterson said. “I got back Thursday night, we went to the hospital, and she actually went into labor by herself, didn’t need any medicine.
“I told her she was the ultimate coach’s wife. She timed it out perfectly.”
Peterson is UNM’s newest football assistant, having been hired in July to replace Charles McMillian. Cut loose by Fresno State after the firing of head coach Tim DeRuyter, he’d landed a job at Texas State. But UNM came calling after McMillian, years ago Peterson’s position coach at Texas A&M, left to take a high school head coaching job in Houston.
At Fresno State, working for DeRuyter, Peterson experienced the exhilarating highs and crushing lows that come with the job. During his first two seasons, the Bulldogs — with Derek Carr at quarterback — went 20-6. The past three years, the record was 10-28.
Other than not having Derek Carr at quarterback, Peterson was asked after Tuesday’s practice, what happened?
“It’s not one particular thing,” he said. “It’s just a culmination of different things that kind of came together for a perfect storm.”
Losing his job at Fresno State, he said, is simply what happens when the team doesn’t win and your boss gets fired. Peterson left, he said, with no hard feelings.
“We had a lot of good memories over the five years we were there,” he said. “We have a lot of good friends that are still back there, a lot of good people who treated us well. Our first daughter was born there.”
His return to Fresno is a business trip, and there’ll be little time for nostalgia. But when he walks onto the field at Bulldog Stadium, he’ll see dozens of Fresno State players he recruited or coached or both.
Under first-year coach Jeff Tedford, Fresno State’s offensive and defensive schemes have changed dramatically from those run under DeRuyter the previous five years. But Peterson’s Fresno State background might still be an advantage for the Lobos.
“It’s always good to have more familiarity with the personnel, knowing guys’ strengths and weaknesses, things like that,” he said. “But at the end of the day, it is a new scheme . ... We’ve just got to come in there ready to play.”
ANOTHER CONNECTION: Ross, a likely starter for the Lobos on Saturday, spent a year at Fresno State as a walk-on in 2014 before leaving for Fullerton (Calif.) College.
He said he knows several Bulldog players well, including some of the wide receivers he’ll be covering.
“I went against those guys (in practice) every day, so I kind of know what they can do. They’re a good receiving corps, so it’s gonna be a test.”
Peterson, Fresno State’s secondary coach at the time, remembers Ross well.
“He came in as a walk-on, and he was consistently making plays,” Peterson said.
The plan was to award Ross a scholarship after he completed two years as a walk-on, Peterson said, but Ross chose to leave for Fullerton.
“We hated to see him go,” Peterson said, “but we knew he was gonna be successful. It was just kind of ironic he ended up here.”
Of his year in Fresno, Ross said, “It didn’t work out there, but it’s gonna be nice to go back. I feel a little bit more comfortable because I was there for a while.
“I’ve been on that field. There’s no bad blood, but it’ll be fun.”