- Associated Press - Wednesday, September 1, 2010

BATON ROUGE, LA. (AP) - Now that Patrick Peterson is getting his shot to return kicks and punts for LSU, he’s scoring touchdowns in his sleep.

Recently, Peterson said, he woke from a dream in which he’d brought back “two kick returns and a punt return against North Carolina in the Georgia Dome _ all the way.”

That would have been an impossible dream last year, when Peterson focused primarily on his role as the top cornerback on the team, covering opponents’ best receivers one-on-one.

This year, coach Les Miles figured Peterson needed the ball more, so he’ll debut in his newly added role when the Tigers and North Carolina open their seasons against one other in Atlanta on Saturday night.

“I can’t wait,” Peterson said. “I just told my guys, as long as they (block) their man, do their responsibility, we’ll have fun out there. I promised them that. I’m not going to break my promises. I just can’t wait for the real deal to happen so I can get that kickoff under the lights and see how we’re going to respond.”

Peterson will now be more exposed to high-speed, head-on collisions during his returns, elevating his risk of injury.

Last year at Alabama, LSU learned how painful it could be to lose Peterson, even briefly, from the defensive backfield. When Peterson went to the sideline with leg cramps, receiver Julio Jones scored a game-breaking 73-yard touchdown in the Crimson Tide’s 24-15 win.

“You have a great player and you want to give him the opportunity to have a great football play,” Miles said of his decision to put Peterson on returns. “To say getting an interception is more important than returning a punt for a touchdown, I don’t know which great play potentially you want to limit.”

Peterson has already established his reputation as one of the top pass defenders in college football. Many quarterbacks avoided throwing his way last season, and when they did, they didn’t have much success. Peterson had 13 pass breakups and two interceptions, returning one for a touchdown. He also had what replays appeared to show was another interception at Alabama, but officials controversially ruled Peterson out of bounds.

“He’s obviously one of the premier cornerbacks in the entire country and obviously a gifted athlete that’s got a lot of speed,” North Carolina coach Butch Davis said. “He’s got that shut-down corner mentality that he challenges everybody and he loves to go against the other team’s best receiver. I think the other aspect that makes him a little bit unique over a lot of corners that you see is his size.”

Peterson, a junior who turned 20 in July, said he has put on 10 pounds this year and weighs close to 220.

“But I feel great. I’m faster than last year,” he said, noting that he recently ran his fastest ever 40-yard dashes, one timed at 4.37 seconds electronically and one at 4.2 seconds with a handheld stopwatch.

Davis said giving Peterson his chance as a return man “is probably a wise and smart move.”

As a kid in south Florida, Peterson revered former Florida State and NFL star Deion Sanders. Although Peterson was too young to remember seeing much of Sanders’ career, he scoured the Internet for Sanders’ highlights, many of them touchdowns on interception or punt returns, ending with a distinctive end zone dance.

“He had so much fun, coming up with his own celebration,” said Peterson, who last year memorably rotated his arm like a windmill as he led the way down field on Chad Jones’ punt return for a score at Mississippi State.

“I guess that could be my own celebration with the windmill,” Peterson said. “Going out there and having fun is the whole key to playing football.”

Miles, a former Cowboys assistant while Sanders played cornerback in Dallas, brought up his memories of Sanders’ talent with the ball while explaining his decision to add kick and punt returns to Peterson’s plate.

“When Deion lined up back there for punts, he returned some for touchdowns, so we’re trying as best we can to allow Patrick that opportunity,” Miles said.

Peterson had one special teams touchdown last year, coming when he scooped up a blocked field goal at Ole Miss and returned it 53 yards.

He is a good bet to enter the NFL draft next spring, although he said he would carefully consider his decision with family, and factor in the chances of an NFL lockout in 2011, before deciding whether to leave LSU.

In the meantime, he’s not worried about taking an increased pounding on special teams. If he does as well as he hopes, his opportunities to touch the ball may decrease as the season wears on anyway.

“If teams don’t start kicking it away from me by the sixth game, I haven’t done my job,” Peterson said. “So that’s my main goal, to do my job early in the season.”

His first chance is only days way.

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