Auburn’s special-teams aficionado was back at it last Saturday.
Zakoby McClain punched the ball out of Miss State return man JaVonta Payton’s left arm in the first quarter of the Tigers’ 56-23 win over the Bulldogs. Jordyn Peters instantly gravitated toward the loose pigskin, scooping it up to give Auburn yet another short field early in the victory.
The junior was right back in his element.
“I don’t know,” Peters laughed when asked how he always finds the ball on special teams. “I just say that I’m always around the ball. I’m a ball hawk.”
Peters, a third-year defensive back out of Muscle Shoals, Ala., directly impacted the fifth special-teams play of his career in the win. He blocked a trio of punts last season — the most in the SEC and second-most in college football — and provided an opening for Smoke Monday for another in last year’s Iron Bowl.
“It doesn't matter if I get blocked or whatever,” Peters said last season. “I'm still trying to get it off the punter's foot every time. The idea of failing is not in my head. It's just, 'Go get the ball.'”
Peters, as well as Auburn’s other leaders on kick and punt defense, said he sees a big difference between opponents’ effort and their own on the 15-some-odd special-teams snaps per game.
“Other teams, they take special teams as a play off or something like that,” Peters said. “We take it as an extra play to make a big play or something like that. A lot of teams don’t do that. So we just pride ourselves on having that extra factor in the game.”
Peters has appeared in four of five games this season for Auburn, but he’s just now returning to full health in the past few weeks.
He sustained an Achilles injury before spring practice began. He said he was held out of “99 percent” of both spring and summer ball as a minor knee injury nagged, as well. Peters was still limited when fall camp rolled around.
“I’ve been waiting on this so long,” Peters said. “Having to watch — that’s the worst thing, just having to watch. You can’t do anything at the time. You just have to be patient, wait your turn, wait till you’re 100 percent healthy.”
Auburn expects the volume of Peter’s defensive contributions to rise week by week. For now, his teammates are just glad to see him in good spirits.
“I'm just happy for him to be back on the field,” senior safety Jeremiah Dinson said of Peters. “I know how those injuries are — and just to see him a good state of mind and seeing him back on the field is huge.”
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