Colorado State University Pueblo

Colorado State University Pueblo second-year head football coach Philip Vigil has announced the hiring of former NFL player Kevin Peterson as the ThunderWolves’ new cornerbacks coach.

Peterson comes to the Pack after spending the 2023-24 season as a Bill Walsh Diversity Coaching Fellowship with both the Los Angeles Rams and Arizona Cardinals.

Prior to getting into coaching, Peterson played in the NFL for three different teams over a six year period from 2016-2021.

Peterson began his NFL career as an undrafted free agent on May 9, 2016, with the Chicago Bears. He was with the Bears throughout training camp before being waived before the start of the 2016 season.

After his time with the Bears, he was signed to the Los Angeles Rams practice squad on Dec. 27, 2016 and spent the next two seasons playing with the Rams before being waived during final roster cuts for the 2019 season. He sat out the 2018 season after suffering a torn ACL in the Rams’ first preseason game.

In his time with the Rams, he played in six games and made one start, while recording 11 total tackles, picked off two passes and tallying six passes defended.

After his release from the Rams, Peterson was claimed off waivers by the Arizona Cardinals on Sept. 1, 2019, and played in 14 games, including making three starts during the 2019 season and recorded 22 tackles and two passes defended, as well as six tackles on special teams.  

Peterson was then resigned for the 2020 season and during that season, he played in 12 games and finished with six tackles, one pass defended and a recovered fumble and then played primarily on special teams during the 2021 season where he recorded eight tackles in four games. 

In his NFL career, he played in a total of 36 regular season games for both the Rams and Cardinals. In his 36 career games, he played a total of 504 snaps on defense and 412 snaps on special teams. He recorded 47 total tackles, including 31 solo stops and added two interceptions, nine passes defended and two fumble recoveries. He also played in the 2017 NFL Playoffs with the Rams and in the 2021 NFL Playoffs with Arizona.

Before playing professionally, Peterson was a standout defensive back at Oklahoma State University from 2012-15. In his time at Oklahoma State, Peterson, who was a four-year letterwinner for the Cowboys, was a First-Team All-Big 12 selection as a senior in 2015 and was a semifinalist for the Jim Thorpe Award, along with serving as a Cowboys team captain. As a senior in 2015, he played in 12 games, starting 11 and recorded 36 solo tackles, six assisted tackles, one interception, six pass break-ups and one fumble recovery. 

In his junior season in 2014, he played in and started all 13 games and finished with 53 solo tackles, six assisted tackles, two interceptions and 11 pass break-ups. As a sophomore in 2013, he played in 12 games and made 11 starts and tallied 20 solo tackles, four assisted tackles, two interceptions and four pass break-ups and then as a freshman in 2012, he played in 13 games and made one start and recorded 16 solo tackles, and two pass break-ups.

As a high player at Wagoner High School in Wagoner, Okla., Peterson was named Oklahoma’s Defensive Player of the Year by The Oklahoman, the Tulsa World Player of the Year and earned SuperPrep All-American honors and was ranked by Rivals as the seventh best prospect in Oklahoma. In his high school career, he recorded 1,621 rushing yards, 25 rushing touchdowns, 42 tackles and three interceptions his senior year in 2011 en route to helping Wagoner to the school’s first-ever Class 4A State title. He also competed in track and field and basketball and in 2011, he won the State Championship in both the 100 meters and 200 meters.

Peterson earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in University Studies from Oklahoma State in 2023. 

He and his wife, Toria, have been married for five years after dating in college while at Oklahoma State University and are the parents of a son, Krew (3) and a daughter, Kole (1).