Darrell Moody: Peacock to play in all-star game

It seems like only yesterday that Josh Peacock was the ringleader of Carson High’s ball-hawking defense that led the school to its first of three consecutive football titles.

Now, Peacock is one semester away from graduating from Hiram College in Ohio, and he’s looking forward to playing in the USA Football All-Star game in Alabama. Practice starts Friday for the event and the game is scheduled for Jan. 20. The game will be shown on ESPNU on Jan. 22.

It’s an opportunity for Peacock and the other 131 players (66 per team) to showcase their talents for Arena League, Canadian Football League and NFL scouts. The new United States Football League, which is scheduled to start next spring, will have scouts in attendance, too. There will be Division I, Division I-AA, Division II, Division III and possibly some JC players, too. To receive an invitation, a player had to be an all-league selection.

“If I play well, I have a shot at getting a chance in one of the leagues,” Peacock said during halftime of Carson’s recent basketball game against McQueen. “There are always internship possibilities, too.”

Peacock, whose major is business management, said he wouldn’t mind being involved on the business side.

“It’s a very broad major,” Peacock said. “That’s why I chose it. I can go into almost anything. Right now, I don’t know what I want to do.”

Peacock was an all-conference selection is final two years and a four-year player at Hiram. He finished a career with 319 career tackles and seven interceptions.

Peacock played cornerback early in his freshman season, and then moved over to safety, which is probably his best position.

“I thought I was pretty good at corner,” he said. “I was pretty dominant in high school.”

Peacock was often the leading tackler, which is not something you want your safety to be in most cases.

“I got good reads,” Peacock said.

The only thing missing during Peacock’s career at Hiram were wins. Hiram went just 4-36, including 2-8 this past season. Peacock said one of the reasons he chose Hiram because he had high hopes of helping turn the program around like he helped do at Carson. He felt there was some progress this past season.

“Every year we had some close games, and things just didn’t pan out,” Peacock said. “Injuries really hurt us this year. By the end of he season, we were down to our fourth-string running back. We had at least eight starters go out at various times, and four or five were season-ending injuries.”

Besides having a sensational season defensively, Peacock ended up being the team’s punter when the team’s quarterback, the top punter, was lost early in the season.

“I punted in high school,” Peacock said. “Coach (Jim) D’Arrieta taught me a lot. I had a passion for doing it. When I got to Hiram, they had a couple of pretty good kickers. When our quarterback/punter got hurt they moved me up.”

Peacock averaged 34.6 per kick with a long of 60 yards.