Football: As offense emerges, Peacock struts

Trey Peacock’s father wanted him to play baseball. Fortunately for the Princeton football team, though, Peacock insisted on joining his local Pop Warner league instead.

At 6 foot 3 inches and 210 pounds, the senior wide receiver has come a long way from his Pop Warner days. In Saturday’s season opener at Lehigh (2-1), Peacock made eight catches for 196 yards and a touchdown — the most receiving yards by a Tiger receiver since 1991 and the eighth best all-time at Princeton (0-1).

Head coach Bob Surace ’90 praised Peacock’s fitness level, noting that he came to preseason camp in peak form after training on campus over the summer.

“He’s come back in such good shape this year. He’s very consistent, and he’s growing into a senior with a lot of game reps ... He obviously runs well, he has good hands, and he’s a great target,” Surace said.

Peacock wasn’t always a target, as he played in the defensive backfield and at quarterback until his junior year of high school. Peacock has shown versatility on and off the field — his favorite movie is “Gladiator,” but he also enjoys “Love Actually.”

“I’m a big ‘rom com’ guy. So is [senior wide receiver] Matt Ransom. He’s a partner in crime,” Peacock said.

In Peacock’s junior year, he transferred to Hamilton High School in Chandler, Ariz., a perennial football powerhouse. He also made the switch to wideout, and in his senior year helped the Huskies to the state championship in the largest conference in Arizona.

At Princeton, Peacock made his mark on the gridiron early on. As a freshman, he competed for playing time as part of a very deep wide receiving corps led by then-senior and co-captain Brendan Circle ’08, catching six passes for 49 yards on the season. The next year, he figured much larger in the Tigers’ offense, recording 178 yards on 15 receptions.

Looking back, the senior considered his improved patience and ease on the line of scrimmage.

“Now, I think things have just slowed down for me, and I also don’t put pressure on myself when I do make mistakes. I take it one play at a time,” Peacock said.

After bulking up in the offseason, Peacock made even more significant strides in 2009. It was then that his current working relationship with junior quarterback Tommy Wornham began, and the two haven’t taken a break from each other since, as they both stayed on campus over the summer to train with a sizable contingent of the team.

“It helped a lot that both of us stayed over the summer. A lot of the senior receivers actually stayed. Even just getting to know [the other players] better, you get more comfortable with each other and that shows on the field. And it’s only going to get better,” Peacock said.

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Wornham echoed Peacock’s sentiments, adding that his teammate’s tremendous work ethic has always been a factor in his everyday routine.

“He worked his butt off all summer,” Wornham said. “It’s basically been the same Trey [for the last three years] — he’s always had a great work ethic. The focus and intensity have always been there, I think he’s just gotten a lot more comfortable with his role.”

Wornham pointed out that lessons learned from running routes this summer have already materialized on game day.

“We really worked out on speed-outs, deep-outs and posts just to get the timing down, and we actually scored on a post [against Lehigh] so it definitely paid off there,” Wornham said.

Last year, Peacock had a breakout season, as he led the Tigers with 48 receptions and averaged 52.7 yards per game. He was especially dominant in the game against Cornell: He recorded two touchdowns against the Big Red, including a 78-yard touchdown catch late in the fourth quarter that tipped the score to 17-13 and was Princeton’s longest play of the season.

However, that isn’t to say that Peacock has finished ironing out all the kinks in his playing style. This year, Surace said, he has worked tirelessly to improve his footwork.

“He’s one of the taller guys, and sometimes it’s tough for tall receivers to work on their footwork — they have longer strides. I think that’s something that has really helped him get open more,” Surace said.

Though he may put enormous amounts of effort into the game, with Peacock, it’s not all work. He said he has more than 10,000 songs on his iPod, has mastered EA Sports’ FIFA Soccer 10 and, according to Wornham, has a taste for the humorous.

“He’s definitely a jokester. It’s pretty tough to take him seriously all the time,” Wornham said.

And even when Peacock is focusing on football, it’s never a chore.

“I couldn’t be more excited for this season,” Peacock said. “I love the effort. As bittersweet as it is because it’s my last season here, I can’t wait for each Saturday to come.”