By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Former Hayden football standout Brent Peavler has had to wait his turn for the Washburn University defense, but now it's Peavler turn.
Former Hayden standout linebacker Brent Peavler (33) will open his senior season for Washburn University Thursday night at Pittsburg State. [File photo/TSN]
The 6-foot-2, 225-pound linebacker, who will kick off his sixth year in the Ichabod program Thursday night at Pittsburg State, has appeared in 25 games while collecting 52 tackles and 23 solo stops while being used primarily in a reserve role.
But with Washburn graduating multiple linebackers, including first-team All-American Grant Bruner, Peavler will get his opportunity to be a marquee player for the Ichabods.
"It's been a long five years, coming up on six now, and I had to wait behind three All-Americans, which is good,'' the 23-year-old Peavler said. "Washburn is known for having really good linebackers and hopefully this year I can prove some people wrong and show that maybe I should have been playing a little bit earlier.
"We lost Bruner and we lost D-Mac (Derrick McClendon) and it's going to be me and it's going to be some younger guys that haven't had a lot of reps so it's up to us. We're big communicators on the back end so it will be up to us to communicate and really just step right into it, especially the younger guys, and get this thing going right away with Pitt.''
Peavler saw the most extensive action of his Washburn career last fall, ppearing in 10 games while recording 34 tackles with 14 solo stops and a tackle for loss. Peavler had a career-high eight tackles in 7-4 WU's season finale at Missouri Southern.
Peavler will be counted on this fall to not only excel at his position but also provide leadership for the Ichabods.
"It's not just the linebackers that are young, our whole secondary is going to be pretty young, so I need to be pretty vocal and usually that's not normally a big thing for me.'' Peavler said. "I try to lead by my play but I'm going to have to step into the vocal aspect as well.
"I've usually had the older guys to do it, but now I'm the oldest guy out there on defense for sure now. I think I'm the only six-year on defense now.''
Peavler already graduated with his physical therapy degree in May but said he it was a done deal that he was going to return for his final year of eligibility this fall.
"There was no thought about not coming back,'' said Peavler, who will add a kinesiology degree in December. "It's been a long journey and I played a lot last year but I only started one game so I look forward to playing all 11 games and hopefully it will be more than 11 games.''
Friday night's Washburn season-opener at Pittsburg State is slated for a 7 p.m. kickoff.
