After playing four seasons of college football, St. Thomas graduate quarterback Andy Peters was ready for the next chapter in life. When teammates were prepping for spring ball, Peters enjoyed a scuba diving trip in Honduras to cap off his last season. His phone rang. Brian Taylor, Peters’ coach at the College of Idaho, was at the other end.
“I get a call from my old offensive coordinator … ‘Do you still want to play football?’ I was like, ‘yeah’,” Peters said.
Twenty seconds later, St. Thomas offensive coordinator Jay MacIntyre was on the phone with Peters, recruiting him to come play for the Tommies.
By June, Peters, with one year of eligibility left, was back in college football.
“I thought it was over, and then all of a sudden, I’m back on an official visit here in St. Paul,” Peters said.
At NAIA College of Idaho, the Boise, Idaho, native broke records. He is the all-time leader in passing yards, passing touchdowns and pass completions. Peters is also second in total yards with 9,144.
“He loves football, he’s an incredible competitor. He’s a good time, he works hard and wants to succeed and do well,” Taylor said. “There’s a pretty good balance with him of toeing the line of being serious but keeping it light … and enjoying the experience on top of breaking records and winning football games.”
Peters arrived at the College of Idaho after two seasons at FBS Boise State. During his time at Boise State, Peters played in a single game, throwing for 26 yards on eight attempts. After he was sidelined in 2021 due to a fractured right tibia, he entered the transfer portal. Peters reached out to D-I Idaho State, which had offered him in high school. Ultimately, it didn’t work out.
“I wanted to stay within Division I, but it just wasn’t in the cards,” Peters said. “When College of Idaho called me down the street, I really didn’t have anything outside of them. It was awesome to stay home.”
Now at St. Thomas, Peters returned to Division I and landed in the ideal situation – an opening at QB, a new playbook and a new coordinator.
Inside linebackers coach Trevor Vill discovered Peters in the portal. After Vill and MacIntyre reviewed Peters’ film, the coaching staff was all in. They had a new quarterback.
Last season, the Tommies went 6-6 and featured a run-heavy attack, sporadically driving the football down the field. In 2024, the Tommies combined for 12 passing touchdowns. This year, Peters has five passing touchdowns through two games, both against scholarship programs.
On Saturday, Peters orchestrated a high scoring effort in his home state. Despite this, the tenth-ranked Idaho Vandals eked out a 37-30 win on their stadium. The Tommies totaled 472 yards and only punted once against one of the best defenses in the nation.
The on-field relationship between MacIntyre and Peters has spurred the Tommies offense to average 32.5 points per game, top-19 in the FCS.
“I have full confidence in (MacIntyre), just seeing who he was as soon as I stepped foot on here,” Peters said. “This guy knows football … As the year goes on, we’re going to get more and more comfortable with each other, we’re gonna think more like one another. There’s going to be a point in the game, I’m almost going to know what he calls before he calls it.”
Past iterations of heavy personnel football were gone; a new system was in place. In his official visit, the QB-coach duo sat down to talk about schemes.
“(MacIntyre) pulled up the tape of what he’d been doing years prior with Florida International University … It was similar to what I’d done at College of Idaho when I was there, so I feel like the transition would be pretty seamless,” Peters said.
Coach MacIntyre raved about Peters’ ability to navigate pressure, extend plays and be an accurate thrower. He even compared Peters’ playmaking ability to NFL quarterback Josh Allen. MacIntyre said Andy Peters “is the guy that can make (the offense) go this year.”
“When I was watching Andy’s film, I was like ‘oh my gosh,’ we’re gonna get an absolute stud here,” MacIntyre said. “He’s so mature … He’s totally been a leader on this team, all the guys like him. I mean, how can you not?”
But Peters’ new-found limelight came at a cost: leaving home to go play college football outside of Idaho for the first time.
During Peters’ 22-hour drive to Minnesota, he said doubt started to creep in.
“Wait, what am I doing? Why am I coming all the way out here?,” Peters recalled.
Was the decision to come to St. Thomas the right one for Peters? After two weeks, he said it certainly seems that way, but it wasn’t always like that. Throughout that long road trip, Peters’ dad, Tim, eased his son to a relaxed mindset, just as he would in the gridiron.
“My dad is one of my best friends, definitely one of my consultants for everything in life,” Peters said. “In that drive, having him there, being like ‘dude, it’s gonna be OK. It’s a short amount of time in life. You know, you only get to do this for so long before you got to go be a husband, be a father … everybody’s gonna require so much of you.’”
After unpacking and leaving his dad at the airport, Peters said that’s when “it sunk in.”
“Holy cow, I’m really here,” Peters said.
A week before the first game of the season, Peters was named the starting quarterback. He recognized it took time to understand the new system, but each week the game slowed down.
Peters led the Tommies over Lindenwood week one, claiming St. Thomas’ first victory over a scholarship team in program history.
The answer to coach Taylor’s question was simple. Peters still had a lot of football left to play.
The Tommies will try to continue their impressive start of the season against D-II Northern Michigan on Saturday at Superior Dome in Marquette. Kickoff is scheduled for noon. The Tommies will then enter their bye, before heading to San Diego to face the Toreros in late September for their first conference matchup.
Juan Del Valle can be reached at delv9625@stthomas.edu.
