Growing up in a house where his father, Chris Wilkerson, was the head coach of multiple teams including Eastern’s football team, sophomore emergency management and disaster prep major Peyton Wilkerson was around coaching was around on a regular basis.  

Committing to Eastern to play football for his father was one of the first steps in Peyton Wilkerson’s journey.   

The second week at summer camp as a freshman in college, Wilkerson tore his labrum, his bicep and fractured a piece of his scapula. Due to the significance of this injury, Wilkerson was ruled out of the 2023 season.  

“I was pushing to be back by the spring, which I ended up doing so,” Wilkerson said. “I had a pretty good spring, which set me up for the ‘24 season.”  

During the 2024 summer camp, Wilkerson reinjured his arm, tearing off everything the doctors fixed one year ago.  

“Looking back at it, it was crazy getting injured on the same day, the second week on Tuesday,” Wilkerson said. “My arm got stuck and basically went numb.”  

After the doctors told him he reinjured his arm, the doctors were honest with how his injury would not only affect him as a football player but as a human being in the future.  

“They said I could try to an extent, but they wouldn’t risk it for my future,” Wilkerson said. “Like would I be able to throw a ball to my kid, or will I be comfortable sleeping or living daily life functions.”  

Wilkerson’s doctors recommended him to medically retire, and after talking to his parents, Wilkerson knew the choice for him was to hang up his jersey.  

At the end of the day, Wilkerson said his parents supported him through his decision making. Wilkerson said that life is bigger than football, so he knew he’d be okay even if he wasn’t playing the sport anymore.  

“That’s hard for any player when their career ends, and it’s a situation beyond their control,” Chris Wilkerson said.  

But when injuries sidelined him from football, Peyton Wilkerson discovered coaching was a part of the game he wanted to not only learn more from but try out himself. 

Defensive lineman coach Carlif Taylor felt the loss of Wilkerson on the field, and with his improvement and progression from the spring to summer camp in 2024, Taylor knew he wanted Wilkerson to play against the University of Illinois.  

When Wilkerson got hurt, Taylor noticed his mindset was positive, even though he couldn’t play anymore.  

“You don’t always see that from players who are told they can’t play the game anymore,” Taylor said. “He immediately just converted that into his new passion of trying to understand all aspects of football and trying to find any and every way to contribute to the program.”  

Throughout the 2024 season, starting against the Fighting Illini, Wilkerson would gain knowledge from the point of view of the coaches by wearing the headset the coaches would wear.  

“It felt like I could still contribute and help out the best I can,” Peyton said. “It’s like playing football but without the physicality.”  

For the rest of the season, Wilkerson said he was gaining a lot of information from other position groups, realizing he wanted to coach.  

“I think it took him a while to figure out how he wanted to remain involved in the sport of football, but I think he knew he wanted to be involved,” Chris Wilkerson said.  

On Nov. 26, 2024, Peyton Wilkerson posted on his X account, looking for recruits and football players in the transfer portal that would want a chance to play for the Panthers.  

Chris Wilkerson didn’t even know Peyton Wilkerson was intending on posting anything on X.  

“It was amazing. The feedback and the amount of prospects that generated,” Chris Wilkerson said. “We were joking at the house that he went viral, but it was an awful lot of people responding, and it was a valuable thing for us.”  

Peyton’s post received 401.9K views and 746 comments.   

Coaches within the program felt that Peyton Wilkerson’s help with the recruitment process has been something that has changed the program.  

“Peyton [Wilkerson] is a vital, vital, vital resource when it comes to our recruiting,” Taylor said. “Speaking about myself personally, I had a list of about 20 defensive linemen that I was going to recruit, and Peyton [Wilkerson] found every guy I found unintentionally and added some new guys to the list.”  

Chris Wilkerson said his son certainly helped in the recruiting process.  

“He took a liking to evaluating talent and knowing what we’re looking for and watching prospects and video tapes,” Chris Wilkerson said. “As I started looking at some of his evaluations, I was pretty impressed. It was pretty close to what we’re looking for, and certainly, there’ve been some guys that he actually recommended early that we did recruit and are here.”  

With the spring 2025 season in swing, Peyton Wilkerson is officially a student assistant coach and has been learning the ins and outs of a lot of different aspects of the program.  

He has been learning and shadowing under wide receivers’ coach Tino Smith II. Knowing that Peyton Wilkerson was working on expanding his knowledge of the game, Smith II offered Peyton Wilkerson the chance to learn from him within the wide receivers’ room.  

“He was around, and I was like, ‘Hey Peyton [Wilkerson], you might as well just around in the wide out room’,” Smith II said. “He’s been at every single meeting, he’s been at every practice, he already has a good grasp of the game, but now he’s actually sitting in meetings and getting more details.”  

Peyton Wilkerson said he wanted to try coaching because it’s something that has made a significant impact on his family.  

“I can’t say no to trying something that has done a lot for my family,” Peyton Wilkerson said. “I see how much joy coaching brings my father, so I maybe wanted to give it a test run.”  

Throughout Peyton Wilkerson’s journey from his first year of college to now, Chris Wilkerson said it was a range of emotions to see his son’s journey and where he is today.  

“I was so happy for him, to watch him reach his goal and have a chance to play college football, and I felt so bad for him after he did get injured,” Wilkerson said. “To watch the grit that he put in and the determination through rehab and get himself back in the spring and go through the early part of preseason, I was excited for him. Then, my heart was torn apart to watch him be hurt again. I think watching him find his way now has been an amazing part of the journey.”  

Throughout the spring practices, Smith II says even though Peyton Wilkerson probably doesn’t like the attention of being the coach’s son, the work he does to learn more about the game and the wide receivers shows he truly wants to be “one of the guys.”  

“At the end of the day, his last name is Wilkerson, so him being around and understanding that’s the coach’s son, he may not want that attention, but off the rip, guys are going to respect him,” Smith II said. “Peyton [Wilkerson]’s in the room, and he just wants to be one of the guys. He’s in there to learn, grasp more knowledge of the game, and I think that he’s done a wonderful job of being in the room and helping guys out.”  

Thinking back to the times he would have Peyton Wilkerson at practices when he was coaching at Dartmouth College, Chris Wilkerson thought coaching was something his son would be good at when he got older.  

“I always thought that would be something he’d be good at, and it’s fun to watch his curiosity, and it’s fun to watch him learn and grow,” Chris Wilkerson said.  

Although there’s a lot of ups and downs when it comes to football, Peyton knew he wanted to be part of it, no matter if that meant as a player, a recruiter or a coach. Going on this journey with his dad is something that’s special to him, on and off the field, he said.  

Chris Wilkerson said their relationship has shifted from a coach-player dynamic to a coach-coach and a father-son dynamic. He said the father-son dynamic has always been an important part of their relationship that never stops, but with Peyton Wilkerson’s help throughout the program, Chris Wilkerson says the newer coach-coach dynamic they have on the field and at home is one that he loves to have with him.  

Coming into Eastern as a freshman, Peyton Wilkerson didn’t want to be known as the coach’s son. But with more father and son duos in the college football world, Peyton Wilkerson truly wanted to show his dad that he belonged in the football world.  

“I’m not the only coach’s son out there,” Peyton Wilkerson said. “It’s very common in the world of college. It brings part of that; you want to show them what you can do because they didn’t really get to watch you play in high school because they were either coaching or super busy. It was more proving I belong.”  

 Zaria Flippin can be reached at 581-2812 or at zhflippin@eiu.edu.