LSU’s Patrick Peterson is an unabashed talker on the field.

In his mind, it’s one of the core prerequisites if you’re going to be a shutdown cornerback, and Peterson is clearly that.

“Some people might call me a motor mouth, but that’s what I do,” Peterson said. “It’s pretty much a battlefield out there. If you get a guy out of his game, then you’ve won.”

It goes without saying that Peterson has won a lot more than he’s lost at the most transparent position in football.

When you get torched at cornerback, everybody in the stadium knows it, which brings us to Peterson’s next prerequisite for stellar play at the cornerback position.

“You better have a short memory,” he said. “It’s about that next play, not what just happened the play before.”

The courage factor rates up there pretty highly, too, in Peterson’s book.

“You gotta stick your nose in there,” he said.

In other words, you’re not going to make the play by sitting back and watching.

And above everything else, Peterson wants to be known as a playmaker. Never mind that he plays defense. He revels in changing the complexion of the game with one big interception, one big pass breakup or one big hit.

He can add the return game to his repertoire this season. Peterson will be returning both kickoffs and punts for the Tigers, and that duty begins Saturday night against North Carolina in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game.

Peterson said he returned three kickoffs for touchdowns as a junior in high school and had two punt returns for a touchdown as a senior.

He’s already demonstrated at LSU that when he gets his hands on the ball that he knows how to find the end zone. Last season, he had a 37-yard interception return for a touchdown against Mississippi State and returned a blocked field goal 53 yards for a touchdown against Ole Miss.

“I’m always looking to change the game,” Peterson said. “This way, I’m going to have some more chances to do it.”

The epitome of a workout warrior, Peterson flourished in the Tigers’ strength program this offseason and got up to 222 pounds at one point. But he’s now back down to 214 and insists that he feels as fast as ever.

LSU coach Les Miles says he looks as fast as ever.

“He’s not overweight. He’s just a freakish athlete,” Miles said.

It’s another one of the things that makes Peterson the kind of cornerback who doesn’t come along very often. He’s an exceptional tackler and was second on LSU’s team with 43 solo stops last season.

So while he has the speed and cover skills to lock down on any receiver in the country, he has the size and power usually reserved for a linebacker to be able to get anybody in the country on the ground.

But a finished product?

Hardly.

Consider it Peterson’s fourth prerequisite for being a great corner: Self study.

There were times when he tried to do too much, tried to home in on plays that weren’t his and got himself in trouble last season.

“I’ve become more patient,” Peterson said. “I can’t just rush into everything. As you saw some last year, I’d get impatient and try to help other people, and I’d get myself in a tough spot. My whole goal is to stay patient, stay with my guy and be disciplined.

“One of the things I’m doing better is playing with my eyes and playing smarter.”

He’s also one of the unquestioned leaders of an LSU team that finds itself at a bit of a crossroads this season. The Tigers have lost nine games over the last two seasons after winning the national championship in 2007.

That national title was one of the reasons LSU was able to go into Pompano Beach, Fla., and pluck away Peterson, then the No. 1 cornerback prospect in the nation.

Peterson scoffs at the notion that LSU has been forgotten about on the national scene.

“I can promise you that LSU will never be forgotten,” he said. “We’re just not getting the respect we once did around here, and that’s the way it is sometimes.

“My job as one of the leaders on this team is to do whatever I can to lead us back to the promised land.”

It’s Peterson’s fifth prerequisite: Finishing the job.

“We’re going to finish games,” he said. “Giving up leads in the fourth quarter is something we did too much of last year. You’re going see all yellow hats around the ball. That’s how we’re going to play.

“We’re going to be ferocious, and that’s what it’s going to take to get that respect back.”