Champaign, Ill. - Illinois quarterback Brandon Peters is soft-spoken, and that may be an understatement.

Peters is one of those guys who you have to slide your recorder another inch to him to make sure you pick up the audio. His demeanor never changes in interviews. He roughly has the same expression on his face at all times and doesn’t really like talking much about himself unless he’s breaking down X’s and O’s, something he’s great at.

Peters keeps this calm, posed attitude during games. He doesn’t ride the emotions that come with, for example, a 25-point comeback against a Big Ten team on the road to secure the school’s bowl eligibility for the first time since 2014.

Running back Reggie Corbin, however, ratted out a secret about Peters after the Michigan State game many outside of the team weren’t aware of: Peters is a trash-talker.

“I talk trash when it’s time to talk trash,” Peters said after the game when asked about Corbin’s comment.

Corbin double-downed on this statement during Monday’s press conference.

“That’s just BP, man. I don’t think you guys see when he gets fired up. It’s just secretive,” Corbin said. “When you’re next to him, you hear everything that he says. It’s actually not what everyone thinks.”

There are just little moments here and there when Peters lets it slip. The moments are usually around Corbin and he just so happens to be the only person hearing it, thus making Corbin a true whistle-blower on Peters.

Corbin checked around the room and his surroundings for Peters on Monday, making sure Peters couldn't hear the anecdote Corbin was about to let slip. Peters was doing interviews on the other side of the room at the time, so Reggie knew he was in the clear.

“He’s just a smooth dude. I hope he doesn’t hear this, he’s a smooth dude, honestly,” Corbin said while looking around for Peters. “There was one time where I saw a blitz because he was looking at some other place and instead of him looking at the blitz, he just looked the other way as if he didn’t see it, snapped the ball and threw it over there. I was like ‘dang, dude. You smooth.’ He was like ‘yeah, I know.’

“But little things like that you never see him do, but yeah he’s a little bit more vocal with certain people if you know him.”

Peters couldn’t even keep his trash-talking secret at the end of his heroic fourth quarter performance against Michigan State, though. Throughout the game, Peters was being berated by the Spartans’ fans, many of whom called him a “Michigan reject.”

In game, Peters didn’t respond. This is where the even-keeled Indiana native thrives. He kept his cool during a final frame where he threw for 210-yards, two touchdowns and secured the biggest comeback in school history.

But when he threw the game-winning touchdown to tight end Daniel Barker - a play that he said happened because “the guy on ‘DJ’ made a huge mistake” - Peters went back to sideline, formed a “L” with his hand and gave the fans “what they deserve,” he said after the game.

When offensive coordinator Rod Smith saw his quarterback celebrating the win down on the field, he couldn’t keep himself from getting excited from his spot up in the booth. Smith has praised Peters for his relaxed demeanor during high-pressure situations, but he loves seeing his man under center get fired up.

“I do,” Smith admitted with a guilty grin. “I’m an emotional guy, so I try to stay even-keeled as much as I can, but that doesn’t work very well. I know during big moments and big times, I’m pretty emotional, so for me to sit here and tell you I didn’t enjoy it, I did because it doesn’t mean more to him or less to him, it means it’s important to him, in my opinion. And it was a pivotal moment for him, in my opinion. He let that out, I kind of let that out with him in the press box as well.”

The emotions and the win represented a peak for Peters’ career so far at Illinois. He threw for 369 yards and three touchdowns, along with an interception that wide receiver Josh Imatorbhebhe admitted was his fault, not Peters’.

He commanded an offense in a way in which no other Illini quarterback has been able to do in some time. He did it by staying calm when the lights shone brightest, a trait he believes all successful quarterbacks need to have.

“No doubt. You can’t let the highs and the lows get to you as a quarterback when it’s only going to affect the guys around you,” Peters said. “Being in a position as you are as a quarterback. You need to have that trait because the guys are going to feel your presence, feel your mood, whatever’s going on. To be able to handle mistakes, if you make a turnover, a lot of it is on your shoulders to stay calm, make sure everybody else is riding calm and that there’s no panic at all. It’s a big thing.”

And while Smith is enjoying the pleasure he’s recently found in an emotional, subtle trash-talking quarterback, he’s still going to prefer the even-keeled competitor that continues growing under Smith’s offense.

“As you know, he’s never too high or never too low. He’s somewhere in between and that’s a hell of a trait for a quarterback, particularly a competitor,” Smith said. “I’ve said it all along, once he keeps getting comfortable with our system, comfortable with what we’re doing. I think he could be a really good football player when it’s all said and done.”