Tyrann Mathieu needed to leave Louisiana as troubled kid in 2013 – now he’s ready for sainthood

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Tyrann Mathieu’s awards from his freshman season at LSU were piled in a dark corner of a side room in the Football Operations Center on Dec. 2, 2012, out of sight unless you happened to really look.

Only a few reporters noticed as they gathered in the room for the Tigers’ bowl announcement that Sunday to play Clemson in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl. It was a sad discovery.

Mathieu was a first team freshman All-American cornerback, made the All-SEC freshmen team and won the Cotton Bowl defensive MVP in the 2010 season.

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In 2011, he put together a spectacular season and earned the nickname "Honey Badger" as he led the nation with five fumble recoveries, led the SEC with six forced fumbles, and finished fourth nationally with a 15.6-yard punt return average and two touchdowns. He won the Bednarik Award as the nation’s best defender, finished fifth for the Heisman Trophy, was the SEC defensive player of the year, a consensus first team All-American and SEC Championship Game MVP.

But after LSU lost, 21-0, to Alabama in the national championship game on Jan. 9, 2012, in the Louisiana Superdome, Mathieu never played again for LSU. The next August, he was kicked off the team after several drug tests were positive for marijuana. Then he was arrested in October in Baton Rouge for marijuana possession, and the Badger eventually skipped town as persona non grata number one. And his awards were put away.

Those trophies are back on display now in that Ops Center along with the hardware from 2011. There is also a Mathieu plaque in the building’s nutrition center as of 2019. Mathieu threw out the first pitch