Tyrann mathieu

Well, he was the only one nominated for the Heisman & very few DB's are ever nominated.

Also, a good read about Tyrann is a brief interview with Dan Patrick in Sports Illustrated that ran perhaps about a month ago.

At least he was given the opportunity to play his natural position. Trindon Holliday would have swept the Heisman votes if allowed to play DE.

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PsychTiger

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Have an up vote

We'd have won the title in 2012 with him on the team. He was worth 7-10 points in every game he played, either scoring or preventing a score.

Biggest playermaker to ever put on a Tiger uniform offense or defense, his instincts are unmatched.

His punt returns against Georgia in the SECCG were so clutch and lit the fire that led to a blowout.

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most impactful player on the defensive side/non offensive player imo

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No, this is not true. Back when everyone was saying Mathieu "is a liability in coverage", I was saying he's excellent in coverage and he'll kick arse in the NFL. So I'm a big fan of his. But we've had a few guys on LSU's defense who were more impactful - Peterson for example.

Tyrann was just so different than anyone else. It's not about who was better. It's hard to compare him to anyone.

As great as he was in college, he's having just as much an impact in the NFL with the Cardinals. Scary if you think about it. Dude is a beast.

Put it this way

Peterson in 3 Years had 1 forced fumble..

Mathieu in 2 years had 11 Forced fumbles..

think about that..

mathieu had 2 strip fumble TDs, peterson had 0

mathieu had 76 total tackles his sophomore season. the most peterson had in one year was 56 his sophomore season.

peterson had 0 sacks
mathieu had 6 sacks

mathieu had 4 ints in 2 years
peterson had 7 ints in 3 years

mathieu had 16 tackles for a loss
peterson had 3 tackles for a loss

mathieu had 2 kick/punt return tds, and he just missed out on a 3rd versus georgia
peterson had 2 kick/punt return tds as well in 3 years.

i understand they served different roles, but mathieu held down his own in coverage.

one game fans felt mathieu did bad in was the bama game, but he actually prevented a super long td by running across the entire field and chasing down the ball carrier.. he also was great tackling the tight end 1v1 in that game behind the line of scrimmage.. he disrupted a pass at the line as well. again, he was all over the field and extremely valuable. his impact on the games was tremendous.

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tyrann was more impactful than peterson. i don't know how you can say otherwise. peterson was great in coverage yes..

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Peterson did things that you simply can't quantify. He played on an island, and teams absolutely avoided him. Physically, Peterson may be the most gifted player I have ever seen at LSU. He had elite top end spend, and great strength for his size. He went toe to toe with Richardson on the goal line, and he didn't give an inch.

Mathieu was just a different type of player. He has great quickness and tenacity, and played with incredible instincts. What makes it so difficult to compare Mathieu with Peterson is the way they used him. The kid was a rover, and was essentially told to just kill the guy with the ball. People were worried about him in coverage because of his size and aggressive play style. However, in reality he could typically hold his own. I do think time has been favorable to his punt return abilities as he made a lot of questionable decisions. The Arkansas and UGA games really twisted people's perceptions.

He said in an interview a month or so ago that he became so popular overnight at LSU and he just didn't know how to handle it, and it caused him problems.

Love the guy. One of my favorite Tigers of all time.