Last season, LSU’s No. 7 was a star cornerback and punt returner. He racked up defensive accolades and showed off highlight-reel-worthy feats of athleticism left and right during the 2010 season.
This year, the player donning the No. 7 jersey will once again try to make the big plays happen on defense as well as in the return game. That player used to be Patrick Peterson, but after being drafted fifth overall by the Arizona Cardinals, sophomore cornerback Tyrann Mathieu is now the man behind No. 7.
If his freshman year was any indication of what the future holds, Mathieu could soon follow in Peterson’s huge footsteps.
Mathieu ended an impressive freshman campaign with a bang, earning Most Valuable Defensive Player honors in the Tigers’ 41-24 Cotton Bowl victory over Texas A&M on Jan. 7. In the game, he had two forced fumbles, one fumble recovery, seven tackles and even notched a sack.
“If you look at the season he had as a true freshman, and when you look at the number of tackles, the number of interceptions and the number of passes broken up, Tyrann Mathieu was at the top of the chart,” said defensive coordinator John Chavis.
The hype didn’t die during the offseason, either. Mathieu was one of only three sophomores in the nation to be named to the 2011 Chuck Bednarik Award Watchlist, an award given to the best defensive player in the country each season.
Last season’s Bednarik Award winner? Peterson.
While Mathieu is already receiving national publicity before the season starts, he remains unfazed by the pressure.
“I never really was in the spotlight,” he said. “The guys standing next to me take a lot of the pressure off of