Arkansas Business

This story is from the archives of ArkansasSports360.com.

As we learned throughout an amazing run for Tyrann Mathieu during his sophomore season as an LSU defensive back and punt returner, the "Honey Badger don't care." And this particular honey badger didn't care about team or school rules, so Mathieu is no longer part of the Tigers.

LSU Coach Les Miles said during today's press conference that Mathieu violated a "school rule." Knowing that Mathieu and other teammates were suspended for last year's Tigers blowout of Auburn for testing positive for smoking synthetic marijuana, we can guess that the player likely continued along that path, much like a recently dismissed Arkansas State running back who had everything to play for and threw it away.

Not 30 seconds after the news broke at lunchtime Friday, Twitter was abuzz with national college football writers "rethinking" their choice of LSU as SEC and possibly national champion.

Some contending teams have players they absolutely cannot lose and remain in the running — Arkansas quarterback Tyler Wilson comes to mind immediately — but LSU isn't one of those, and Tyrann Mathieu's absence doesn't suddenly make the Tigers a middle-of-the-SEC West team.

Granted, Mathieu showed a gift last season of making a game-changing play more than a couple of times. For instance, Arkansas was never the same after Mathieu's 92-yard punt return in the second quarter. Mathieu forced 14 fumbles last year, pretty much an unheard-of statistic these days. He deserved his place in New York City among the Heisman Trophy finalists last December, which also tends to be unheard of when it comes to sophomore cornerbacks (he lined up at safety against Arkansas, for what it's worth, and Bobby Petrino's plans to pick on his 5-foot-9 frame against a wideout never materialized in last year's showdown in Baton Rouge).

Mathieu became more than a football star; with his streaked blonde hair and big-play ability, he suddenly became a cult hero nationally, but one whose act might have been difficult to repeat this season.

In talent, LSU will replace him easily at cornerback with speedy redshirt freshman Jalen Collins, a lock-down defender with five inches on Mathieu. The Honey Badger was more effective not as a one-on-one pass defender, anyway, but as a wild card — "rover," "monster man," "star," whatever term they use for that extra combo defensive back-outside linebacker type. Now, that will be hard for LSU to replace, at least early on, though the big games don't come until later.

LSU would have more problems if the Tigers were replacing defensive coordinator John Chavis than finding a fill-in for Mathieu. Chavis' coaching has been the difference at LSU the past three seasons, and particularly last year when he had his system in place with players who had learned it for three years. The talen has been in place for more than a decade, and remains so the way Les Miles recruits; it took the discipline instilled by Chavis and his downright genius defensive calls to overcome LSU's apparent tendency to underachieve (re: the Arkansas loss in 2008, for example).

LSU has backed up stellar recruiting class after stellar recruiting class, and a difference maker is typically ready to step up when the previous one departs. Mathieu, whose background out of the inner city of New Orleans scared off most big-time recruiters, was best remembered around these parts as the fifth Tigers DB fooled by Joe Adams' double-move on the deciding play of Arkansas' 31-23 win in Little Rock in 2010.

But, with Patrick Peterson jumping to the NFL early after 2010, Mathieu had his opportunity opposite All-American Morris Claiborne, and no doubt he made the most of it.

Remember, though, that Alabama made him a frustrated non-factor in the BCS Championship Game.

And, rather than live by the rules of the team or the school, Mathieu wanted to keep doing it his way. That wouldn't necessarily have cost the Tigers a return to the title game, but his departure won't keep them out of it now, either.