You be the judge....... FRESHMAN SEASON (2008) Played in 13 games with four starts ... Started final four games of season, including bowl win over Georgia Tech ... Finished year with 41 tackles, one interception and three pass breakups ... Added a forced fumble and a quarterback hurry ... Had 1.5 tackles for loss ... First career start came vs. Troy and he responded with a career-best eight tackles ... Followed that with eight tackles and a tackle for a 6-yard loss vs. Ole Miss ... Had all around good game at Arkansas with six tackles, two pass breakups and a quarterback hurry ... Intercepted a pass to go with four tackles in overtime loss to Alabama ... Had three tackles and a pass breakup in first collegiate game vs. Appalachian State ... Capped season with one tackle and a forced fumble in 38-3 win over Georgia Tech in Chick-fil-A Bowl. So far with a lot of games left, T-Matt has 23 tackles, 3 TFL, 2.5 Sacks, 4 passes broken up, 3 forced fumbles/2 recovered. He leads the team in Fumble recoveries, Forced Fumbles and passes broken up. Guess no one caught it about the kid going to bama?
I watched the Florida game again and am still in so much awe of this kid. I don't know if I've ever seen a player of his stature play so big and basically not care about his welfare and safety out on that field. Watch the sack of Brantley near their own endzone (the 2nd occurrence) where they marked it at the one. He comes in like he's shot out of a cannon and just muscles his way in through the blocker and actually gets in at the QB's ankles. I just looked up fearless in the dictionary and you know the rest of the story.
Here are his season highlights: [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKs33mQKc7o]YouTube - LSU DB Tyrann Mathieu - first half of 2010[/ame]
Mathieu is having a much better freshman year than Peterson had, but you gotta remember Peterson didn't really start seeing significant playing time until the Troy game. Through 6 games in Peterson's freshman season he had 8 tackles and 1 pass defended. Tyrann has 24 tackles 3 sacks 1 forced fumble, 1 int.
