LSU has fared well in the twenty-first century; the Tigers have won five SEC titles and three national championships. LSU has fielded some genuinely legendary teams with legendary players throughout the course of these twenty-four years. Two LSU Tigers were included in ESPN’s list of the Top 25 Players of the 21st Century, which was released this week.
QB Joe Burrow is number nine.
It’s a testament to how great that season was that Joe Burrow cracks this largely for his contributions in 2019. Burrow finished the 2019 season with 76.3% of his passes completed for 5,671 yards and 60 touchdowns, just 6 interceptions, and 369 yards and 5 touchdowns gained on the ground. Despite playing against an SEC schedule, Burrow is tied with Case Keenum for the fifth-most throwing yards in a season. It is possible to argue that Burrow would have had the best career of all time if he had played for LSU his whole playing career.
23. Safety with Tyrann Mathieu
Considering that he only participated in two college football seasons in comparison to the other players on the list, Mathieu’s domination is evident. Mathieu recorded 133 tackles, 16 stops for a loss, six sacks, four interceptions, 11 forced fumbles, and two touchdowns in his two seasons at LSU. He was named a consensus All-American and All-SEC selection for the 2011 season, and he also won the Chuck Bednarik Award and the SEC Defensive Player of the Year award. The most important question is undoubtedly how much Mathieu’s 2012 season would have changed and how much higher he would have ranked on this list had he participated in his junior year.
Largest LSU rejections on this list
JaMarcus Russell will never receive the acclaim he deserves because of his NFL flameout, but he was a unique athlete at LSU with honors deserving of recognition. Without a doubt, Patrick Peterson is the biggest snub; he was the 2010 SEC Special Teams Player of the Year, a first team All-American, and the winner of the Bednarik and Thorpe awards. Another person with a compelling argument to be on this list is Glenn Dorsey, whose long list of achievements speaks for itself.
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