Tyrann Mathieu calls himself ‘The best defensive player in college football’
As a sophomore last season, LSU cornerback Tyrann Mathieu was a first team All-American, the Bednarik winner and the only defensive finalist for the Heisman. And oh, yeah, he earned that "Honey Badger" nickname too.
So, entering 2012, Mathieu (@TM7_Era) is widely expected to repeat the success of last year. And, on Friday night, he took to Twitter to declare himself the best player in college football. Quite capitally, in fact.
In the tweet precluding that, Mathieu declared that revenge was "best served like steak: well done," which inevitably induced a flood of Alabama and National Championship related tweets. (Though more people are likely to take issue with Mathieu's steak preference.) Just Monday, Mathieu and Alabama quarterback AJ McCarron exchanged banter on Twitter about the rivalry's next matchup on November 3 after Mathieu dared anyone to throw a corner or cross country route on him.
In the tweet immediately after his declaration, Mathieu made a prediction:
In all honesty, that tweet may be harder to back up. Few were predicting Mathieu's 2011 success. But in 2012? He's expressing a view that many share about his 2012 prospects; the only way a shock may happen is if Mathieu fails to live up to his lofty expectations. (Which would then render the first tweet incorrect.) Mathieu then asked that he be labeled by sportswriters as overrated until he's labeled the greatest, but that "I will truly be legend before you write your next article on me!" With the proliferation of college football previews around this time of year, that may be the toughest achievement of all.
Anyway. We've still got 113 days until November 3, and 49 days until the start of the season. Mathieu's setting quite the torrid tweet pace. Can he keep it up?
Full screencaps below.
