LSU defensive back Tyrann Mathieu has been dismissed from the team, head coach Les Miles announced Friday.
Miles said Mathieu, a.ka. “The Honey Badger” was dismissed for an undisclosed violation of team rules. Miles said the violation was a school and team violation.
Miles said Mathieu was not yet eligible to turn pro, but he believed Mathieu “still has a bright future.”
Miles said it was a “longstanding rule” that Mathieu violated.
LSU enters the season with a preseason No. 1 ranking, but the loss of Mathieu removes one of the Tigers’ top playmakers, both on defense and special teams, where he was one of the top kick returners in the nation.
“It’s difficult at best,” said Miles, who called Mathieu “a quality, quality guy who had behavior issues.”
Matthieu was suspended for last season’s Auburn game for reportedly violating the team’s drug policy.
Mathieu becomes the third high-profile player to be dismissed from a Top 10 team in less than two months, joining Georgia’s Isaiah Crowell and Florida State’s Greg Reid.
414 comments Add your comment
Dirty Dawg
August 10th, 2012
2:01 pm
Mettenberger was drunk and ’sexually assaulted’ a Valdosta State coed – and take it from someone that got the story from someone that was familiar with both, if she had been my daughter I would have kicked both his and his Daddy’s butt, or gotten mine kicked trying – but the thing that got his fanny kicked off the team almost as soon as he sobered up, was that he lied to Richt and Bobo about it, just before he ended up pleading guilty. And I still say that member SEC institutions should ‘honor’ dismissals from other SEC schools for, at a minimum, a two year ban from enrolling in said school. I mean just sitting out a single season is no penalty at all. It’s just transferring.
wes
August 10th, 2012
2:01 pm
Team Rules = killed a guy
raymond
August 10th, 2012
2:02 pm
I don’t understand these kids who throw away a chance at a million dollar career.
Powder
August 10th, 2012
2:02 pm
at this rate there will be a full squad of ex players by the time october gets here.
htownbravesfan
August 10th, 2012
2:02 pm
Brian, you’re taking this awfully personal. My only point was you used the term rapist to describe Mettenberger, which is a very harsh term to use toward anyone who is not guilty nor ever even suspected of such an act.
dawwgirl
August 10th, 2012
2:02 pm
I’m not dismissing HB’s accomplishments on the field, but it seems like he is a complete idiot off the field. How many times do you have be to told not to do something? Where is all of his showboating now?
CC
August 10th, 2012
2:03 pm
3 failed drug tests at UGA gets a player kicked off.
Dawgnlex is a complete tool
August 10th, 2012
2:03 pm
Remember that time at the dome when the Honey Badger TORCHED that team from the SEC Least??? that was awesome.
snoop
August 10th, 2012
2:03 pm
Smoke weed eva day
bye bye #1
August 10th, 2012
2:04 pm
5150, take your meds and get your mother to tuck you in bed….
The crazy train is ready to take you away.
Richt punishes players for team violations and there are written policies of when and how they are to be dismissed.
And it’s common knowledge and widely published (if you read) UGA has some of the strongest discipline policies in the SEC and nation.
Case closed.
You Are What You Are
August 10th, 2012
2:05 pm
Bill Parcells famous quote….”you are what you are”…sums up these athletes that come in having no moral compass, thinking they are bigger than the program and rules don’t apply to them. Once their parents have failed to raise them properly, it’s near to impossible to reverse it by the time they get to college. They will revert back to their ignorant, gangsta behavior regardless of the threat of punishment. Just too stupid or immoral to know better.
old dog
August 10th, 2012
2:05 pm
See my comment towards the bottom of the 2nd page…………..
DennyChimes
August 10th, 2012
2:05 pm
Tyrann Mathieu was ineffectual against Alabama in both games last season, he did have a good game against the Dawgs but we matched up better and were a little more prepared for that match up. He had sent out a flurry of tweets this year that things were going to be different in our annual match up, but I guess that will be left up to speculation now as he will not be a playing part of it.
Does it diminish their team’s #1 standing, probably not as players get hurt and the team goes on, will he be missed as a tool in the box I’m sure he will.
Alabama only worries about Alabama and what it does, so in reality it is met with little concern in Tuscaloosa but a lot of chuckling is going on a side note.
Honey Flodger
August 10th, 2012
2:05 pm
pass duh purp
Glenn
August 10th, 2012
2:06 pm
I didn’t even no pot was still illegal . Boo .
boots
August 10th, 2012
2:06 pm
If he were at school in Alabama, this would never have happened. I don’t mean the violation… I mean the dismissal.
being stoned is no way to go through life
August 10th, 2012
2:07 pm
Anybody have proof it was a pot violation? A lot of speculation and hearsay
Red Stick
August 10th, 2012
2:08 pm
Very dumb on Mathieu’s part but at least it didn’t happen during the season.
LSU has as much talent as any team in the nation and will move on.
Geaux Tigers
Go SEC
Browncoat
August 10th, 2012
2:08 pm
He wants to be called Honey Lion from now on.
5150 UOAD`
August 10th, 2012
2:09 pm
bye bye #1………………….WHAT name me a STARTER High Profile player UGa/RICHT has kicked off the TEAM for Rules violations that didn’t involve the REAL POLICE and an ARREST?
MarineDog
August 10th, 2012
2:09 pm
I really don’t understand how this incident turned into bashing other teams or the LSU program? This is an unfortunate situation wherein a young man abviously has a problem. The appropriate thing for us adults to be doing is hoping that he turns his life around and uses all of his God-given talent in a more positive way.
No one wins in this case. LSU will be ok, just as UGA or any other team will bounce back from releasing a talented player. No one player is bigger than the institution. Hopefully this will serve as a warning for other athletes.
Dawgnlex is a complete tool
August 10th, 2012
2:11 pm
why he get kicked off team? too many times he sex with the white ladies ???
Crime Dawg
August 10th, 2012
2:11 pm
Will he join Crowell at ASU for a tag team duo?
dawwgirl
August 10th, 2012
2:12 pm
“Anybody have proof it was a pot violation? A lot of speculation and hearsay”
No, and we really shouldn’t assume it was until we know for sure. For all we know, it could be something completely different. However, I don’t really understand the difference between pot and “synthetic marijuana” – isn’t that what he was suspended for last year? How is one legal and one not?
dawgster
August 10th, 2012
2:12 pm
@Dirty Dawg….good comments and I agree with you…SEC schools should not benefit from a dismissed player for this type of behavior….not to say the kid shouldn’t get another chance but not as soon or as soon and not another SEC school…
3 out of last four against bamards
August 10th, 2012
2:13 pm
Denny….not so much a tool in the box than just he’s simply a “tool”
CC
August 10th, 2012
2:13 pm
They some good WEED at LSU.
CubanDawg
August 10th, 2012
2:15 pm
@UOAD name me one starter at UGA that deserved to be kicked off the team?
Fan of the Game
August 10th, 2012
2:15 pm
College football continues to bring in the money and the integrity continues to go down hill.
Ropedawg
August 10th, 2012
2:16 pm
Mark Richt has lost control of the LSU football program. LoLs
old dog
August 10th, 2012
2:16 pm
Crime Dawg,
He is a helluva lot better player than Crowell………….
RTR
August 10th, 2012
2:16 pm
RTR
RTR
August 10th, 2012
2:17 pm
Honey Badger likes the stickiest of icky
GATiger
August 10th, 2012
2:17 pm
Brian, I received a very good education at LSU and an MBA from Tulane, for your information. However, higher education isn’t required to recognize libel, notwithstanding that we’re talking about an 18-19 year old kid who groped a girl in a bar. I wonder how many kids get away with that.
Another poster above stated, correctly, that lying to Richt about his offense was what got Mettenberger, and I respect CMR for that. But don’t equate the dismissal of Mettenberger and Crowell with those of Mathieu and Perriloux in 2008. In the former case, you’re talking about an incoming freshman who hadn’t played a down and a so-so freshman RB with unrealized potential. In the latter case it’s an experienced starting QB and a Heisman candidate.
G-Dawg
August 10th, 2012
2:18 pm
“Dawgnlex is a complete tool”…why you gotta hide your real screen name bro?? Whadda P!!! LOL
bye bye #1
August 10th, 2012
2:18 pm
5150, Dogs didn’t need to kick anyone off team for anything that didn’t involve the police I guess….what the heck do you want them kicked off for? 3rd pot time they’re gone or whatever it is. It’s written down. Thankfully kids haven’t made it that far.
There were multiple violations for honey badger, apparently.
You hatred scours any logic from any brain you may have.
Crime Dawg
August 10th, 2012
2:20 pm
Isaiah screwed UGA and was in good shape this year, I don’t know why some people can’t separate themselves from stupidity and that’s all this is.
urban redneck
August 10th, 2012
2:20 pm
honey badger just dont give a shirt.
Jimmy Crack
August 10th, 2012
2:22 pm
This is a sad day at the Musburger house.
bye bye #1
August 10th, 2012
2:23 pm
Compare UGA’s discipline policies against others, which every writer for the AJC has done VERY RECENTLY. And it stands above the rest.
Just cause you’re so obsessive in your hatred of another school (totally illogical), you refuse to say anything credible towards that school. It’s the truth and it’s obvious.
By the way, what’s your favorite schools policies?
5150 UOAD`
August 10th, 2012
2:23 pm
TEAM RULE VIOLATIONS are not always reported or suspended.
GFY
August 10th, 2012
2:24 pm
5150,
Slow day on the tech blog?
claytondawg
August 10th, 2012
2:25 pm
@olddawg…great comment (1:59). Very well put. These two players had a God given opportunity and threw it away. I don’t feel sorry for either Crowell or HB; it’s their decision, so let them deal with it.
CSA
August 10th, 2012
2:26 pm
Typical and no surprise.
All of your schools are stacked with stoners and criminals
August 10th, 2012
2:26 pm
Dreamers are in lala land if they think they’ve got a team of goodie two shoes playing for their favorite shool.
Browncoat
August 10th, 2012
2:28 pm
This is a sports news blog, not the UGA blog.
TampaGator
August 10th, 2012
2:28 pm
My god…will the football season never get here??? These idiots are trying to ruin the name of college football…and are taking some of the joy out of being a fan. But our schools are filled with
honeybadger types who have no sense of proper behavior in society and no respect for the rules of society and nature…..so expect a bunch more honeybadgers to arrive on college campus, in businesses, and in your neighborhoods soon.
My lord…..what an idiot to get thrown off that team by butting himself before his team and his family. I guess he is just stupid both mentally and morally……I guess.
bye bye #1
August 10th, 2012
2:29 pm
Dream on 5150 and enjoy your utopian little world inside your head.
Although that head must certainly have a hole in it.
bring back segregation
August 10th, 2012
2:30 pm
It’s a black thang
Eassyyyy
August 10th, 2012
2:30 pm
None of these guys were arrested but all kicked off the team for violating team rules:
http://www.ajc.com/sports/uga/three-georgia-football-players-1330431.html
It’s nothing to be proud of other than proving that 95% of the crap that comes out of 5150 is based on crap. You have no credibility on these blogs