Former LSU All-American cornerback Tyrann Mathieu is in a drug rehab center in Houston, according to report from Fox 8 TV station in New Orleans.
Mathieu’s uncle, Tyrone Mathieu, told Fox 8 that Tyrann has been at the Right Step Recovery Center in Houston since Monday, where he is being mentored by former NBA star John Lucas.
Lucas was a longtime NBA player, who suffered from drug and alcohol addiction.
Mathieu’s football future remained unclear, six days after he was dismissed from the team for violating team and university policy.
LSU coach Les Miles was asked about a telephone conversation he had Tuesday with Mathieu, who was considering enrolling at LSU and paying his own way. Classes begin Monday.
“I just told him to make great decisions and do right things, and he’ll do that,” Miles said. “I just wanted him to know we’ll support him in whatever he wants to do and help in any way we can.”
‘Our team will stay in’
The LSU football team’s last day off from practice before classes begin is Friday.
In recent years the night before that day has been a traditional time for many players to break curfew and celebrate a milestone of preseason. But after last year’s celebration got out of hand and ended with quarterback Jordan Jefferson and linebacker Josh Johns being arrested in the aftermath of a fight at a bar near campus, Miles was confident that Thursday night would be uneventful.
“I have a meeting with them at 8 o’clock tonight and I think there will be a lot of topics that will be covered and that will be one,” Miles said after the team’s scrimmage Thursday afternoon in Tiger Stadium. “I think our team will stay in.
“I think they have added incentive. I don’t think they need too much more than I have given them.”
Miles didn’t elaborate on what “added incentive” the players had to stay in. “They’ll be in tonight, period,” he said.
Some players said Wednesday that they expected to Miles to run them quite a bit after the scrimmage so they’d be too tired to go out.
Miles said he ran the players after the scrimmage, but added that it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary and had nothing to do with the curfew-breaking tradition.
“There was no reason to make them any more tired,” Miles said. “They’re pretty tuckered (already), I promise you.”
Freshman WR to miss season
Freshman Travin Dural’s season is over before it even began.
The wide receiver from Breaux Bridge is apparently facing a redshirt after he tweeted that he tore cartilage in his left knee during practice Monday.
“I was jumping for a ball and it just popped on the way up,” Dural tweeted Tuesday. “I’m out for the whole season.”
Dural (6-foot-3, 170 pounds) was rated as the No. 8 recruit in Louisiana for the Class of 2012 by Rivals.com and was No. 106 on the Mobile (Ala.) Press-Register Super Southeast 120. Miles said Thursday that Dural would likely be redshirted.
Simon in spotlight
Since Mathieu’s departure a lot of attention has been focused on the young cornerbacks, primarily redshirt freshman Jalen Collins and true freshman Jalen Mills, who are competing to replace Mathieu.
Less attention has been paid to the fact that junior Tharold Simon, who’s entrenched as the other starting corner, has become the Tigers most experienced corner.
But with Mathieu gone, opponents will undoubtedly pay a lot of attention to Simon when preparing for the Tigers defense.
“Tharold is going to be a very, very, very capable corner,” Miles said, “one of the best in the country. I don’t think that’s ever going to change.”
Advocate sportswriter Scott Rabalais contributed to this report.
