Two LSU Football Stars make ESPN's Top 25 Players of the 21st century
The 21st Century has treated LSU well as the Tigers have won three National Championships and five SEC Championships this century. Throughout these 24 years, LSU has had some truly iconic teams filled with iconic players. This week, ESPN unveiled its Top 25 Players of the 21st century list with two LSU Tigers making the list.
9. Joe Burrow - Quarterback
The fact that Joe Burrow cracks this mostly for his contributions in 2019 speaks to how impressive that season was. In 2019, Burrow completed 76.3% of his passes for 5,671 yards and 60 touchdowns with just 6 interceptions adding 369 yards and five touchdowns on the ground. Burrow ranks in a tie with Case Keenum for the fifth most passing yards in a season while doing it against a SEC schedule. If Burrow played his entire career at LSU, you could make the case that he would've had the greatest career of all time.
23. Tyrann Mathieu - Safety
The dominance of Mathieu shines through as he only played two seasons of College Football compared to the other players who made the list. In two seasons at LSU, Mathieu racked up 133 tackles, 16 tackles for a loss, six sacks, four interceptions, 11 forced fumbles, and two touchdowns. His 2011 season earned him the Chuck Bednarik Award, the 2011 SEC Defensive Player of the Year, and Consensus All-American and All-SEC Honors. The biggest question has to be how much different LSU's 2012 season goes with Mathieu and how high he would have climbed on this list if he played his Junior season.
The biggest LSU snubs on this list
Due to his flame out in the NFL, JaMarcus Russell will never get the credit he deserves but, he was a special player at LSU with the accolades worthy of a nod. The biggest snub hands down is Patrick Peterson, he won the Bednarik, the Thorpe, was a first team All-American, and he was the SEC Special Teams Player of the Year in 2010. Glenn Dorsey also has one of the strongest cases to make this list and his laundry list of accolades speaks for itself.
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