Source: USA TODAY

METAIRIE, La. — Controversy continues to tag along with the LSU football program’s greatest accomplishments.

The Tigers’ greatest pre-bowl season in history – 13-0 with a Southeastern Conference championship in 2011 – began with a bar fight involving hordes of players that August and landed starting quarterback Jordan Jefferson in jail and suspended for four games. At mid-season, three other players were suspended for a game for multiple failed drug tests.

Entering the 2012 season, LSU was considered a strong contender to return to the BCS national championship game as it returned most of its 13-1 team from the previous season. But on Aug. 10, Heisman Trophy finalist cornerback/kick returner Tyrann Mathieu was dismissed from the team for multiple failed drug tests, and the Tigers finished 10-3.

And during this, the greatest NFL Draft in LSU history, two player arrests have tarnished a record breaking weekend. On Thursday night after defensive end Barkevious Mingo and safety Eric Reid were selected in the first round, junior cornerback Tharold Simon of Eunice spent the night in jail after being arrested on charges of public intimidation of a police officer, resisting an officer, a noise violation and obstruction of a roadway. Simon was still drafted in the fifth round Saturday.

LSU entered draft day Saturday with the most selection from any school through the first three rounds with six. All six were defensive players – the most on that side of the ball from one school through the first three rounds of the draft in NFL history.

Then on Saturday afternoon as LSU was breaking its school record of eight players taken in a single draft, news broke that Baton Rouge Police had arrested and jailed LSU freshman tailback Jeremy Hill early Saturday morning on a misdemeanor charge of simple battery after an incident at a bar near the LSU campus. Hill, 20, was released on $500 bond Saturday.

Hill now could be in violation of his probation stemming from a guilty plea to a previous misdemeanor arrest while he was at Redemptorist High School in Baton Rouge for carnal knowledge of a juvenile. That arrest delayed Hill from joining the LSU program until January of 2012. His last season of high school ball was in 2010.

LSU coach Les Miles has been in New York City all weekend serving as an analyst on the NFL Draft and sharing time with Mingo and Reid, who were invited to the draft by the NFL as expected first rounders. Miles does not plan to comment on the arrest of Hill until he returns to Baton Rouge and has a chance to speak to Hill, said LSU sports information director Michael Bonnette, who accompanied Miles to New York.

Hill was one of the top running backs in the nation coming out of Redemptorist in 2010. He quickly became LSU’s starting tailback last season and ended up leading the team in rushing with 755 yards on 142 carries. His 12 touchdowns were the most by an LSU freshman since Dalton Hilliard had 11 in 1982.

Glenn Guilbeau writes for Gannett Louisiana.

Copyright © 2013 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

Source: USA TODAY

BATON ROUGE — Tyrann Mathieu was dismissed from the LSU football program on Aug. 10 for multiple failed drug tests, but he continues to cause the school problems.

When asked recently how many drug tests he failed at LSU by an unnamed NFL assistant coach, Mathieu said, “I quit counting at 10. I really don’t know,” according to a USA Today Sports report Thursday that quoted an NFL assistant who interviewed Mathieu concerning the upcoming NFL draft.

“If he failed 10 tests before they suspended him, it shows that he got no kind of help,” the assistant coach is quoted as telling USA TODAY Sports in a column by Jarrett Bell.

Mathieu, a defensive back, responded to the report Friday but did not dispute the number of tests he was reported to have failed.

Instead, he took aim at the disclosure of the failed tests and the NFL coach’s assessment of what that meant about LSU.

“It is irresponsible and shows a lack of integrity for anyone to disclose medical information regardless of how it was gathered,” Mathieu said. “I would expect that conversations regarding my drug testing history during the course of my medical treatment would be private.

“LSU has a strong drug testing program and LSU went to great lengths to help me in my treatment and recovery. I understand that many people enjoy reading about the negative side of sports, but to publish those second-hand comments without being given a chance to address that comment prior to the publication of the article is irresponsible.”

Mathieu actually was not suspended by LSU last Aug. 10. He was “dismissed” from the team permanently Aug. 10 after he failed multiple drug tests and after LSU had been trying for months to get him help and counseling, according to sources. Mathieu, a Heisman Trophy candidate in 2011 as a spectacular defensive back and kick returner, did not play in his junior season in 2012. He has since entered the NFL draft and is expected to be picked as high as the third round.

“LSU has a strong substance abuse program that tries to identify and assist in the treatment and long term recovery process of drug use and abuse,” LSU athletic director Joe Alleva said in a statement Friday. “It is a program we would put up against any in the country. Once a substance abuse problem is identified, LSU is diligent in tracking those individuals over extended periods of time with frequent testing and engages them in meaningful opportunities for support through counseling and substance abuse treatment.”

Alleva was speaking in general terms. It is not LSU’s policy to specify the individual student-athletes involved in its drug testing program.

Mathieu said in an interview at Pro Day on March 27 that LSU told him to go to a drug rehabilitation center last August.

“I decided to go to a rehab, but at this time the rehab was for Tyrann. I just wasn’t going to (rehab) for publicity or because my school told me to go,” Mathieu said. “I actually went to get my problem corrected.”

Mathieu was also arrested last October by Baton Rouge Police on a simple possession charge of marijuana.

According to LSU’s substance abuse policy, “permanent ineligibility” occurs after three or more failed drug tests.

Guilbeau writes for Gannett Lousiana.

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