Tyrann Mathieu: LSU's Version Of Troy Polamalu?

Strong Safety Troy Polamalu of the Pittsburgh Steelers and cornerback Tyrann Mathieu of LSU may play different positions in the secondary and have very distinctive, contrasting hairstyles; but in my opinion its hard to find two players whose physical, ball-hawking playing styles resembles each other more closely at their respective levels.
Excellent feature below from ESPN SEC blogger Edward Aschoff on Mathieu's standout performance this year for the #1 ranked Tigers.  After showing great promise as a true freshman learning under All American cornerback Patrick Peterson, the undersized Mathieu (5'9, 170 lbs) has been a fearless turnover creating machine his sophomore season.  Surprisingly, Mathieu was only lightly recruited, earning only a 3 star ranking coming out of Saint Augustine High School in New Orleans.

Aggression, elegance fuel Mathieu's game

By Edward Aschoff

Tyrann Mathieu has a graceful recklessness about him.

LSU’s sophomore cornerback plays like a daredevil, yet is extremely nimble when tracking down both players and the pigskin.

The fleet-footed ball hawk has been one of the most exciting players to watch this season because of his insatiable ability to float around the ball. He leads the Tigers in tackles with 30, has three tackles for loss, four pass breakups, one interception, two forced fumbles and two fumble recoveries.

His strip and recovery against West Virginia last week moved him into first all-time at LSU with seven forced fumbles -- and he’s only 17 games into his career. Six of those forces and four of his five recoveries have come against top-20 opponents.
For full article:   http://espn.go.com/blog/sec/post/_/id/29105/aggression-elegance-fuel-mathieus-game