Tyrann Mathieu says he failed more than 10 drug tests before he got kicked off the football team at LSU. Coach Les Miles says he doesn’t know if that’s true or not -- but Miles does stand by the way LSU handles drug tests for its players.
Miles said on NFL AM that he doesn’t know how many drug tests Mathieu failed at LSU, but he does know that LSU was committed to helping Mathieu in whatever way it could.
“I don’t really have the numbers there,” Miles said. “I would be remiss to comment on number. I can tell you this: We have tested, re-tested, completely tested and tested twice in weeks at times. So just because there’s a number reported, I don’t know if that would be low or high, to be honest with you, and I can only tell you that it was based on our ability to treat and help. I don’t really know exactly what Ty’s specifics were, but I stand by our policy, and it really did help, in some way, identify a problem.”
On the field, Miles said he thinks Mathieu will be a big-time special teams contributor, although Miles doesn’t sound like he sees Mathieu as a shutdown cornerback in the NFL.
“He’s a guy who has spectacular ball skills. I’ve never seen him mishandle a ball. His vision for play, he anticipates the big play,” Miles said. “If I’m an NFL team I’m going to look at him first as a punt returner, I’m going to look at him as a kick returner, and the opportunity for him to play in a number of spots as a nickel/dime corner.”
Miles said he’s hoping Mathieu gets drafted and succeeds as an NFL player.
“He’s a guy that we certainly root for,” Miles said. “Not unlike other people, there are things that he has to get right, and if he does that I think he’ll have a very, very long NFL career.”
If Mathieu is going to have a very, very long NFL career, he won’t be able to get away with failing more than 10 drug tests.