MMQB - Jamal Adams and LSU’s ‘DBU’ Tradition

Plankton

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Stud player - too bad he won't slide in the draft. He and Jones together would be great on the back end.

http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2016/11/30/...dams-lsu-top-safety-ryan-clark-tyrann-mathieu

COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Jamal Adams emerged from the visitors locker room carrying his Thanksgiving dinner (a chicken sandwich in a box), his LSU backpack and the sense of pride that comes with laying waste to the home team on Thanksgiving. The junior safety made his presence felt on the very first drive against Texas A&M last Thursday with a third-down sack of Trevor Knight en route to a 54-39 Tigers victory. It was a play reminiscent of former LSU safety Tyrann Mathieu, whose exploits in coverage and as a blitzer and tackler earned him the Chuck Bednarik Award as the nation’s best defensive player in 2011. Mathieu is one of the standard-bearers for what current LSU defensive backs describe as a “fraternity,” the cult of position known as DBU.

True to form, Adams wears a single strip of eye-black under his left eye, an homage to Mathieu. He readily admits to having stolen aspects of Mathieu’s game and personal style. Among LSU corners and safeties, all comparisons to Tigers heroes past are accepted and appreciated; the trail already blazed is just that good. LSU DBs rattle off the names as though they were gospel: Patrick Peterson, Tyrann Mathieu, Eric Reid, LaRon Landry, Ryan Clark. “We’re just trying to keep the brotherhood and the tradition going,” Adams says. “If we’re not out there on our P’s and Q’s we let ourselves down, but we let them down at the same time.”

Much of that mentality is owed to the investment former LSU DBs have made in the program and its current players. Alums spend parts of their NFL offseasons and bye weeks in Baton Rouge, visiting with players and speaking to the group. One of them is defensive backs coach, and former Giants and Lions corner, Corey Raymond. Mathieu, the Arizona Cardinals star, gifted the program $1 million in November.
 
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