Former LSU star Tyrann Mathieu says goodbye to the 'Honey Badger'

• LSU cornerback Tyrann Mathieu hopes to hear his name called at the spring%27s NFL Draft
• Mathieu was dismissed from LSU prior to the 2012 season after failing multiple drug tests
• He was a Heisman Trophy finalist in 2011%2C when he helped LSU reach the BCS championship game

FAIRHOPE, Ala. – Tyrann Mathieu is no longer the "Honey Badger," just a former college football player hoping to get a shot at the NFL.

That's what the former Heisman Trophy finalist is saying, anyway, as he tries to rebuild his reputation following a dismissal from LSU last August for failing multiple drug tests and an arrest for marijuana possession in October.

"I think at LSU, the Honey Badger (person) came to an abrupt end," Mathieu said Monday while watching some of his former teammates practice for this week's Senior Bowl. "I definitely want to do it the right way this time."

Mathieu, whose All-American season at cornerback in 2011 helped lift LSU to the BCS National Championship Game, left Baton Rouge following the October arrest and went to South Florida, where former teammate and current Arizona Cardinal Patrick Peterson has been helping him get his life back on track.

Up until that point, Mathieu – who went through rehab in Houston last fall – was hoping to perhaps re-join LSU next season. Instead, the marijuana relapse and subsequent arrest essentially ended any chance of resuming his college career.

"I had to take myself out of that situation, out of that environment being around those kinds of people and really start hanging around positive people and are doing what I want to do in my life, which is to be a professional football player," he said. "I feel real good about myself right now."

Mathieu, who was already a shaky NFL prospect because of his height (5-foot-9), knows he has done significant damage to his draft status but is hoping an NFL team will allow him to rekindle the big play potential he showed at LSU as a ballhawking defender and scintillating kick returner. Though Mathieu is not a participant in Senior Bowl activities, he said he was hoping to meet with NFL teams this week.

"I think people will be (skeptical), and they have every right to do that," he said. "I'm not (expecting) people trusting me. Trust takes time, especially when you have done a lot of things for people not to trust you. It may take two years, five years or until I'm 30 years old but the truth is I'm doing the right things and I'm looking forward to being a football player."