By Rowan Kavner, The Daily Reveille
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It’s unusual that an athlete with three times as many interceptions as any other player on one of the nation’s top ranked defenses isn’t the team’s most widely recognized defensive back.

LSU’s secondary has earned praise for its shutdown ability, with most of the attention going to sophomore Chuck Bednarik Award winner Tyrann Mathieu, whose uncanny playmaking abilities on defense and special teams landed him in New York as the sole defensive Heisman finalist this season.

Mathieu, who inherited the No. 7 jersey from former LSU and current Arizona Cardinal cornerback Patrick Peterson this season, has easily been the most recognizable figure on the LSU football team, forcing six fumbles, intercepting two passes and capping the season with punt return touchdowns against Arkansas and Georgia.

But it was another LSU defensive back starting across the field from Mathieu who, despite getting overshadowed by talented teammates for much of his career, stood out Nov. 5 when the Tigers took down Alabama.

Junior Morris Claiborne, the top cornerback on Mel Kiper and Todd McShay’s draft board for the 2012 NFL Draft and the Jim Thorpe Award winner as college football’s best defensive back, recorded one of his team-leading six interceptions at a crucial moment late in LSU’s 9-6 overtime win against the Crimson Tide.

Alabama led, 6-3, and began orchestrating what seemed to be one of the few successful drives for either team after completing two passes of more than 10 yards for first downs, as the Crimson Tide neared midfield with less than three minutes remaining in the third quarter.

That’s when Claiborne stepped in and picked off sophomore quarterback AJ McCarron’s pass at Alabama’s 48-yard line, returning the interception for 33 yards and swinging the momentum entirely in favor of LSU, which mustered a field goal to tie the game off the turnover, marking the final score for either team in regulation.

Claiborne, a shutdown corner who has started every game this season and has avoided conflict on and off the field, has not only been the key cog on an LSU defense which leads the Southeastern Conference with a plus-22 turnover margin, but has also contributed the Tigers’ lone kickoff return touchdown to go alongside Mathieu’s two punt return scores.

The relatively mild-mannered Claiborne is finally beginning to receive the national recognition he has deserved, also garnering SEC Defensive Player of the Year honors, the same award won by Peterson.

Peterson, who was consistently in the national spotlight throughout his LSU career before being selected in the first round of the 2011 NFL Draft, held a similar swagger to Mathieu, but even he finished his senior season with one fewer interception than Claiborne had last year and two fewer than Claiborne had this year.

The memories of Mathieu’s stunning punt returns against Georgia in the SEC Championship game are easy to recall. But fans may forget the same game included a Claiborne interception return for a touchdown game which solidified LSU’s undeniable spot in the National Championship.

Mathieu has deserved his accolades as the nation’s top playmaker, but though he may not have a t-shirt or a nickname or the same fan support as the Honey Badger, it will in all likelihood be Claiborne who the Alabama offense will avoid most when seeing the Tiger defense for the second time Jan. 9.