BATON ROUGE - Sports Illustrated featured LSU running back Leonard Fournette on their cover this week, highlighting his efforts to lead LSU to a 5-0 start while also bringing back up a controversial question.

"As a sophomore, Fournette now faces the intriguing option of sitting out his junior season to guard against an injury that could damage his NFL draft stock," the magazine said in its description of Alan Shipnuck's profile of Fournette.

The question of Fournette sitting out a season was raised two weeks ago by NBC Sports contributor Mike Florio, who noted Fournette can't go out for the NFL until 2017. Fournette posted a message on Twitter which indicated he had no intentions of sitting out, a prospect LSU sports information director Michael Bonnette called an "insult" to the sophomore.

This week's cover: @LSUfball's Leonard Fournette is drawing comparisons to the game's greats http://t.co/Dxd98ziPgS pic.twitter.com/5cocFLuet9

— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) October 13, 2015

SI compared Fournette to several other college football greats on the cover, including Herschel Walker who himself said Fournette is "better than I was." Walker won the Heisman in 1982, and Fournette is an 8-5 favorite to win the Heisman race according to Vegas oddsmakers. This is the first year people in Las Vegas are allowed to bet on the Heisman Trophy outcome.

In the issue, Fournette spoke with Shipnuck about what motivates him to make the plays he does.

"There’s only one ball on the football field, and everybody wants it. If that ball is in your hands, you have to take care of it like it’s your baby. In that ball the whole of Louisiana is in your hands," Fournette said.

The Tigers host Florida this Saturday in Death Valley with kickoff scheduled for 6 p.m.