Brian Kelly discusses if Harold Perkins' role will change due to Maason Smith suspension

This year, LSU head coach Brian Kelly has explained that he wants star defender Harold Perkins to take on more responsibilities than pass rushing. However, the suspension for star defensive lineman Maason Smith has some people wondering if that could change Perkins’ role for the game against Florida State.

Ahead of that key non-conference game, Kelly said that this won’t be the case, though, because he thinks LSU is in good shape to replace Smith.

“No, not necessarily,” Brian Kelly said. “I think we’re going to be in really good shape internally. Maason just gives you another dominating presence, but we feel good about the middle of our defense. Harold’s going to be able to impact the game in the things that we do with him. He’s gonna move around. You won’t see him just lining up in the middle of our defense.”

Brian Kelly compared the role of Harold Perkins more directly to one of Florida State’s best players, Jared Verse.

“He’s gonna be, ‘Where’s Harold Perkins?’ And you’re gonna have to find him, and you’re gonna have to account for him. Just like we’re gonna have to account for Jared Verse. We’re gonna have to have many different ways to handle Jared Verse. We’re gonna have to have slide, tight ends, and chips, and doubles, and all kinds of things. He’s that kind of a player, and they’re gonna have to find Harold Perkins as well.”

Regardless of the role Brian Kelly and LSU use Harold Perkins in, he’s likely to have his say in deciding the outcome of this game against Florida State.

The first matchup that I am looking at very very closely is Harold Perkins, the defensive weapon for LSU [and] we’ll call him a linebacker for the sake of this conversation, and Jordan Travis, Florida State’s quarterback. So the thing that I’m watching really closely with this match up is Harold Perkins. Remember how he was utilized last year for LSU? He was like a magic eraser. They wanted to try and take out of the game from a gameplay standpoint,” On3’s JD PicKell said on The Hard Count.

“Hey Harold, quarterback is hurting us with his legs. Harold Perkins, spy on him. Done, Harold, this running back has been an issue for us, he’s so versatile, he’s multiple, that’s the answer right there. Done.”

Brian Kelly highlighted Harold Perkins’ IQ, versatility

This offseason, Brian Kelly praised Harold Perkins for his IQ and versatility as a young defensive player.

“Quite frankly we didn’t drill down on the nuances of the position. We moved him around to be an edge player for us. Quite frankly we felt like we wanted to take advantage of his athleticism when we put him in positions to really go get the quarterback. There was really nothing that he didn’t do. He picked up the schemes from week to week. This was really about learning pass coverages and gap responsibilities and things that we really didn’t spend a lot of time with him,” Kelly said.

“He’s got a great football IQ. He’s really, I would say, from a pass coverage he’s got great sense in pass coverage, zone, and obviously man. And understands gap integrity. He’s not running around there just trying to make plays on athleticism. We’ve been very pleased with his football IQ.”