Brian Kelly highlights Harold Perkins' football IQ, versatility

After one of the best seasons of any freshman in the country a year ago, LSU linebacker Harold Perkins is looking to build on things going into the 2023 season.

The wild part is that as good as Perkins was last year, he managed to do all that despite being a fall enrollee. He was essentially just learning everything on the fly.

“Quite frankly we didn’t drill down on the nuances of the position,” coach Brian Kelly said. “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.”

Essentially, just let Perkins go get it. And go get it he did.

By the time the year had ended, he had racked up first-team All-SEC honors, Freshman All-American honors, two SEC Defensive Player of the Week honors and an SEC Freshman of the Week honor, as well as a Walter Camp National Defensive Player of the Week honor.

He finished his season with 72 tackles, 13.0 tackles for a loss, 7.5 sacks, four forced fumbles, an interception and three passes defended.

“There was really nothing that he didn’t do,” Kelly said. “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.”

Now, with the luxury of a full offseason to learn and study, the sky should be the limit for Perkins. After all, he picked up on everything remarkably quickly a year ago.

Kelly says that’s just who he is as a football player. He’s able to pick things up very, very quickly.

“He’s got a great football IQ,” the second-year LSU coach said. “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.”

Harold Perkins was a shoe-in first-team All-SEC choice this preseason. But if all goes as it could, he could be in line for much bigger, national awards in the postseason.

LSU and Perkins will get underway with the attention of the nation on them, too, taking on Florida State on Sept. 3 in a matchup of preseason top-10 teams.