Kirk Herbstreit adds his name to the Harold Perkins hype train
Harold Perkins more than doubled his sack numbers on the season in LSU‘s 13-10 win over Arkansas Saturday afternoon. The former consensus five-star recruit notched four sacks and forced two fumbles to help stave off the Razorbacks on the road.
Since the victory, Perkins has drawn praise across the college football world for his season-defining performance. ESPN College GameDay host Kirk Herbstreit is the latest to share his praise for the superstar freshman.
Even more impressively, Perkins had been battling the flu earlier in the week and didn’t know whether he would be able to play Saturday in the first place.
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“He got sick before the game,” LSU coach Brian Kelly said after the game. “He threw up as we were going into our team meeting. … “I said, ‘Hey, you know, MJ threw up when he had his greatest game,'”
Funny how history repeats itself – although Perkins had to ask who ‘MJ’ was before Kelly told him.
Sure, Perkins’ performance won’t go down in sports history to the effect that Michael Jordan’s iconic Game 5 performance during the 1997 NBA Finals did. However, it will serve as one of the most impressive defensive performances of the college football season, and helped the Tigers secure a SEC Championship berth for the second time in four seasons.
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Perkins rightfully received the game ball for his heroic performance as the Tigers’ defense held Arkansas to under 250 total offensive yards in the absence of Razorbacks starting quarterback KJ Jefferson. Kelly couldn’t say enough good things about the blue-chipper postgame.
“Eight tackles, four sacks, two forced fumbles. He was all over the field. He impacted the game obviously to the level where we win the game because of his final play,” Kelly said. “Multi-dimensional player who makes a great play in pass coverage getting under a throw late in the game. I don’t think there are enough superlatives to talk about this young man as a true freshman coming into his own.”
The LSU freshman will look to duplicate this performance next week when the Tigers battle UAB in Death Valley. Kickoff is set for Saturday at 9 p.m. ET as LSU (8-2) looks to march one step closer to a 10-win regular season.