Stat Cat: What makes Harold Perkins one of the best players in college football

On3’s Charles Power and Clark Brooks recently released their list of the Top 100 Players in College Football for the 2023 Season. The country is loaded with talent across the nation, but the youngest player with the highest ranking on the list is none other than LSU linebacker Harold Perkins.

Perkins was ranked by Power and Brooks as the No. 6 player in the country following a stellar freshman season, and Brooks (aka Stat Cat) recently spoke with On3’s JD PicKell on why Perkins garnered such a high ranking.

“His pass-rushing ability and his ability to generate havoc,” Brooks said. “You kind of hinted on it, we don’t exactly know how LSU’s going to use him. There was some word that (Matt) House wants to use him more as a stack linebacker, off-ball linebacker. He was a little rusty let’s say, I mean he was a freshman after all, in coverage so he is definitely more, let’s just say, ready, impactful as a day one pass rusher.”

Perkins ended his true freshman season with 72 tackles, ranking third on the Tigers’ defense. But he led the team with 7.5 sacks and three forced fumbles, and his size, athleticism, and ability to rush the passer as a linebacker has already drawn some lofty comparisons in his young career.

“So to me, you see a lot of Micah Parsons parallels in the fact of how to use him of course coming out of the draft he was a very versatile linebacker but he made his killing instantly being a dynamic pass rusher,” Brooks said. “And this offseason looks like the Dallas Cowboys are going to keep in that spot as opposed to trying to get the best of both worlds. So while that still remains to be seen, what exactly is going to happen with Harold Perkins?”

The comparisons to Parsons may seem early, but Perkins did record more sacks in his freshman season with LSU than Parsons did in his entire career at Penn State.

Perkins racked up accolades following his freshman year, being named to the SEC All-Freshman Team, the Associated Press All-SEC First-Team, and the CFN and FWAA Freshman All-America Teams. He enters this season as a Walter Camp Preseason All-American and one of the most exciting defensive players in the country who will definitely be looking to build off of his phenomenal freshman year.

“He’s just absolutely destructive, his motor runs hot, and he’s just an an absolute joy to watch. I’m an offensive specialist, I like to watch what teams are running and how they’re able to be effective on the down to down basis in terms of bottom lines and just giving themselves better chances, this guy consistently had a smile on my face just seeing how he consistently f’d stuff up last year as a true freshman in the best conference in college football,” Brooks concluded.