Brian Kelly: It is 'way too soon' for decision on Harold Perkins' future after season-ending injury

The LSU Tigers lost star defender Harold Perkins to a season-ending injury. It’s an injury that has many people concerned that he’s now played his last game for LSU.

Those concerns are born from the fact that Harold Perkins is draft-eligible. However, when head coach Brian Kelly was asked about his star player’s future, he pushed back on answering, explaining that he still has time to make a decision and it’s too soon to know.

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“I don’t think any of those decisions are made,” Brian Kelly said. “Way too soon for him or his family to have made any kind of declaration whether this is his last game or not. I think they’re just trying to get ahold of the surgery and the rehab associated with it.”

Harold Perkins left the UCLA game with an apparent knee injury that was later reported as a torn ACL. With that, his 2024 season came to an end.

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“He’ll take all that into consideration and then when it’s time to make a decision, he’ll make a decision,” Kelly said. “Certainly, he has plenty of time before he has to make that decision.”

It wouldn’t be a surprise to anyone if the end result of all of this is that Harold Perkins moves on from LSU for the NFL Draft. He is, after all, incredibly talented and well-regarded. On top of that, as a linebacker who has proved he can play as an edge rusher, he is a very valuable player.

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After coming to LSU as a five-star recruit in the Class of 2022, according to the On3 Industry Ranking, and he burst onto the scene as a true freshman. In total, he has played in 31 games and had 164 total tackles. That includes 28 tackles for loss and 13 sacks. He also has two interceptions and seven forced fumbles.

“It’s been two seasons and four games. So, it’s not even three,” Kelly said. “Again, I think it’s too soon for us to get into any of the ‘what happens if this is his last season.’ It’s two seasons of competition and four games and I think probably just rushing any kind of comments relative to to whether this is his last season or not, I think we would probably just have to tap the breaks on that.”

While Brian Kelly doesn’t want to look too far ahead as it relates to Harold Perkins’ future. However, one thing is clear. LSU is going to be without Perkins moving forward this season.