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LSU LB Harold Perkins announces decision for 2025

On3 imageby:Matthew Brune•12/27/24•

MatthewBrune_

Brian Kelly opened up on the ACL injury to LSU LB Harold Perkins
Brian Kelly opened up on the ACL injury to LSU LB Harold Perkins

LSU got more good news on Friday evening as junior linebacker Harold Perkins announced his return for the 2025 season on social media. The former All-American talent comes off of a season shortened due to a knee injury suffered against UCLA. In four games, Perkins had 17 tackles and 1.5 tackles for loss.

In 2023, Perkins started all 13 games and led the Tigers in tackles for loss with 13. He also led LSU in tackles for loss in 2022 as a true freshman. Now, Perkins is back and hopes to have a strong senior campaign under Blake Baker.

LSU has been able to be aggressive in the transfer portal and has seen a massive uptick in community response as the Tigers continue to raise funds to get some of the best players in the transfer portal. The Tigers have also been able to keep Garrett Nussmeier and Harold Perkins.

“The response [to the challenge] has been what we were hoping for,” Kelly said. “From a fan perspective, and when I say “fan” I mean from a grassroots support, not our huge donors. Our donors have stepped up as well, but our fans, the ones that come to see the games, those that follow LSU football. Whether it’s been five dollars, 50 dollars, or 500 dollars, we’ve seen those contributions we hadn’t seen in the past and it’s put us in a position where we can be aggressive  on anyone that comes into the portal and that simply was not the case before.

“I’m not saying this particular match did that, but it did really send a message to everybody that this is where we are today and if we want to be where we all want to be in terms of putting our roster together, we all have to step up. It starts with me and I think our fanbase responded equally.”

After back-to-back 10-3 seasons in his first two years, Kelly entered year three hoping that this program could take a step forward and get into the new 12-team College Football Playoff. However, his team crumbled in the second half of the season, losing three straight games and ending the year 8-4 before the bowl game on Dec. 31.

The heightened urgency, paired with the influx of money, has LSU with one of the top classes in the transfer portal. On3 has LSU with the No. 6 class in the portal, which considers departures as well. In terms of additions, LSU has the highest average player rating of any team with more than six signees — and the Tigers aren’t done yet.

“[The portal] is being measured in terms of what you’re trying to do in terms of where you are as a program,” Kelly said of the portal. “We needed time to develop young players in our program. They needed an opportunity before we went and brought in a number of veteran players. We needed to do a little bit of work to compete in the SEC, which we did, but now it’s time to roster build. We have a strong young nucleus in our program, but now it’s time to add to that. Those that have moved on, we wish them the best, and now we feel like we’ve put ourselves in a position where we can put together an SEC Championship roster.”

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