Brian Kelly on Harold Perkins’ role, why he returned to LSU | LSU

HOUSTON — After LSU linebacker Harold Perkins announced last week he would return for his senior season instead of entering the NFL draft, coach Brian Kelly said they are in the “early stages” of deciding what his role will be next year.

“Harold has a really good sense and feel for where he wants to be,” Kelly said. “I think we’re in alignment with that, but I think we’re going to kind of let that play out after we finish off the roster. And then I think it’ll be a lot clearer as to where that fits. It’s going to enhance who he is as a player.”

Perkins’ position has been a point of discussion throughout his career. He thrived as a freshman edge rusher, but LSU tried to develop him as an inside linebacker going into the past two seasons. Perkins was not as disruptive, and he moved around multiple times.

Kelly declined to discuss specifics of what Perkins would play next season in an interview Saturday night. But now that Perkins has decided to return, that will be an offseason focus while he recovers from a season-ending ACL injury suffered Sept. 21 in a win over UCLA.

“I feel like Perkins’ athletic ability, he can do whatever he wants on the field,” senior running back Josh Williams said. “It’s just more so what position he wants to play.”

Perkins would have been drafted if he left for the NFL, but his stock had dropped out of the first round. Coming back gives him the chance to establish himself as an early pick, and Kelly implied that LSU made it comparable financially with schools preparing to share revenue with players for the first time next year.

“Each player that makes decisions relative to whether they stay in college or go to the NFL has now other things that they can consider,” Kelly said. “I’m going to the NFL because financially it’s the best situation for me is no longer the only reason. Revenue sharing is right around the corner. It now becomes finishing off what you started, and I think Harold has a feeling as though he wants to finish the right way.

“He got his season cut short with an injury, and now he gets to have one more shot at it. In years past, you didn’t have that. You had to go where the finances led you. Now, he’s got revenue sharing and an opportunity to write the story that he wants to write.”

After Perkins broke out as a freshman with a team-high 13 tackles for loss and 7½ sacks, the past two years became about where he should play without the size of a prototypical NFL defensive end. He ended up at strongside linebacker most of his sophomore year, and he recorded 13 tackles for loss and 5½ sacks despite playing more snaps than he had the year before.

LSU spent the offseason working with Perkins as an inside linebacker going into the first year under defensive coordinator Blake Baker, but he moved to strongside linebacker again after a couple of weeks, replacing the Star position in Baker’s scheme. Perkins notched 17 tackles, 1½ tackles for loss and no sacks through four games before the injury.

Williams can relate to what Perkins has gone through the past three months. Williams suffered a season-ending knee injury during his freshman year in 2019. Having gotten to the other side of the recovery himself, he said Perkins “can come back even stronger than he was” next year.

“It gives you a lot of time to focus on that area, get stronger in the weight room, focus on the film study sessions,” Williams said. “Him and Whit (Weeks) and that linebacker position room, they’re going to take over the defense and be some dominant leaders.”

Since Perkins went down, senior linebacker Greg Penn said he has been around the facility “a lot” to rehab in the athletic training area. Perkins attended a couple of home games, and he met up with his teammates when they arrived at their hotel Friday for the Texas Bowl.

“The best is yet to come for him because he plays with aggression,” senior offensive lineman Miles Frazier said. “He plays with passion. He wants to take somebody’s head off, and I feel like now he’s got a chip on his shoulder with being hurt and coming through adversity. I feel like that’s going to make him more of a monster than he already was.”

LSU could have a productive linebacker corps next season. Although it will lose Penn, a three-year starter, Weeks emerged as a star with 119 tackles, the third-most in the SEC. Freshman Davhon Keys recorded 25 tackles while starting the last three games, and senior West Weeks will return after taking a redshirt. LSU also signed 4 four-star linebackers.

The rest of the defense will go through significant changes. LSU has to replace eight players who started more than half the games, including all four defensive linemen and three defensive backs. It has filled most of those holes with transfers, and now one of the most athletic defenders in the country will return.

“You add another player like Harold to that defense,” Kelly said, “and it gives Blake another weapon to do some things defensively that I think will only enhance who we are as a football team.”