Brian Kelly details Harold Perkins' early development as a freshman

When LSU swooped in last second for five-star linebacker Harold Perkins at the end of the 2022 recruiting cycle it was a massive win for coach Brian Kelly in his first few weeks with the Tigers. Thanks to Harold Perkins’ early development, it’s been a massive win in his first year, too.

The elite prospect has quickly become a mainstay in the LSU defense, seemingly always around the ball.

That’s a real credit to the adjustments LSU made to allow him to get on the field early.

“So the process was that he came in as an inside linebacker, and I think we identified early on that that was going to take longer for us to get him into the rotation on the field,” Kelly said Wednesday on an SEC teleconference call. “So we moved him to an outside linebacker position, which we felt like was an easier fit for him to pick up what we wanted because we could put him into different packages. Third-down packages, nickel packages, dime packages.

“Then as it evolved to the point that he was making plays and being productive, we had to get to the point where we had base defenses with him on the field.”

Suffice it to say at this point that Perkins’ integration is mostly complete.

He’s been a missile in the middle of the field for the Tigers all year. Through the team’s first nine games he has recorded 44 tackles, 4.0 tackles for a loss, 3.5 sacks, two pass breakups and an interception.

Harold Perkins’ early development doing wonders for LSU defense

If it seems like Perkins has just jumped right into the thick of things, that’s a definite testament to Kelly and his staff doing a nice job easing him in.

It certainly hasn’t seemed like a slow ramp-up from the outside.

“This was about giving him as much as he could handle and getting the best 11 players,” Kelly said. “So there was an evolution here along the way, but I think we found out early on that this was a young man that definitely needed to get on the field. And then we had to figure how to do that without putting too much on him.”

Perkins has taken it all in stride, quickly becoming one of the top players on a team that is on its way to representing the SEC West in the league’s championship game if it can take care of business down the stretch.

Next up is a trip to Arkansas for a game that kicks off at noon ET on Saturday with a broadcast on ESPN.