'Freak athlete' Suntarine Perkins is already excelling within the Ole Miss defense in year one
Expectations for a top four- or five-star recruit are automatically set high for a player but for Ole Miss freshman linebacker Suntarine Perkins the bar might have needed to be set higher.
Through the first seven games of Perkins’ collegiate career he is one of the top players on the Rebels defense and already making a living in opposing offense’s backfields.
Perkins recorded five tackles, four of them unassisted, and a tackle for loss of four yards against Auburn this past Saturday. The performance earned Perkins his first weekly honor from the Southeastern Conference office, naming him Co-SEC Freshman of the Week.
Freshman LSU running back Trey Holley shared the honor with Perkins.
The early success in Perkins career is not surprising many people inside the Ole Miss locker room. Teammates have taken notice to the veteran approach in game preparation Perkins has taken over the course of the season.
“He’s a freak athlete to start. That’s the first thing,” said defensive end Cedric Johnson. “I’ve been really seen him over the weeks start to focus in and start to settle in as a football player. Those first few weeks he’s in there, he’s a freshman obviously, I don’t know how to explain it. Your first game, your first few games you’re just trying to find the pace of the game and just slow things down. …He’s playing faster and just getting better and better each and every week.”
Johnson joined Perkins this week as a second Ole Miss player to earn a SEC honor. He was named Defensive Lineman of the Week with his five tackles and 1.5 sacks against Auburn, improving his career sack total to 15 and is the Rebels active career sack leader.
Internally, there were expectations put on Perkins by the Ole Miss coaching staff but those are being surpassed.
Over the course of the season Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin has repeated himself by saying how special a player he knew Perkins was, though once the games began being played he learned even more.
The 3.5 sacks from Perkins is tied for the team-best along with transfer Isaac Ukwu. He leads all SEC freshman in sacks and ranks fifth nationally.
In the the games against Alabama and LSU it was when Kiffin noticed just how much talent lies within Perkins after he ran down Crimson Tide quarterback Jalen Milroe and Tigers signal caller Jayden Daniels with relative ease.
“We knew he was really special. I don’t know if there was anyway to know he was this electric fast,” Kiffin said. “Now you’ve seen him at different times catch two of the fastest quarterbacks in America. He’s just really, really special and a phenomenal kid.
“What we call culture one around here. No issues. Just wants to get better. Just wants to be coached and do the right things and not worried about all the external stuff. Which is very refreshing with these kids nowadays.”
Only Jared Ivey is better than Perkins in the tackles for loss category. The Georgia Tech transfer leads Ole Miss with 5.5 and Perkins currently sits at five, which is part of his 29 total tackles that is fifth best on the Rebels defense.
