By ANDRE CHAMPAGNE, Tiger Rag Staff Reporter
It hasn’t been an ideal season for the LSU football team as it is again out of the College Football Playoff for the sixth straight season. Only a minor bowl is on the horizon if LSU can get one more win out of its remaining three games.
But junior linebacker Harold Perkins Jr. believes there are still people to play for, beginning Saturday when LSU (5-4, 2-4 Southeastern Conference) hosts Arkansas (2-7, 0-5 SEC) at 11:45 a.m. on the, SEC Network.
“I feel like our mindset right now is just staying positive,” Perkins said. “Our minds could wander right now because you know, it’s not what we want. But we’re just staying together and finishing strong, not for ourselves, but for our families and the people that are our fans in Tiger Stadium.”
The LSU defense, at least, has momentum from a solid performance in a 20-9 loss at No. 4 Alabama on Saturday. But it must contain dual-threat quarterback Taylen Green, and such quarterbacks have hurt LSU consistently for two seasons now, particularly Ole Miss’ Trinidad Chambliss, Vanderbilt’s Deigo Pavia and Texas A&M’s Marcel Reed.
“We faced some really good ones in all due respect, but he’s 6-foot-6, athletic and a legit 4.4 (time in the 40-yard dash) guy, and it almost at times looks like he’s gliding,” LSU interim head coach Frank Wilson said.
Despite being winless in the SEC, Green has still had a productive season. He has completed 171 of 274 passes for 2,372 yards with 19 touchdowns while rushing for 649 yards on 107 carries with six touchdowns.
“He kind of reminds me of that quarterback from back in the day, Cunningham,” Perkins said of former Philadelphia star Randall Cunningham. “He’s very dangerous with his legs.”
LSU sacked Green three times in a 34-10 win at Arkansas last season, and he finished with -10 rushing yards on six carries.
“I feel like we’ve just got to make him play quarterback, you know,” Perkins said. “Not let him get out of the pocket and do what he loves to do.”
Perkins had one of his most productive games of the season at Alabama with a season-high nine tackles, a sack, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery. Perkins said Wilson’s different practices have helped the defense improve in just a short time.
“Been a lot more violence,” he said. “I say “violence,” I mean a lot more from a physical standpoint. We just been doing a lot of like run drills and stuff like that.”
Perkins, who was once projected as a future first round draft pick but has slipped to a projected second or third round, is staying humble and finding ways to look at the brighter side, despite the bad season.
“I feel like it’s still been fun for me,” he said. “It’s always good for me. I feel like life is what you make it. So at the end of the day, if you don’t like the way your life is going, change the trajectory of it.”
Be the first to comment