GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
Harold Perkins Jr. is a very quick, smart and instinctual football player, which is why he had such an explosive beginning to his career in 2022 as a true freshman.
He sacked the quarterback 7.5 times that season in just eight starts with 13 tackles for loss along with four forced fumbles and an interception while making 72 tackles overall in 14 games. But then-defensive coordinator Matt House decided to move him to inside linebacker for reasons no one fully understood. Something about it being better for his future in the NFL, but it wasn’t so good for LSU’s future.
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And it didn’t work. Perkins moved back to mostly edge and had another super season with 5.5 sacks, 13 stops for loss, 75 tackles, three forced fumbles and an interception in 2023.
But damn, if new defensive coordinator Blake Baker didn’t move Perkins back inside to play in the box during spring drills in 2024. And Perkins was not himself in the Tigers’ first four games last year, mostly on the inside with no sacks in four games and only 1.5 stops for loss. Then he was lost for the season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his knee.
So Baker asked Perkins after last season where he wanted to play this season – inside linebacker or the outside Star position, which is a combination outside linebacker-safety slot. Nice thing for a coach to do, right?
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“Yeah,” Perkins said half heartedly.
But Perkins, who has dealt with position in flux for three years now, sensed something else. He smelled a rat. The edge rusher in him saw a quarterback trying to head fake him.
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“But I didn’t know if it was a trick question,” Perkins said as a crowd of reporters cracked up Tuesday night as the No. 9 Tigers prepare to open the season at No. 4 Clemson on Saturday (6:30 p.m., ABC).
“I’m a team player,” Perkins explained. “I feel like as long as we achieve our goal as a team, all the individual accolades are going to come. So, when he asked me, ‘What do you want to do,’ my first thought was to ask, ‘What do YOU want me to do?’ Because I didn’t know if he was playing mind games on me.”
Baker was shooting straight and asked, “No, what do YOU want to do” to Perkins again.
“So, I was like, ‘All right, he really wanted to know what I wanted to do,'” Perkins said. “I was like, ‘All right, I’m going to tell you.’ So, I told him, and it went from there.”
This was Perkins’ second defensive coordinator in just three years, and House was not popular with players. So, you can understand him feeling this Baker guy out.
“He might have had something else drawing up in his head,” Perkins said. “He might have a different vision than I have in my head, so let me know what you’re talking about first.”
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Defensive players have to recognize fakes, misdirections and decoys. Perkins was reading Baker.
And Baker likes his reads on Perkins.
“I think the most encouraging thing that I’ve seen is it has never looked like he’s had knee surgery,” Baker said during August camp. “He’s moving around very fluid. He’s just so dynamic. I think out there in space, when you see his ability to close – if there’s a check down to the flat or obviously coming off the edge or even internally – he just has a sixth gear that not many guys in college football possess. He’s very coachable. I’m excited to see what he does this year.”
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Baker and Perkins feel the Star is Perkins’ best position.
“I do think that he’s a really good space player,” Baker said. “With that position, we’re able to do a lot of different things with him. And it will also keep offenses not necessarily knowing where he’s going to line up every single snap – pressure, coverage, or the line of scrimmage. That’s kind of like the little secret sauce on this defense. The more position flexibility that guy gives you, the more versatile we can be.”
Perkins feels more freedom outside – free at last.
“I feel like it has allowed me to be more versatile,” he said. “Not saying that being in the box don’t, but I like to run around. I like to show my versatility. I like to have fun. Not to say I don’t have fun inside, but yeah, that’s really what it is. I like to drop back in coverage, too. Oh yeah, I need me a pick. I like that.”
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