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Harold Perkins, as described by LSU, sounds even more terrifying than what we see on TV
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NASHVILLE — Mekhi Wingo’s face lit up.
Surrounded by a smattering of media members inside the Grand Hyatt ballroom, Wingo was there to represent LSU at SEC Media Days. Fresh off a year in which he earned third-team All-American honors after transferring from Mizzou, Wingo got excited when a certain subject came up.
Harold Perkins.
There was a moment last season when Wingo realized that Perkins was on a different level as a true freshman. It came before the Mississippi State game during practice that week. Perkins had joined the LSU defensive linemen for drills so that he could get some pass-rushing reps. Wingo and his LSU teammates got a front-row seat to the Perkins show.
“He hit ’em with a ghost move and just bent the edge,” Wingo said. “It was just amazing because we hadn’t seen anyone truly bend like that. And we were watching (former LSU player) BJ Ojulari, but Perk did it in this crazy way. He exploded onto the scene that game.”
Really, Perkins treated the entire 2022 season as his “exploded onto the scene” moment. The best defensive player in college football wasn’t at SEC Media Days. Somehow, Brian Kelly got as many questions about artificial intelligence in football as he did about Perkins.
But make no mistake. Perkins, even as a 19-year-old sophomore, was on the minds of many in Nashville.
Jayden Daniels was asked about what it’s like to see Perkins’ skill set on display.
“The plays that he makes,” Daniels said, “it’s ridiculous how athletic he is, how twitchy he is when he’s rushing the passer. You know he gets good work against our offensive line. Harold is everywhere. He can run down a running back, he can run down a receiver. He’s just a special type of player.”
So special that if you can find a preseason All-American team without Perkins’ name on it, well, check the source. As Daniels said, he’s everywhere.
Well, he wasn’t in Nashville, where Quinshon Judkins is the only second-year SEC player set to represent his team. Don’t look too far into that. It’s rare to see a sophomore on that stage. It’s even rarer to see a freshman do the things that Perkins did. Among SEC returners, Perkins had the most sacks (8.5) and tackles for loss (14). Among all SEC players in 2022, only Will Anderson had more tackles for loss than Perkins. No Power 5 linebacker had a better PFF pass-rushing grade than Perkins.
Could Perkins be the second coming of Anderson? Probably not because Anderson lined up exclusively off the edge, whereas Perkins is expected to line up in more of a traditional linebacker role at times this year (he played 180 snaps in the box and 210 off the edge in 2022).
What’ll be interesting to see is how the highly anticipated return of Maason Smith impacts Perkins’ role. Smith had all the offseason buzz heading into 2022, but he went down with a season-ending injury on the opening series against Florida State. With Smith back as a game-wrecking interior defensive lineman, Kelly is hoping that opens up even more matchup nightmares.
“You could slide the center, guard, tackle to one side and really be 3-on-2 (on Perkins’ side). You could add a back to the other side because we really didn’t have an inside guy that could win every single 1-on-1 matchup.
“Maason will be one those 1-on-1 matchups. If you’re going to do that and protect the edges on every play against what we feel are going to be some guys that can come off the edge, Harold Perkins in particular, you’re going to leave him singular inside, and we think he could have an incredible year if that’s the case.”
Perkins, Smith and Wingo could all be in for incredible years. Pick your poison? Definitely.
“He makes everyone’s job easier because with him being a plug-and-play guy that can come off the edge, play a true linebacker, teams are gonna have to account for him,” Wingo said. “Getting a guy like Maason Smith back, having those 2 guys on the field together, that’s gonna open things up for a lot of other players. For a guy like me, I have to win my one-on-ones playing with guys like that.”
There’s no denying that Perkins will be at the top of every scouting report. All you have to do is turn on the Arkansas game last year.
On what unofficially became Harold Perkins Day, the true freshman helped LSU win the Boot trophy at Arkansas. He had 8 tackles, 3 sacks, 2 forced fumbles in the win. Go figure that it was a “boot and rally” effort from Perkins.
“Harold Perkins is a freak athlete,” LSU running back Josh Williams said. “Seeing him every day in practice make plays and then just go out on the field and doing what he does. One of the plays that really shocked me was playing against Arkansas last year and he just runs down Malik Hornsby. I was like, ‘Man, this kid is supposed to be one of the fastest kids in the nation, and you’re a linebacker running him down.’ That was a big deal for us.
“And he threw up before the game even started. His flu game. He’s a well-rounded elite player.”
That “flu game” led to an all-time postgame moment from Kelly.
Brian Kelly said Harold Perkins was sick before the game with the flu.
Told him MJ played his best game ever when he was sick.
Perkins: “Who’s MJ?” pic.twitter.com/QQ9GQxJTuA
— Cody Worsham (@CodyWorsham) November 12, 2022
In case you were wondering, yes, Perkins does indeed know that MJ is Michael Jordan … or at least his teammates think he does.
“He knows who Michael Jordan is,” Williams said. “He has Jordan shoes.”
Of more importance is whether Perkins can have a few more flu games. LSU hasn’t repeated as West champs since divisions became a thing. Could Perkins and that loaded front be the difference? It certainly feels possible.
It might be another year before Perkins is representing his team at SEC Media Days. He’ll have a chance to address the masses as possibly an even more unanimous “best defensive player in America.”
Until then, though, pull up a front-row seat to the Perkins show.
Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Down South. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.
