It was a cold afternoon in Fayetteville, Arkansas when LSU realized it had a star.
While Harold Perkins Jr. had all the potential in the world when he arrived in Baton Rouge in 2022, he officially made himself known in the Tigers’ 13-10 win over the Razorbacks.
In the win, where he arguably led LSU to victory, Perkins finished with eight total tackles, three sacks and two forced fumbles.
“His performance was one of the best I’ve seen by a freshman,” Brian Kelly said in a tweet. “He willed this team to victory today.”
This Saturday in Columbia, South Carolina, there was a similar feeling. A familiar feeling.
On his first rushing attempt of the game, true freshman running back Caden Durham ran in for a 26-yard touchdown to give LSU its first score of the game.
For a team that’s struggled to run the ball thus far, Durham gave the Tigers their first rushing touchdown this season.
In the third quarter, Durham capped off a five-play, 45-yard drive with a nine-yard touchdown. The next drive, Durham ran on three straight plays for 23 yards combined, setting Garrett Nussmeier up for a two-yard touchdown pass to Mason Taylor.
In his first SEC game, Durham finished with 11 carries for 98 yards and two scores. Brian Kelly made a similar tweet following the Tigers’ 36-33 win over the Gamecocks.
“What a performance today by the freshman,” Brian Kelly said in a tweet on Saturday. “Caden earned that game ball today.”
The similarities are uncanny, even looking before their respective times at LSU.
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Perkins was born in New Orleans, but his family was forced to relocate following Hurricane Katrina in 2005. While he calls New Orleans his hometown, his family relocated to Houston, and he played high school football at Cypress Park High School.
Durham is originally from Oklahoma City, but moved to Duncanville, Texas and played high school football at Duncanville High School, a powerhouse program in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area.
So when it comes to Texas high school football and the intensity it brings, Perkins and Durham are both well aware of it.
After his breakout performance against the Razorbacks, Perkins totaled 20 tackles, a sack and a forced fumble in the Tigers’ last four games of the 2022 season, which includes a 10-tackle game against Georgia in the SEC Championship.
On the season, Perkins finished with 72 tackles, seven-and-a-half sacks, three forced fumbles, an interception and four pass deflections. His stellar true freshman season earned him First-Team All-SEC designation by the Associated Press and and Freshman All-American honors.
Perkins led the team in sacks as a true freshman and finished third on the team in total tackles, only behind Micah Baskerville and Greg Penn III.
This season, Durham already leads the team in rushing yards with 102 yards. He holds that top spot by 30 rushing yards, and he also has two of the team’s three rushing touchdowns.
Perkins was a force before the Tigers’ win over Arkansas. In LSU’s 32-31 overtime win over Alabama, the true freshman linebacker finished with eight total tackles, a sack and a pass deflection. Against Ole Miss, where LSU won 45-20, Perkins totaled five tackles and a sack.
Lots led up to his breakout performance in Fayetteville, and Saturday could’ve been the beginning of a similar ascension for Durham.
While people knew Perkins was capable of a performance of that caliber, it still caught people off-guard.
The same goes for Durham. His four-star ranking out of high school gave people confidence in him, but many did not expect for him to be LSU’s savior in Columbia, South Carolina.
Saturday may have been the first of many successful games for Durham, just like Perkins’ seven-tackle performance in just his second collegiate game against Southern.
With a long season ahead and plenty more opportunities to take advantage of, Durham’s breakout game may be yet to come.
