Five star linebacker, freak athlete and defensive white whale of the 2022 recruiting class Harold Perkins has signed his commitment to the LSU Tigers. According to 247 Sports rating system, he is the eighth best recruit in the class, and LSU’s 16th best recruit of all time.
I have been a huge fan of Perkins since the beginning of the recruiting cycle, so I am actually very excited about this commitment. Going into the day, I said that as long as LSU left with Harold Perkins it was a success.
Harold’s recruitment has been a wild one. He committed to Texas A&M on the TV broadcast of the UnderArmour All-American game on Jan. 2, only to then visit Florida on the 14th, decommit from A&M on the 24th, visit LSU on the 28th and then announce his commitment to LSU on Feb. 2.
According to Adam Gorney of Rivals and Yahoo Sports, Perkins has dreamt of playing in Tiger Stadium for a long time. He is a New Orleans native who grew up a fan of the Saints and LSU. In the same report, Gorney mentioned that Perkins’ interest in the Tigers initially fell because of a lack of communication from Brian Kelly when he first got the job. That has now obviously changed, and LSU continually gained steam as time went on.
He wants to win. That is what it boils down to. He believes his best chance to compete, and compete quickly, is at LSU. During his recruitment, on Instagram, a Miami fan suggested going to “the No. 1 team in Florida.” His mother responded, “My son doesn’t have time to waste.” While that is a funny and ruthless comment, it may truly reflect how he feels.
Perkins brings so much to this defense. The linebackers room is losing a big name this offseason in Damone Clark, a hole that we could see Perkins fill from day one.
When you watch him play, his athleticism is instantly noticeable. It was almost useless to watch any of his high school tape because he was just faster and stronger than anyone else on the field. He was a fantastic running back in high school and could easily be a blue-chip recruit at that position as well.
Another thing that speaks to his talent that I noticed was his ability to read the quarterback’s eyes with tenacity and then close on the ball to make a play. The first player that came to mind when watching him play was Tyrann Mathieu. Just watching him strip the ball brought back memories of the Honey Badger. Obviously, those are huge shoes to fill and I will not expect that much out of him, but it would not surprise me if he has at least a fraction of that impact on the Tigers.
During three years of varsity football, Perkins accrued 128 tackles, 26.5 tackles for a loss, 14 pass break-ups, nine sacks, seven turnovers and three defensive touchdowns. That is just on defense. On offense, he had over 2,600 rushing yards, 37 rushing touchdowns, over 750 receiving yards and seven touchdown catches. It is just some absurd output for his high school career, and so many avenues he found success through.
The biggest thing to glean from this, outside of the Perkins signing itself, is a masterclass of closing the deal that newly-returned Associate Head Coach Frank Wilson put on. He was a huge part of Brian Kelly’s new staff, and this shows exactly why. He was the lead guy on the case to get Perkins to LSU and he succeeded. The future of LSU recruiting is still in good hands, despite what some of the fans felt at the very beginning of the Kelly tenure.
