Brian Kelly: “It’s way too soon” to comment on Harold Perkins and the NFL Draft

On Monday, LSU head coach Brian Kelly opened up on the season-ending injury to linebacker Harold Perkins – and he dismissed any talk about whether Perkins has played his final game in purple-and-gold.

Kelly did not go into detail on the specifics of the injury, nor provide a timetable on surgery or a recovery timeline, though he did confirm reports of a knee injury that will cause Perkins miss the remainder of his junior season.

“It’s an injury we feel terrible about, especially for Harold and the work he has done to put himself in a great position,” Kelly said. “You lose players all the time, and you just feel terrible for them individually because of all the work and time they have put in.”

As for discussions of whether Perkins returns to LSU for a fourth season or chooses to enters the NFL Draft this offseason, Kelly quickly pressed pause on the speculation.

“It’s way too soon for him or his family to have made any kind of declaration on whether this is his last game or not,” Kelly said. “I think they are just trying to get hold of the surgery and the rehab associated with it. He will take all that into consideration. And when it’s time to make a decision, he will make a decision. Certainly he has plenty of time before he has to make that decision.”

When asked if he could elaborate further on Perkins and his potential draft outlook, Kelly pressed pause on the idea of discussing anything surrounding his future just days removed from an ACL injury.

“It’s been two seasons and four games, so it’s not even three (seasons),” Kelly said of Perkins’ time spent playing at LSU. “I think it’s really too soon for us to get into any of the ‘what happens if this is his last season’. It’s two seasons and four games, and we would be rushing any type of comments relative to whether this was his last season or not. We would tap the brakes on that.”

Perkins left the game after lowering his shoulder to make a tackle against UCLA on Saturday, then remained down on the field with the medical staff before walking to the locker room under his own power.

Perkins started all four games across LSU’s 3-1 start, totaling 17 tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss and – likely – ending the year without a sack or turnover forced. One year ago, Perkins started all 13 games at linebacker, leading the Tigers in tackles for loss for a second consecutive year (13 total). He closed out the 13-game schedule with 75 tackles and 5.5 sacks, which landed him Second-Team All-SEC honors from the league’s coaches.

Now, LSU will have to move forward with a pair of linebackers who have also landed starts across the first four games in veteran Greg Penn III and sophomore Whit Weeks. The Tigers will get linebacker West Weeks back from injury, which is good news for depth purposes. LSU also has a trio of freshmen linebackers in Tylen Singleton, Davhon Key and Xavier Atkins.

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