LSU Football: Brian Kelly Comments on Harold Perkins' Usage in Week 1 Against USC

Perkins led the team in tackles against the Trojans, but Kelly and Co. expect more heading into Week 2.

Brian Kelly and the LSU Tigers will rely on their top playmaker in Harold Perkins this season to lead the defense, but his usage will be key in coordinator Blake Baker's scheme.

In Week 1, Perkins was all over the place with Kelly believing the coaching staff needs to "narrow his focus" rather than get out of position.

“We need him to narrow his focus a little bit more. He’s so eager to want to make plays as a playmaker, but when you work in the areas he works, your focus has to narrow down and training his eyes will be the difference from week one to week two," Kelly said on Tuesday.

As a whole, the defense showed improvement from a season ago. There was growth in the defensive backfield led by Ashton Stamps, but there remains concern at safety.

For Kelly, he was pleased with the direction the defense is going in but expects more from the unit moving forwardd.

"I thought our defensive tackle play was much better. I thought our edge play was better. We tackled pretty good. We were competitive. Overall, it's connected better," Kelly said on Sunday following the loss to USC. "It's a cohesive connected group that plays hard. They played really, really hard. They didn't execute at the end as well as we would've liked, but that's probably it."

When it comes to Perkins, he's the heartbeat of the defense. He's wearing the coveted No. 7 jersey in 2024 and will be pivotal in the success of his unit.

Week 1 was a learning experience for defensive coordinator Blake Baker and Perkins with how they'll utilize him moving forward. Now, over the next few weeks, they'll continue tweaking the game plan in order to have him more effective as a pass rusher.

“Our preparation is outstanding, but preparation does not win you games, you still have to play to win. At times, we did things we needed to do to win, but you have to do them consistently. We need to finish. We have to make a couple of more plays to win the game. We started well,  our attention was good, but you have to finish these games off.”

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