LSU head coach Brian Kelly spent most of his press conference Monday afternoon discussing the impact of linebacker Harold Perkins’ season-ending knee injury.
Perkins suffered a torn ACL in the fourth quarter of the Tigers’ win over UCLA on Saturday.
Now LSU loses a potential first-round draft pick and effective defender for the rest of the year.
What’s next for the Bayou Bengals on defense? Who will step in? Will young players be forced to step in and lose their redshirt status?
The injury: Perkins is out for this year
“It’s an injury that we feel terribly sorry about, especially for Harold and the work he’s done to put himself in a great position,” Kelly said. “You lose players all the time and you just feel terribly sorry for them because they’ve put in so much work and time.”
“Next Man Up” approach: Young players on the rise
“We’ll have someone step in like we’ve had this year,” Kelly said. “We lost Jacobian Guillory, and a true freshman in Ahmad Breaux steps in and plays for us the last three weeks. We lose John Emery, and another freshman in Caden Durham steps in and does a good job for us. And it’s the same here. The next guy will come in and get us back on our feet and put us in a position to be successful as well. That’s tough, but we have really good players that can come in and step in and step in for LSU and move forward.”
How does the pattern change? What is the defense package now?
“If we want to play with three linebackers on the field, the first player to move there would be Whit Weeks (SAM), then West Weeks would move to MIKE linebacker and Greg Penn would play WILL. So if we wanted to play in ‘Buffalo,’ we’d still be in a really good position. In that situation, we’d probably activate Xavier Atkins as the next WILL. So that’s the situation we’d be in if we wanted to stay with the current lineup (against UCLA).
“We would probably also consider going back to a STAR position, with Major Burns as the STAR, supported by Kylin Jackson. That would be the other option we have. So we have the versatility to play in any of those defensive structures.”
Development of newcomers
“I think they’re developing at the pace they should be,” Kelly said. “You’ve seen Dominick McKinley in action, and you’re going to see more guys that we’re gradually bringing into the team to get them in more action because the schedule is obviously going to be very demanding.”
“It was about building our football team, knowing our strengths and weaknesses, the things we need to improve on in all phases of the game … but at the same time developing some of the younger players so that when we need to call on them, we can play the type of game that’s necessary to win SEC games.”
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