The LSU football team is in the first week of spring practice and one of the major storylines is Harold Perkins moving back to inside linebacker. The Tigers planned to play him at inside linebacker last season but scrapped the idea after the season opening loss to Florida State. Coach Brian Kelly says they still believe Perkins can be most impactful as an inside backer.
“This is a place that is going to maximize his potential,” said Kelly. “We certainly can keep him out at the Star-Sam linebacker position, but I think he can impact the defense in so many ways at the Will (weakside) Linebacker position.”
Kelly also believes that having Perkins as an outside linebacker made it easier for opposing offenses to scheme against him. They could just send an extra blocker on whatever side of the field Perkins was on or run a play away from him.
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During drills on Thursday, Perkins and Greg Penn III were the two inside linebackers on the first team, and the second teamers were the Weeks brothers, Whit and West.
On offense, the Tigers will use the spring practice to develop a more traditional running game. Last year, LSU finished 10th in the country in rushing offense, averaging 204 yards a game. Quarterback Jayden Daniels accounted for 1,134 yards of the team’s 2,659 yards.
New starting quarterback Garrett Nussmeier will come nowhere close to putting up those type of rushing numbers. Kelly said on Thursday they’ll be leaning on a veteran and an athletic offensive line to create holes for their running backs.
“I think a run game that now becomes a lot more diversified, we can start moving and pulling our offensive linemen to create an offensive running game that strikes on a much wider front,” said Kelly.
“The running backs will play a part in this, but I think the focus needs to be much more on how the offensive line will play a much larger role to enhance our running game.”
The Tigers return four starters on offensive line DJ Chester is expected to be the new starting center.
When you watch LSU go through spring drills, it looks like they have plenty of running backs.
But they only have two scholarship running backs available this spring. Sophomore Kaleb Jackson and graduate senior Josh Williams. There are five walk-on running backs that are also getting reps.
When the spring transfer portal opens on April 15th it will be a priority for the Tigers to grab a couple of running backs.