LSU LB Harold Perkins stunned Arkansas in his breakout game. 'We didn't study him as much'

Staff writer
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Harold Perkins had his breakout game against Arkansas last year, recording three sacks and two forced fumbles in a 13-10 win, and it turns out the Razorbacks did not anticipate how LSU used him that day.
“What's so crazy is we didn't study him as much,” junior running back Raheim Sanders said Wednesday at Southeastern Conference media days.
Before LSU faced Arkansas on Nov. 12, Perkins was still emerging as a freshman linebacker. LSU didn’t want to put him inside yet, but it had figured out how to play him outside along with edge rusher BJ Ojulari. Perkins recorded a sack in each of the previous two games.
“Before that, I feel like they were just using him for third downs,” Sanders said. “They used him the whole game against us, so it was a little different.”
Though Perkins threw up a few hours before kickoff as he battled the flu, he finished with three sacks, typically by spying quarterback Malik Hornsby. Sanders had to block him once.
“I didn't know I had to block him because we didn't talk up front,” Sanders said. “He got back there pretty fast.”
Heading into Perkins’ second season, LSU has moved him inside. He will still rush off the edge at times, but LSU intends to add dimensions to Perkins’ game that make him more difficult to predict.
“Anywhere he is, any position he's playing, he's going to make an impact on the field,” said Arkansas junior defensive end Landon Jackson, who started his career at LSU. “He's a once-in-a-lifetime talent.”