Former Texas A&M football commit, now starring for SEC rival, out for season

Former Texas A&M football commit, LSU LB Harold Perkins Jr. reportedly out for year with injury

One of the more painful misses in recruiting over the last couple of years for Texas A&M football fans, ironically, came in the 2022 cycle. That year, of course, was when the Aggies brought in a record-breaking haul rated as the best in history—but there were two significant players who ended up elsewhere.

One was Kelvin Banks, who is now anchoring the left side of the offensive line for Texas. The other was actually committed to the Aggies for a brief time before eventually flipping to the Ags' other rival, the LSU Tigers.

I'm speaking, of course, of Harold Perkins. The linebacker for the Bayou Bengals exploded onto the scene in his freshman year after an absolutely monster back half of the season rushing the passer.

Confusingly, though, Perkins was moved to a middle linebacker role for the Tigers last year. After lighting things up as an edge rusher, many fans questioned the decision of Brian Kelly and company to have Perkins play a more traditional inside LB—a position that he's a little small for at the NFL level.

Because of that, his production numbers were down across the board from what was expected. He never really exceeded the marks he set as a freshman and just didn't really flash in the same way he did in his first season.

The Tigers made the same move with him this year, and through the first few games, his numbers were about the same. He rarely impacted games in the same way he was in that brief burst in his first year—even so, he was still considered one of the better players on a poor LSU defense due to his athleticism.

However, tragic news for LSU fans came down today, as it was revealed that Perkins, who left LSU's game against UCLA with an injury, is now out for the year.

This is a tough blow to an LSU defense that is already struggling this season. Given that this is his third year in college, too, Perkins is likely gone to the NFL after this season, meaning we may have seen the last of him in an LSU uniform.