WATCH: LSU football QBs during their team’s first preseason practice
LSU quarterbacks Garrett Nussmeier (13), Rickie Collins (10), AJ Swann (15) and Colin Hurley (16) work out during the first fall practice.
This story has been updated with new information.
BATON ROUGE – LSU football star junior fullback Harold Perkins left his team’s win over UCLA on Saturday night because of a knee injury.
The Tigers led the Bruins 31-17 midway through the fourth quarter when Perkins went down after attempting a tackle, apparently injuring his right lower leg.
LSU football coach Brian Kelly told reporters after his team’s win over the Bruins that he was “hurt” but declined to comment further.
“We will do all the diagnostics tonight and be able to give you a better answer tomorrow,” Kelly said.
Perkins remained on the field for a few minutes and was treated by several team trainers. He was lifted up and escorted to the sideline, where he was immediately led to the medical tent.
Shortly thereafter, Perkins left the sidelines and returned to the team’s locker room.
More: LSU Football vs. UCLA: Results and live updates from the Power Four duel at Tiger Stadium
More: Reassessing LSU football and its College Football Playoff prospects after three games
Before being eliminated due to injury, Perkins recorded two tackles for the Tigers.
If Perkins is injured enough to miss several weeks, the prognosis for the overall defense will certainly be questionable. Perkins is LSU’s best talent in pro football and is projected to be a Week 2 first overall NFL draft pick.
He has already taken on a variety of roles for LSU in just four games this season and seems to have settled into the position of outside linebacker Sam. Although his stats aren’t exactly stellar, Perkins is one of the best defensive players.
Kelly said after the game that he hopes Perkins won’t miss much time, but if that happens, he trusts the rest of the defense won’t falter.
“We have great leaders like (middle linebacker) Greg Penn on that side of the ball,” Kelly said. “We hope (Perkins) is OK. We have Greg Penn, we have Whit Weeks, West (Weeks) will be back next week and he’s played really good football for us.”
“So we can continue to stay in our Buffalo package, but we can also go back to our Dime package and take (safety major Burns) back. So we have a lot of options. We’re hoping (Perkins) will be OK and come back to us. But we’ll be able to move into other packages that are similar to what we’ve done so far.”
RATING LSU’S WIN OVER UCLA The LSU football team loses Harold Perkins but has UCLA under control. Here’s how we rated the Tigers’ win.
LSU OVERFLOWS UCLA LSU Football takes control in the second half and outlasts UCLA in home win
Cory Diaz covers the LSU Tigers for The Daily Advertiser as part of the USA TODAY Network. Follow his Tigers coverage on Twitter: @ByCoryDiaz. Have questions about LSU athletics? Send them to Cory Diaz at [email protected].
