Football Ranked No. 13 in Preseason AP Top 25Football Ranked No. 13 in Preseason AP Top 25

Football Ranked No. 13 in Preseason AP Top 25

BATON ROUGE – LSU linebacker Harold Perkins had his name added to another watch list as he’s among 90 players nationwide selected to the Bednarik Award preseason list, the Maxwell Football Club Announced on Monday.

Perkins has also been named to watch lists for the Walter Camp Player of the Year and the Nagurski Trophy. Perkins has been tabbed as a preseason second-team All-America by Walter Camp.

The Bednarik Award is presented to the outstanding defensive player in college football. Past LSU winners of the Bednarik Award include Patrick Peterson in 2010 and Tyrann Mathieu in 2011.

Now in his third season at LSU, Perkins has developed into one of college football’s top playmaking linebackers. In two years, he’s accumulated 147 tackles, 26.0 tackles for loss and 13 sacks.

Perkins, a native of New Orleans, earned first-team All-SEC honors in 2022 and was named second-team all-conference last year. He’s earned SEC Defensive Player of the Week honors twice and SEC Freshman of the Week one time during his career. He was named Walter Camp National Defensive Player of the Week for his performance (8 tackles, 3 sacks, 2 forced fumbles) in LSU’s win over Arkansas in 2022.

As a rookie, Perkins earned Freshman All-America honors and was selected to the Freshman All-SEC team.

Off the field, Perkins has been named to the SEC Academic Honor Roll.

Preseason AP Top 25

  • Rank School (2023 Record) Points First-place votes
    1 Georgia (13-1) 1532 46
    2 Ohio State (11-2) 1490 15
    3 Oregon (12-2) 1403 1
    4 Texas (12-2) 1386 1
    5 Alabama (12-2) 1260
    6 Ole Miss (11-2) 1189
    7 Notre Dame (10-3) 1122
    8 Penn State (10-3) 1060
    9 Michigan (15-0) 995
    10 Florida State (13-1) 971
    11 Missouri (11-2) 927
    12 Utah (8-5) 887
    13 LSU (10-3) 804
    14 Clemson (9-4) 689
    15 Tennessee (9-4) 629
    16 Oklahoma (10-3) 566
    17 Oklahoma State (10-4) 538
    18 Kansas State (9-4) 526
    19 Miami (Fla.) (7-6) 492
    20 Texas A&M (7-6) 292
    21 Arizona (10-3) 237
    22 Kansas (9-4) 231
    23 Southern California (8-5) 172
    24 NC State (9-4) 171
    25 Iowa (10-4) 140

    Others receiving votes:
    Louisville 111, Virginia Tech 77, Boise St. 47, SMU 33, Iowa St. 33, Liberty 32, Washington 23, West Virginia 17, Memphis 16, Nebraska 16, Wisconsin 15, UTSA 6, Tulane 5, Appalachian St. 4, Kentucky 3, Auburn 2, Colorado 1.