BATON ROUGE - LSU linebacker Harold Perkins led the Tigers in tackles in the loss to USC on Sunday, but coaches know he can make a bigger impact.

Perkins, a junior, made a great play early in Sunday’s game, playing both the running back and quarterback during a read option and forcing a punt.

For the rest of the game though, Perkins didn’t make any other appearances in the USC’s backfield. LSU head coach Brian Kelly believes he will improve for this week’s matchup with Nicholls.

“I like him where he is, I like him inside the core of our defense,” Kelly said. “I think what Blake talked to him about, and what Blake and I talked about is we need to get him to narrow his focus a little bit more. When I say narrow his focus, he has a tendency that he wants to do a little bit too much, he's so eager to want to make plays because we put him in that playmaker position so much when you work in the kind of areas that he works, your focus has to narrow down a lot more, and so continue to work on narrowing his focus, getting his eyes trained in a different way will be the big improvement we see from week one and week two.”

LSU plays their first home game Saturday night at 6:30 against the Colonels. The game will be available on ESPN+/SEC+.