BATON ROUGE — Harold Perkins Jr. led LSU football's defense in tackles in the season-opening loss to USC on Sunday night at the Las Vegas Kickoff Classic.

The junior linebacker was awarded the heralded No. 7 jersey before the start of the season, a number reserved for one of the team's top playmakers, and head coach Brian Kelly and new defensive coordinator Blake Baker have strategically put him in position to be the defensive playmaker.

Perkins was moved around, as was the game plan for him, lining up inside, where he played the majority of the game against USC, getting snaps at both Will and Mike linebacker, as well as lining up on the edges a couple of times. There were times when Perkins dropped back in coverage on seam routes of tight ends and helped cover the flats.

In his first time in Baker's scheme, what did Kelly think of Perkins' performance and Baker's plan?

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"I like him inside at 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. ... He has a tendency where he wants to do a little bit too much."

Kelly gestured his arms wide and said "(Perkins') eyes were like that (in the USC game). They need to be so much more focused.

"He's so eager to want to make a play because we put him in that playmaker position so much. When you work in the areas he works, your focus has to narrow down a lot more."

Perkins will continue to play inside for LSU and Kelly believes that after this first game in the box in Baker's scheme that Perkins now has under his belt, LSU fans will see a better version of Perkins moving forward throughout the remainder of the season.

"Continuing to work on getting his eyes trained in a different way will be the biggest improvement we see from Week 1 to Week 2," Kelly said. "I'm going to say you're going to see a huge improvement now that he's played in the box in a game.

"Once we get that, it's going to be a bit of a different look. I think that's going to help him immensely."

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Cory Diaz covers the LSU Tigers for The Daily Advertiser as part of the USA TODAY Network. Follow his Tigers coverage on Twitter: @ByCoryDiaz. Got questions regarding LSU athletics? Send them to Cory Diaz at bdiaz@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: Brian Kelly assesses LSU's Harold Perkins' performance in USC loss