Can Whit Weeks win LSU its second Butkus Award? Is this the year Harold Perkins finally puts it all together?
Over the offseason, LSU dipped into the transfer portal into pretty much every single position group possible: wide receiver, offensive line, defensive line, the secondary. Heck they even brought in a transfer quarterback.
There was one* notable exception however: linebacker. Brian Kelly and his staff looked at the roster and said “actually we’re good at linebacker” and I can’t say I disagree. The Tigers have arguably the best linebacker in the country, a promising youngster, and they’re bringing back one of the biggest stars in college football.
Editor Note: okay fine, two positions. LSU didn’t bring in a transfer running back either. Moving on!
Everything on the 2025 LSU defense starts and stops with Whit Weeks. After being criminally underutilized by convicted war criminal former defensive coordinator Matt House, Weeks gave us a glimpse at what 2023 could have been had House just gotten out of his own way.
Weeks finished second in the SEC and ninth nationally in tackles with 125 en route to a First-Team All-SEC selection. He had six games with double-digit tackles, with the high point being an 18-tackle effort in LSU’s overtime win over Ole Miss.
Wherever the ball is, chances are 40’s in the vicinity. We said that in 2018 about Devin White, and we said the same about Weeks in 2024. White’s responsible for the only Butkus Award in program history, and Weeks has a real chance at this year’s award.
The question with Weeks is how does he respond from that nasty dislocated ankle he suffered in the Texas Bowl? While Weeks needed surgery he, thankfully, didn’t suffer any ligament damage. Weeks missed all of spring practice and some summer work, but he showed up to fall camp with a clean bill of health. And if Weeks is back to 100 percent, LSU’s got the best linebacker in the country at their disposal.
Unfortunately LSU didn’t just have one star linebacker suffer a devastating injury, but two. Harold Perkins tore his ACL in LSU’s win over UCLA, but like Weeks seems to be completely ready to go for 2025.
For four years we’ve wondered how best to utilize Perkins. Is he a true off-ball linebacker? Is he an edge? Is he a STAR? Max wrote two summers ago that Perkins is probably best suited as an edge, and it looks like Blake Baker is going to let him play to those strengths as a STAR. The STAR is a linebacker/safety tweener if you’re unaware, and doesn’t that just feel right for Perkins?
“We want to get him running,” LSU coach Brian Kelly told The Advocate in March during spring practice. “We want to get him in his best element, which is being an athlete. We think that position does it for him.” Sometimes coaching is as simple as that: letting your players do what they do best, rather than trying to make them into something they’re not.
Besides, LSU doesn’t need Harold Perkins to play alongside Weeks in the box. That’s what rising sophomore Dahvon Keys is for.
Dom McKinley and Ahmad Breaux might have gotten the most fanfare as true freshmen last season, but there’s an argument that Keys had the most impressive season. Keys looked awfully comfortable playing next to Weeks, and ended up starting the final four games of the season. He had a season-best 10 tackles in the Oklahoma game including a TFL and a sack, and then against Baylor he had six tackles and returned an interception for a touchdown. He’ll be the Robin to Weeks’ Batman in 2025 and then take on the mantle in 2026.
If Keys does have some type of sophomore slump, fifth year senior West Weeks is back for one final season after taking a redshirt in 2024. He was called upon in the Texas Bowl after Whit left the game with his ankle injury and responded with a season-best six tackles.
We’ll worry about 2026 when we get there, but linebacker is going to be a spot where LSU either has to supplement with some experience out of the portal, or hope the youngsters grow up fast. LSU’s losing the two eldest Weeks brother and Harold Perkins, so they’ll need to give redshirt freshman Tylan Singleton some seasoning, especially in a Blake Baker style defense. Singleton is currently backing up Perkins as the No. 2 STAR linebacker. The two are built similarly: both are 6’1” and Singleton’s listed at 226 pounds while Perkins is 222.
LSU also signed three linebackers in this past recruiting class: Keylan Moses, the younger brother of one-time LSU commit/ former Alabama linebacker Dylan Moses, Charles Ross and Zach Weeks, the youngest of the Weeks brothers.
Zach was supposed to be part of the class of 2026, but reclassified to play alongside his older brothers, which is a really cool thing to happen. Also folks around the program insist that Zach’s the best of the three. It wouldn’t be the first time the youngest of three brothers ended up the best at LSU. Justin Jefferson surpassed Jordan and Rickey, became a first round draft pick, and is arguably the best wide receiver in the NFL today. Based off that logic, I see no reason why history can’t repeat itself with Zach Weeks and I look forward to him turning into the next Ray Lewis.