Ole Miss Football's 'silent assassin', Suntarine Perkins

JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) – Ole Miss Football’s Suntarine Perkins is on his way to breaking records as a Rebel and as a member of a historically good defense.

Perkins, a native of Raleigh, Mississippi, is coming off a career-best year for a playoff-pushing Ole Miss program, with 8.5 sacks per season, which is a team high and ranks fourth in the nation.

Four of those sacks came in a win against Oklahoma on Saturday, with Perkins becoming the first Rebel to record that many sacks in a single game since Cassius Ware did so in 1993.

“He’s done a great job,” head football coach Lane Kiffin said. “He played 80 or 81 snaps against LSU when we didn’t have Princely (Umanmielen). To cover punts and still have four sacks (against Oklahoma)… he can make any play on defense.”

This resulted in the second-year pass rusher receiving national praise and being named SEC Co-Defensive Player of the Week and the Walter Camp National Player of the Week. He is the first Rebel to win the latter award on the defensive side of the ball.

The outside linebacker has also been nicknamed “the silent killer,” and he has been the Rebels’ not-so-secret weapon in a role that has gotten the most out of him and a defense that has allowed the fewest points per game this season. season, averaging just 11 points.

“He accepted that role and just ran with it,” defensive lineman JJ Pegues said of Perkins. ‘He’s very quiet. He doesn’t say too much. He just goes out there and does what he does. We call him the silent killer. Whatever he does, we’re not surprised by it. He plays SEC football, and that’s what we expected (from him).”

Perkins is currently tied for the SEC lead in sacks, and he already ranks ninth on the Ole Miss single-season list.

Perkins and the Rebels will travel to Arkansas in hopes of defeating the Razorbacks in Fayetteville for the first time since 2008. Kickoff is scheduled for 11 a.m. and will be broadcast on ESPN.

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