Brian Kelly will not name starting quarterback ahead of Week 1, cites 'tactical advantage'

The LSU football team has one of the last remaining quarterback battles in the nation between Jayden Daniels and Garrett Nussmeier. With the Tiger’s season just days from opening, the clock was ticking on Brian Kelly to formally announce his starter. However, those plans have changed following his news conference this morning.

Kelly announced that the team would not announce the starter publicly. Tiger fans as well as Florida State will have to wait and see on Saturday for which of Daniels or Nussmeier takes the opening snap of the season.

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With Myles Brennan leaving football behind a few weeks ago, this decision has boiled down to Daniels and Nussmeier to end fall camp. With several other competitions being won throughout the country, Kelly has decided to play it strategically and keep this decision in his back pocket. He’ll have everyone guessing until the Tigers see the field Sunday against the Seminoles.

Jayden Daniels or Garrett Nussmeier? Brian Kelly, LSU confident in both

Since arriving at LSU, Daniels hasn’t wasted time developing a rapport with LSU’s top playmakers. In fall practice, he hit star Kayshon Boutte on a deep ball that showed the potential for the 2022 LSU offense.

Daniels jumped into a busy quarterback room with Garrett Nussmeier and Myles Brennan. Brennan left the team during fall camp, leaving Daniels and Nussmeier.

“At the end of the day, everything is solely focused on us,” Daniels said during fall camp. “We look at it as, how can we help the offense. At the end of the day, everybody is prepared to play be position and prepared to be the starter. That’s what we worked on, that’s the relationship we built to go out there.”

Coming out of San Bernardino (Calif.) Cajon in the 2019 recruiting class, Jayden Daniels ranked as the No. 50 overall prospect and No. 3 quarterback nationally, according to the On3 Consensus. The On3 Consensus is a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies.

Coming out of Flower Mound (Tex.) Marcus, Garrett Nussmeier ranked on the On3 2021 Consensus as the No. 89 overall prospect and No. 12 quarterback nationally.