Garrett Nussmeier injury update: Brian Kelly reveals diagnosis for LSU QB

Rumors this week out of Baton Rouge suggested LSU QB Garrett Nussmeier was dealing with a major injury. While that has since been disproven, the Tigers’ quarterback does have an issue with his knee coming into the season.

Per Brian Kelly on Friday, ahead of a press conference for OC Joe Sloan this morning, Nussmeier has tendinitis in the patella of his knee. It’s worth mentioning, especially for transparency’s sake, but isn’t something the team sounds to be concerned about to this point.

“Just for the record, (Nussmeier) has tendinitis, patella tendinitis. He does not have a torn ACL. We have not amputated his leg,” Kelly said. “He has a (pissed off) patella tendon. He was out there today throwing. Tomorrow, he’ll be back out, most likely in a practice situation. So, I thought we’d calm everybody down.

“On the scale of 1 to 10, this is like a 1.5, on the scale of 1 to 10. And that’s just being honest with you so we get the right information out there, you know, regarding Nuss. It’s not a serious injury. And, it’s like guys dealing with tendinitis virtually every day, in life – take two Aspirins and I’ll call you in the morning, right? This is more precautionary.”

This comes after reports and rumors emerged coming out of Wednesday’s practice at fall camp that Nussmeier had suffered a significant knee injury. It took some time to verify, as the team’s practice was closed that day, but it was eventually disputed later on, including through reporting by Shea Dixon at The Bengal Tiger.

Still, considering the concern it caused because of what it would mean for this season with Nussmeier as a Heisman contender and LSU hopeful to make the College Football Playoff, it needed to be addressed. Kelly made sure to do that himself.

“I think it just planted, you know, the wrong way. And, when you have something that is, you know, a pre-existing condition, you can piss it off real easy and that’s kind of what happened,” Kelly explained. “It’s not torn. There’s no fraying. There’s none of that. This is pre-existing. And, he probably just planted the wrong way. There’s nothing really to see on film with it. But, it’s pissed it off. Aggravated it, would be the better way to put it for me, if you guys articulate for me. He aggravated it a little bit, but he’s good to go.”

Kelly also mentioned this likely goes back to a prior surgery he had in his career at LSU. Whatever he did to it in practice that day has caused the tendinitis to flare up on him, with it being nothing more than that from their evaluation of it since.

“A lot of that is due to his 2023 Osgood-Schlatter surgery that he had when the tendon was irritated back then,” Kelly said. “This is just chronic. (Pissed it off) a little bit and we’ll calm it down. I mean, it’s tendinitis, you know. Tendinitis is managed every single day around the world for all kinds of, you know, different ailments. But, no. I mean, he’ll be – like I said. Just like a bad ankle, that you’re going to come back in. He’ll be back out. He was throwing today and be back out tomorrow.”

The sky was falling for a minute there based on some of what was being said around LSU. However, while having a bit of ailment with his knee, all is still apparently well with Nussmeier, with him set to be back at practice on Saturday.

“The world is still round,” Kelly stated.