Garrett Nussmeier: 'We all know the expectation has been raised'

The 2024 college football season is nearly here and, once again, there are massive expectations for the LSU Tigers. That comes in a season where the team will have a new starting quarterback in Garrett Nussmeier.

Heading into the season, Nussmeier knows that the bar has been raised and feels that 10 wins just isn’t good enough anymore.

“We’ve been talking about it since spring,” Garrett Nussmeier said. “We all know that the expectation has been raised.”

Current head coach Brian Kelly came to LSU in 2022 as the winningest coach in the history of Notre Dame. Since then, he’s put together back-to-back 10-win seasons and played for the SEC Championship. Now, with the College Football Playoff field expanding, it’s expected that LSU is in the mix to make it there as well.

“We all know the bar’s been raised. We all know that we’re not okay with just winning 10 wins. I’ve said that before and Will [Campbell] said it the other day,” Nussmeier said.

“Like I’ve said plenty of times, it’s not a result-based thought process. It’s an expectation of how we play and to go about our daily processes. It’s about how we want to act in the meeting room during Fall Camp, how we want to process what happened on the field, and how we want to transfer it over to the next day on the field. It’s how we attack each practice, each rep, each set.”

Quarterback is going to be a question mark for LSU entering this season. Last year, the Tigers were led by Jayden Daniels, a Heisman winner who went on to become the second-overall pick in the NFL Draft. Garrett Nussmeier now takes over as a former four-star recruit in the Class of 2021. He’s appeared in 18 games over his first three seasons with the program.

“So, that’s kind of been our mindset,” Nussmeier said. “Focusing on the now but the expectation definitely has been raised.”

Will Campbell believes Garrett Nussmeier will ‘light the SEC up’

Will Campbell, an offensive lineman at LSU, believes that Garrett Nussmeier is going to take the SEC by storm this season and light up the competition.

“[Nussmeier] has definitely waited his turn,” Campbell said.

“I couldn’t be more excited for him. He’s gonna go out there and light the SEC up. I mean, obviously the offense is different compared to last year. I mean, everyone here knows [Nussmeier] isn’t gonna bust down the sideline for 90 [yards], every five plays — but he very well could. The style is different. But it’s going to effective, we’re going to get the job done and score a lot of points.”