Greg McElroy urges people to not sleep on LSU

After seeing them live last weekend in Death Valley, Greg McElroy has his eyes on LSU.

McElroy had the Tigers as one of his top takeaways from this past week during ‘Always College Football’. With what he saw, he thinks there’s a lot to like right now about the development of that team down in Baton Rouge.

“Do not sleep on LSU,” McElroy stated. “I’m just telling you right now.”

To be fair, McElroy did believe that the Rebels gave the game away in several ways themselves. Still, LSU had to capitalize regardless and did so to take the 29-26 OT win in the Top-15 matchup.

“I watched that game, I called that game, I was in the building for that game. This LSU team, I think, was outplayed for most of the game – most of it, okay. I thought Ole Miss left a few plays on the board. Ole Miss had a fourth down & one that was stopped behind the line of scrimmage inside the LSU 10. Ole Miss missed a field goal high and right…They had a drop by their best offensive player downfield that, if they catch it, he scores and it’s a different-looking ball game. They had about four different fourth-down opportunities, it felt like, to get off the field,” McElroy recalled. “Ole Miss, I thought, outplayed LSU, really, from start to finish. But LSU is one of those teams where they’re always seemingly capable of creating a matchup that will beat you.”

Again, more than one aspect makes McElroy think that about LSU, including their defense.

However, the main reasoning is what he has seen from their quarterback in Garrett Nussmeier. While his outing against Ole Miss wasn’t most efficient, Nussmeier still put on a performance with what he had to do in the passing game, especially late. With that, his progression is something that’ll be worth watching from here for McElroy.

“I think their quarterback is the real deal,” said McElroy. “You’re going to look at Garrett Nussmeier’s numbers and you’re going to say, ‘Well, c’mon man. I mean, the numbers are just unimpressive from this past weekend. Yeah, he threw for a lot of yards but look at the completion percentage’. Look at the throws he was being asked to execute. Look how many times they asked him to throw the ball down the field – low-percentage throws. How often he was pushing it down field into tight coverage, how often he was able to actually execute those throws.”

“Like, Garrett Nussmeier, the Garrett Nussmeier you’re getting right now? I don’t want to say the worst because that has a negative connotation. But the Garrett Nussmeier that you’re getting today? Be glad that you got him today because, here in a couple of weeks, this dude is going to be the real deal,” McElroy said. “Like, I think this kid is crazy talented…Just looking at all of that, I think Nussmeier is going to get better and better and better as the season goes along.”

While being undefeated in the SEC, LSU has several quality opponents still on their schedule. Still, with how they’ve improved through the last month and a half, McElroy sees the Tigers only being better by the end of this season.

“They are going to be a real problem, a real problem, for a bunch of teams down the stretch,” said McElroy. “Maybe LSU somehow backdoors their way into the SEC Championship. I don’t know how it happens but their schedule is kind of manageable.”

“Like, I’m telling you. This LSU team? The arrow is pointing up – big-time up,” said McElroy. “They were fortunate this weekend that Ole Miss made some critical mistakes that allowed LSU to steal it but their best football is in front of them.”