Brian Kelly defends Garrett Nussmeier, says he is 'nowhere near' the issues LSU has

LSU might have some questions to solve offensively. However, Brian Kelly doesn’t think that any of them involve their new starting quarterback in Garrett Nussmeier.

Kelly assessed Nussmeier’s play through a pair of starts this season during his postgame press conference following the 44-21 win last weekend over Nicholls State. He thinks that Nussmeier has been what they’ve needed him to be both with his arm and with his legs.

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“Yeah, I mean, Garrett is – he’s a really effective and efficient thrower of the football,” Kelly said.

“We saw tonight that, you know, when he gets the opportunity, he can run the football for us, you know. He had a couple of opportunities when they were in drop eights. They were in drop eight a couple of times, played some two man and, you know, he used his legs,” added Kelly. “He’s very athletic. He can certainly do that.”

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Nussmeier is 57-76 (75%) in passing through the two games this year for 610 yards, eight touchdowns, and just the one pick to end the opener. He also had his first two carries against Colonels where he picked up 13 yards.

The main issue for the Tigers’ offense is what they’re lacking in the run game at just 90.5 yards a game on 3.9 yards per carry. That goes on the rushers, offensive line, and coaches more than anything rather than Nussmeier.

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“Garrett Nussmeier is nowhere near any of the issues that we have,” Kelly stated.

“I mean, we’ve got to run the football and he’s not the running back, he’s not the offensive line. Again, I think that that’s, you know – if there’s anything that we need to kind of, you know, settle is we’ve got to really look closely at what we’re doing in the run game,” said Kelly. “The players are good enough. We’ve got to coach better and that is on me.”

LSU has who they have, including Nussmeier, and isn’t getting anyone else. That means making do with what they have at all spots as they open conference play this weekend.

“The guys we have in there? We’ve got to keep coaching them. We’ve got to get them better,” said Kelly. “They’re going to have to play next week against South Carolina – just better than they played this week.”