Former SEC, NFL QB calls LSU QB Garrett Nussmeier "one of the most unsung players" in CFB

Garrett Nussmeier is gradually becoming one of the breakout stars of the college football season in terms of both his Saturday performances for LSU and his Sunday potential for the NFL.

The redshirt junior quarterback is second in the SEC and sixth nationally with 2,222 passing yards and leads the conference with 18 passing touchdowns, good for No. 7 in the country.

And former Florida and NFL quarterback Jesse Palmer, now broadcasting for ESPN and the SEC Network, thinks Nussmeier is still among the more under-appreciated players in college football right now and an increasingly intriguing NFL prospect.

A visit to the Ryen Russillo Podcast this past week quickly swung from the two national media voices talking about the early struggles and development of the Tigers’ defense to nearly two and a half minutes of Palmer laying out his own respect for the young passer’s game.

“I’ll tell you a guy that I don’t think enough people are really talking about is Garrett Nussmeier and just how well he’s played at the quarterback position,” Palmer transitioned. “Obviously you lose Jayden Daniels, and everybody’s like, ‘Whoa, what’s this offense gonna be? It’s gonna be boring. It’s gonna be traditional. They’re jut gonna be handing it off, and he’s gonna have to try to get it done from the pocket.’ He has been playing so incredibly well. And his ability to anticipate throws — like when you watch the film of Garrett, so many times in games, he’s able to get it out. I mean, he doesn’t have Jayden’s escapability, so he has to rely on the clock in his head and just throwing balls way before receivers are out of their breaks. And just understanding coverage, picking spots downfield to lay the ball into, it’s remarkable.

“I just, as a former quarterback myself, I can tell you anticipation is something that I think sometimes is inherent. It’s not easy to teach. You can rep it in practice, and you can talk about it all you want. I think some guys got it. I think some guys don’t. Garrett Nussmeier has it, and every single week. Like, his offensive line is really good. They may have the best combination of offensive tackles in (Will) Campbell and (Emery) Jones in the entire country. But he’s under duress a lot. He’s got to get rid of it early, and he does it every single week. It’s remarkable.”

Both Russillo and Palmer pointed to the fourth-quarter, fourth-down throw to Aaron Anderson late in LSU’s comeback Oct. 12 against Ole Miss as an example of the type of throws rapidly bolstering his NFL draft stock.

And Palmer went on to praise the son of former NFL quarterback Doug Nussmeier, now the quarterbacks coach for the Philadelphia Eagles, for his patience in Baton Rouge in the current landscape of college athletics.

“His NFL evaluation, watching him play, he’s got a lot of stuff that a lot of NFL teams are gonna want,” Palmer said. “I also think he deserves credit too, because we’re in this era of college football, especially as a quarterback, if you lose the competition in the offseason or you get benched in the season — portal, like automatically. And how often do we see quarterbacks jump twice, sometimes three times. We’ve seen dudes go four times, just hopping all over like Emory Jones, D.J. Uiagalelei. We see guys just moving all over the place.

“Garrett Nussmeier has stayed loyal to LSU through two head coaches. Remember he lost the job to Max Johnson back in the day in the offseason, and then Jayden Daniels happens. You get him in from Arizona State, so now you’re outta luck. And he stuck it out at LSU, believing that’s his best opportunity through two different coordinators and offenses. And now it’s paying dividends. Like, I think Garrett Nussmeier’s one of the most unsung players right now for a lot of different reasons. But the Ole Miss game was like the icing on the cake. And hopefully in a big audience, in a big window, people got a chance to finally see that.”