"Now, it’s his car..." How Nussmeier has taken the wheel for LSU
Brian Kelly has kicked off Monday Morning’s SEC Media festivities with an appearance on the SEC This Morning show before he takes the podium in Dallas, Texas. Along the way, he reflected on last year and the players he lost to the NFL, but when asked about his belief in the offense for 2024, it’s Garrett Nussmeier who has laid the foundation for what the Tigers are capable of and Kelly came up with an interesting analogy for Nussmeier, his first year starting quarterback.
“He’s been amazing and amazing in the sense of watching a player go from the No. 2 quarterback to the No. 1 quarterback,” Kelly said, “I’ll give you this analogy: When you’re the No. 2, it’s not your car, so you’re a little reckless with it. You’re OK if it’s dented or if you run it off the road. That was him maybe getting a little careless with the interceptions. Now, it’s his car and you can see the way he’s driving, he’s very very proud of this car. The way he does things every day, you can see that leadership coming together as the starting quarterback and it’s really fun to watch.”
Nussmeier enters his redshirt junior season having completed 129 passes for 1,720 yards, 11 touchdowns and seven interceptions. So far in his career he has two defining moments, the first coming in the 2022 SEC Championship game where he had to play the entire second half against Georgia and had a strong showing. The second was the last time LSU took the field, in the ReliaQuest Bowl against Wisconsin where he played the entire game and led a game-winning touchdown drive to secure the 10th win of the season for his team.
Nussmeier has been thrown into the fire time after time as a back-up, but this year he gets the keys to the car and has talked throughout the offseason about how important that is to him and his focus on developing into the player his team needs him to be.
“We just continue to do the same work we’ve been doing,” Nussmeier said at the Manning gPassing Academy last month. “Continue to take it day by day and get better each and every day. I love Coach Sloan. I wouldn’t want to play for anybody else. I value our relationship a whole lot. I don’t believe there’s anybody else in the country that will be able to get me more ready to play just based on our relationship and how much he knows me and how much he knows how to push me and make me better. He’s probably harder on me than anybody. And I’m okay with that because it pushes me. I really appreciate that also.
“Like we talked about earlier, just growing up from two years ago and now I was just doing my job and doing things the way that I’m coached to do them. I guess you could say it was kind of cool and it really was. But I’d say, we’re excited for this season and to get to be out there and play again.”
