LSU Football: The silver lining with Myles Brennan’s unfortunate injury
By Zach Ragan
LSU football received some extremely tough news on Monday.
The program announced that redshirt senior quarterback Myles Brennan will undergo surgery on his throwing arm after suffering a “severe” injury.
For now, there’s no timetable for Brennan’s return to the field.
“His (Brennan) timeline is yet to be determined,” said Orgeron in a statement on Monday. “Myles has done everything we have asked of him this summer and was in the fight to be the starting quarterback at LSU.”
Sophomore Max Johnson will be the starting quarterback for the Tigers in week one against UCLA, barring a bizarre turn of events.
The silver lining for LSU football after Myles Brennan’s injury
Before we get to the silver lining in Brennan’s injury, let’s be clear — this is a horrible development for Brennan and LSU.
The Tigers are a weaker program because of the loss of Brennan.
But unfortunately, this is the situation that LSU has to deal with now. So as always, we want to find something positive for fans to focus on.
And the only positive we can glean is that this will expedite the development of true freshman quarterback Garrett Nussmeier.
Nussmeier, a former four-star recruit from Texas, might be the best quarterback on the Tigers’ roster.
Orgeron spoke glowingly of Nussmeier during the spring, even comparing the true freshman to former LSU quarterback Joe Burrow.
“I don’t want to put that on him yet because Joe was very special,” said Orgeron in April (via USA Today). “I do see some similarities that Garrett has as far as leadership, as far as competitiveness, ability to make plays. I think he’s only going to get better here. I think he’s going to be a great quarterback here.”
With Brennan sidelined, it means that Nussmeier will officially be one snap away from being the Tigers’ starting quarterback. It also means he’ll start getting all the second-team reps (and probably some first-team reps here and there, too).
College football these days requires having two stud quarterbacks. Injuries are part of the game. And they happen frequently. Hopefully, Johnson can stay healthy and play a full, uninterrupted season.
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But if that isn’t the case, the Tigers have a great backup option in Nussmeier. And he’ll receive plenty of reps this fall to be ready in case his number is called upon this season.