LSU Football: Myles Brennan steps away from football

LSU’s quarterback competition has been one of the biggest talking points in the SEC West, never mind Louisiana, during the last six months. The Tigers are heading into the 2022/23 season with a completely different look than in years past. New coach Brian Kelly heads a team looking to bounce back from two disappointing seasons. He brings with him two new coordinators—Mike Denbrock and Matt House—who will completely change the way the team plays going forward.

These exciting new developments have made this quarterback competition so difficult to predict heading into Fall Camp. Even throughout the last few weeks of practice, Kelly has given reporters very little to go on. Thus, the media has had to speculate as to who the starter would be. LSU’s four quarterbacks have used the spring to compete for the QB1 title, with three names believed to be scrapping for a realistic shot at the role. The odds are now greater for a couple of players.

LSU quarterback Myles Brennan announces he will step away from football

Long-time LSU gunslinger Myles Brennan decided on Monday that he would be stepping away from football. It was reportedly relayed to Brennan during Fall Camp that he would not be named the Tigers’ starting quarterback this season. The Long Beach, Mississippi native has been on campus since 2017. He was looking to transfer at the end of the season, but Kelly and his staff convinced him to give it another go in Baton Rouge.

It’s not particularly a surprise that Brennan has been removed from the race considering he hasn’t played in a competitive game of college football in almost two years. He’s had a tough time waiting in the wings with the Tigers, unfortunately always picking up an injury when the spotlight was on him. It’s unclear at this point whether Brennan is retiring from the game altogether or just taking a year off before transferring elsewhere for his final year of eligibility. However, it’s now apparent that the 23-year-old will not take another snap for LSU.

As the great Agatha Christie would say, “and then there were two.”

This leaves just three big names at quarterback on the Tigers’ depth chart: Jayden Daniels, Walker Howard and Garrett Nussmeier. It’s long been believed that Howard will redshirt during the 2022/23 season, leaving Daniels and Nussmeier as the two starting candidates.

LSU fans will be relatively familiar with the latter after he appeared in four games last season. Nussmeier’s name doesn’t exactly jump off the stat sheet—29 for 57 passing, 329 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions—but he did show off his cannon of an arm a couple of times during his freshman year.

Nevertheless, with Brennan now out of the picture, the Tigers’ starting quarterback job is Daniels’ to lose. The true dual-threat quarterback racked up over 7,300 yards passing and rushing during his 29 games at Arizona State. He’s tallied 45 total touchdowns and only thrown 13 interceptions in his career, which speaks to his overall technical ability and talent. The Sun Devils were 18-12 during Daniels’ tenure under center in Tempe. He’ll now look to improve that record this fall if he is given the starting nod as expected for Kelly’s first season under the Tiger Stadium lights.