Garrett Nussmeier entered the season with Heisman Trophy aspirations and a shot at being the No. 1 pick in the 2026 NFL Draft. Now, nine weeks into the season, LSU is 5-3, he is +40000 to take home the individual hardware, and the fans in Baton Rouge have turned on his head coach.
There have been reports about an oblique injury that led to Nussmeier’s struggles, but you don’t need them to see how banged up the redshirt senior is on Saturdays. He was sacked five times against Texas A&M on Saturday, hit three more, and on one occasion, he hobbled to the sideline, seemingly hunched over in pain after an LSU possession.
Yet, with a make-shift offensive line, Brian Kelly left Nussmeier in the fourth quarter, trailing 49-18.
Brian Kelly should’ve have benched Garrett Nussmeier sooner
With this loss to A&M, LSU doesn’t have much left to play for this season. The Tigers aren’t making the SEC Championship, and any dream of an at-large bid into the College Football Playoff has gone out the window. Still, it might be wise to protect your veteran quarterback who has gutted through injuries all season in a game that was finished in the third quarter.
For all of Nussmeier’s struggles as a thrower, and they’ve been well-documented with his drop in velocity from last season, LSU’s biggest issue is the offensive line tasked with keeping him clean. In Week 9, Nussmeier was pressured nine times and sacked five times, despite an average time to throw of 2.15 seconds.
Sacks and even pressures can often be a quarterback stat. However, Nussmeier was not holding onto the ball or drifting into trouble. LSU’s offensive linemen were losing, and losing immediately. His average time to sack was just 2.92 seconds. Look at Cashius Howell’s two sacks. Nussmeier never had a chance.
Cashius Howell sacked Garrett Nussmeier twice and just all-around destroyed LSU’s gameplan
— NFL Draft Files (@NFL_DF) October 26, 2025
He’s on 1st round trajectory for the 2026 Draft pic.twitter.com/OuHw1QjUwc
One of LSU’s potential solutions up front was to play true freshman Carius Curne at left tackle. He allowed three pressures and a sack in his 39 pass blocking snaps, which isn’t good, but is a significant improvement from DJ Chester, who played 13 total snaps, 10 as a pass blocker, and gave up five pressures and a sack. Chester registers a 0.0 pass blocking grade according to PFF.
At this point, even heading into a bye week, Nussmeier may not have a chance to ever get fully healthy, but that doesn’t mean Kelly needs to hang his QB out to dry and risk getting him more banged up before a trip to Tuscaloosa on November 8.