‘Frustrated’ Nussmeier still encouraged by 2-0 record

By Hunt Palmer

Saturday night wasn’t Garrett Nussmeier’s best.

Weeks 1 and 2 weren’t the LSU passing game’s best.

The Tigers have moved the football, but big plays have been hard to come by, and the point totals aren’t where anyone in purple and gold would want them.

Still, the Tigers are 2-0, somewhere no one on this roster has been at LSU.

“There’s so much room for us to grow,” Nussmeier said, “In Week 1, we went through a lot of adversity in a tough game on the road in a tough environment, and I thought that we did an unbelievable job of just pushing through when things weren’t perfect. We made a lot of mistakes but were also able to make plays and get in the right situations. I was so proud of us. Last week, obviously wasn’t perfect, but we’re 2-0, and being able to learn from those mistakes while also winning ballgames has been huge.”

Nussmeier threw for 311 yards per game a season ago and topped 300 yards in eight of 13 games. His totals of 232 and 237 yards in the first two games would have ranked last and third to last among 2024’s totals. Only a 233-yard effort against Arkansas was in the same neighborhood.

But this is a different team.

LSU was able to escape Clemson with a win thanks to a defense that shut the home-standing Tigers out in the second half. Nussmeier was often tasked with piloting an offense that made up for shoddy defense a season ago. He was asked Tuesday if the defense’s play early on has changed the way he approaches offense.

“For me, as a quarterback, for sure just making sure to do the smart thing, make smart decisions and know that, hey, we can punt and pin someone deep, and our defense is going to get a stop,” Nussmeier said. “So, that’s been huge for us thus far.”

Saturday’s win over Louisiana Tech was marred by an early interception on an uncharacteristic Nussmeier misfire. On the first LSU drive, Barion Brown broke free beyond the Bulldog secondary, but Nussmeier’s throw came up short and was easily intercepted by a trailing Tech defensive back.

“It’s just one of those things,” Nussmeier said dismissively. “It just happens sometimes when you play quarterback. I just didn’t make the throw. I left it really, really short, obviously. That can’t happen. It is what it is. You’ve just got to move on from it.”

LSU, as an offensive whole, will have to move on entering SEC play. Currently the Tigers rank 108^th nationally in scoring offense. It’s too early and schedules vary too much to take a week two ranking as gospel, but things have to improve.

This week that may have to happen without center Braelin Moore who is dealing with an ankle injury he sustained on the game’s first snap Saturday night.

As the middle man, Moore set protections and runs the offensive line. Nussmeier said Tuesday that Moore has been “unbelievable” but that he believed the offense could still hum without the veteran center. DJ Chester, LSU’s starting center from 2024, is ready to step in.

“There’s a lot of familiarity there,” Nussmeier said. “We played 12 games last year, so we have that chemistry. So, I don’t think it was very difficult for us to get on the same page. Also, he’s somebody that does a great job leading. Even when his role became on the outside looking in, he still does an unbelievable job of encouraging and keeping those guys together.”

With the defense taking a little bit of pressure off the offense and the Tigers off to a good start in terms of wins and losses, the feeling in the LSU locker room is positive, but the word frustrated came out of Nussmeier’s mouth three times on Tuesday.

He used it when referencing offensive coordinator Joe Sloan’s general attitude toward the start.

“He’s kind if similar to what I’ve said,” Nussmeier said. “We’re frustrated but encouraged at the fact that we’ve won those games. We’re able to learn from wins not learn from losses. Because you don’t want to be in that situation. Having the confidence of saying, hey, we did what we needed to do when it was time to get it done, but how much better we can be if we fix these certain things.”

That’s not exactly wishful thinking.

Nussmeier is a proven 4,000-yard passer. Aaron Anderson has over 1,000 yards since arriving at LSU. Zavion Thomas has been making plays for four years in the SEC. Nic Anderson set the Oklahoma freshman touchdown record, and Chris Hilton is a proven deep threat.

The proven weapons are there. They just have to come together. Nussmeier knows that.

“Once we start rolling and showing our huge potential and start hitting on our deep balls, start connecting in the intermediate game, get things right, I think you’ll start to see a lot more people start to get opportunities to make a lot more plays.”