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Garrett Nussmeier, Jayden Daniels, and being the guy who has to replace ‘the guy’
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DALLAS — When Garrett Nussmeier stood on the sideline inside Bryant-Denny Stadium as a true freshman quarterback in 2021, he felt at ease. Absent were the jitters you’d expect of a college football newbie in a daunting SEC road environment. He remembered standing on Alabama sidelines back when he was 12. Been there, done that.
Garrett’s father, Doug, was the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Alabama in 2012 and 2013. He held the same title at Florida from 2015-17. He’s now in the NFL, extending a 2-decades-long career coaching quarterbacks and coordinating offenses.
For some players, being a coach’s son might add pressure. For Nussmeier, being so close to the action for most of his life has helped to alleviate whatever pressure might exist.
“I think it’s given me more experiences,” he said Monday at SEC Media Days. “Those situations and the big moments, they never really bothered me.”
Nussmeier has completed 129 passes in his 3-year career at LSU. He sat behind Max Johnson as a freshman, then he sat behind Jayden Daniels for 2 years, watching Daniels win the Heisman Trophy and cement his status as one of the most accomplished quarterbacks to come through the school.
It’s hard to follow a legend, but it’s just as hard to sit and wait.
Nussmeier is an outlier in modern college football. He was a top-100 recruit in the 2021 class, a 4-star quarterback ranked as 1 of the 15 best quarterbacks in the country. He would have had options had he decided to enter the transfer portal in pursuit of earlier playing time.
And the coach he committed to is not the coach he currently plays for. But he waited his turn and believed the patience would pay off. Which, of course, it has. The room cleared out for him this offseason. The starting quarterback job at LSU is his job now.
“I mean, there’s obviously temptation. I love playing the game of football. So obviously I wanted to be playing on Saturdays,” Nussmeier said. But his decision to sign with the Tigers was rooted in his faith. “God brought me to LSU for a reason. I did not feel it was my time to just pack up and leave. I felt like it was my duty to just keep my head down and trust in His timing, just work. I know God’s timing is always right. Sometimes we want things right away, and that’s not how it’s supposed to be.”
But now there’s a different kind of pressure in Baton Rouge thanks to the brilliant season Daniels authored last fall.
Daniels is the only player in FBS history to pass for 12,000 yards and rush for 3,000 yards in a career. He joined Johnny Manziel as the only 2 players in SEC history to pass for 3,500 yards and rush for 1,000 yards in a season. He’s 1 of only 5 players in SEC history to produce 50 total touchdowns in a season. He set an FBS record for passer rating (208.0) in a season. And the third Heisman in program history was the reward for his excellence and cemented his status as 1 of LSU’s Top 25 players of all time.
Undoubtedly, Nussmeier will be compared to Daniels. How much slippage will occur in the offensive transition? Can LSU build on last year’s 10-win season or will the Tigers take a step back? Those were talking points when LSU came up on the SEC Network desk in the corner opposite the main stage at the Omni Hotel on Monday. Current odds from DraftKings suggest it is unlikely LSU will make the College Football Playoff (+120) and gives the Tigers less than a 10% chance to win the SEC.
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GET THE APPIt would be natural for a player to get caught up in the comparison.
“Obviously what Jayden was able to do last year and what he was able to accomplish was pretty special. Getting to watch it and learn things from him, I feel like it benefitted me a lot,” Nussmeier said. “I wouldn’t say I’m too worried about trying to be the next Jayden Daniels or the next Joe Burrow. I’m focused on who I am, who I can be for my teammates, for this team, for this year. Every year’s a new year.
“There’s going to be a pressure around it, and I accept that. Pressure is a privilege and I’m excited for it. I think that we’re worried about us as a team and less worried about what people have to say.”
The coaching staff hasn’t had to counsel Nussmeier on how to handle being the guy to replace the guy, either. Nussmeier says they haven’t talked about managing expectations. They haven’t needed to.
“This is the way college football is,” Nussmeier said. “If you play, you’re going to play behind somebody that probably was good.”
Their skills are different, but LSU coach Brian Kelly sees similarities in mindset between Daniels and Nussmeier. Teammates said his leadership has grown. And Nussmeier has been good about taking what happens in the meeting room and applying it to the field.
“Take the offense, take the things that are taught in the classroom, and be able to translate those things to the field. That was one of Jayden Daniel’s best assets. You could watch it, talk about it, he could recite it. You could be in a meeting and you would walk out of that meeting and go, ‘Amazing.’ His recall, his ability to go through all the progressions, his ability to know everything in terms of blitz protection, and then in a game he could do it,” Kelly said. “That gift, that ability is what makes the great quarterbacks great, and Garrett has been able to do that as well.”
Nussmeier said his bowl performance last season helps with the confidence, too.
In a 35-31 win over Wisconsin in the ReliaQuest Bowl, Nussmeier started his first career game and threw for 395 yards and 3 scores. He completed 31-of-45 passes, was picked off just once, and led a second-half comeback after LSU fell down 28-14 early in the third quarter.
With 6 minutes left, Nussmeier led an 8-play, 98-yard touchdown drive to win the game. He hit his last 3 throws — a 37-yard completion to Kyren Lacy, a 43-yard completion to Chris Hilton Jr., and then a 4-yard touchdown to Brian Thomas Jr.
Unflappable. Unbothered, perhaps. We’ll see if things change once the season begins and the pressure turns up, but the messaging at Media Days on Monday was that Nussmeier is ready for his moment and unburdened by his predecessor.
“Now he’s got the keys to the car,” said Kelly. “I couldn’t be more happy for him and for our football program that he’s leading us.”
Derek Peterson does a bit of everything, not unlike Taysom Hill. He has covered Oklahoma, Nebraska, the Pac-12, and now delivers CFB-wide content.
