While the goal of competition is typically to win, competition within a team tends to have multiple goals, both individual and collective.
For example, say you and your coworkers are required to pitch ideas to better your company, with the best idea resulting in a promotion. While your mindset may be to give it your all simply to earn a promotion, the company’s goal is to obtain the best idea possible by means of incentive.
And if you, the individual, care about the success of your company and hear an idea that’s better than your own, you may be content with that idea being implemented, even if it means you didn’t earn the promotion. This seems like the attitude both Jayden Daniels and Garrett Nussmeier have regarding the LSU quarterback situation.
Each quarterback preached their desire to put the best team available on the field in September. Winning or losing the quarterback battle doesn’t matter to them as much as winning games in the fall.
“It’s not necessarily looked at as a competition,” Nussmeier said. “It’s looked at as how we can get better because at the end of the day, all we’re focused on is LSU winning football games.”
Nussmeier mentioned that the competition has not negatively influenced his relationship with the other quarterbacks and discussed the importance of that fact. He believes that taking the competition personally would hurt the team’s morale.
“We’re both focused on improving ourselves and rooting for the other so that the offense stays in rhythm,” Nussmeier said. “If one of us is rooting on the other’s downfall and the offense slacking, it’s just going to hurt the offense on Saturdays.”
Good relationships within the quarterback room are hugely beneficial to an offense as the better the relationship. The better the communication, and with better communication, the more likely it is for one quarterback to advise another.
This quarterback room is one that has displayed strong maturity, humility and desire to achieve a collective goal rather than an individual one. Nussmeier, Daniels, and the recently departed Myles Brennan accepted that three starter-caliber quarterbacks were in the same room and worked to produce the best quarterback possible, rather than transferring to a situation where they had a better chance at starting.
That is especially clear when you consider Daniels’ situation. Coming off three straight seasons of starting for a Power Five school in Arizona State, Daniels had the option to settle and continue to start for a team that offered him enough exposure to get noticed by the NFL.
LSU was a much tougher situation, not just because of quarterback competition, but because of SEC competition. But Daniels saw the obstacles that came with taking this chance and decided that LSU was his best opportunity to improve his game as much as possible.
“It’s an opportunity to play at the highest level,” Daniels said. “The SEC West is what they consider to be the ‘Mini NFL,’ so why not be able to showcase my talents at the highest level.”
That decision could cost him a starting job, but it could also provide him with the best chance at making the NFL. As he mentioned, the SEC is the closest thing to the NFL that college football has to offer, in terms of both exposure and level of play.
It’s an unfortunate reality that one of these athletes will lose the competition. When asked what he would do in that situation, Nussmeier’s answer held consistent with his team-first attitude.
“I’m going to do whatever I’m told to do,” Nussmeier said. “I was a backup last year and I don’t think you guys saw me for one second moping or complaining, like all I cared about was us winning games.”
With Nussmeier being a redshirt freshman, it’s very likely that he will stay and continue developing with LSU. It’s less clear how Daniels, who has two years of eligibility remaining, will react, but Nussmeier believes his teammate sports the same mindset.
“If I’m in, I think Jayden [would] be the same way because that’s just how we’re wired,” Nussmeier said.
Currently, the race is still neck-and-neck, but one quarterback could gain an edge after tomorrow. LSU’s Wednesday practice is a full scrimmage, which will give us a much better look at the competition.
