LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier and linebacker Harold Perkins spoke to the media after the loss to USC on Sunday. The Tigers fell to the Trojans 27-20, marking their fifth straight season-opening loss.

The game also marks Nussmeier’s first regular season game as LSU’s starting quarterback, a position he has wanted for three years.

“It sucks,” Nussmeier said. “Obviously we wanted to come out here and get the win. I think that it will also be a very good learning experience for us as a team and where we want to end up this year.”

Nussmeier threw for 304 yards, two touchdowns and one interception. The interception sealed LSU’s fate after USC scored a touchdown to put them in the lead with under 30 seconds to play.

“We had opportunities to step on their throat and we had an opportunity to put the game away and we didn’t do it,” Nussmeier said. “That’s the focus. Just getting better, staying together.”

Perkins and the defense showed improvement from last season, with Brian Kelly mentioning in his postgame comments he was happy with the tackling work.

Perkins emphasized the team’s need to execute in critical situations, attributing their lack of doing so as one of the main contributors to the loss.

“It just comes down to execution,” Perkins said. “Everybody got to do their job. We just got to execute as a team, offensively and defensively.”

As for the undisciplined penalties, Perkins said the guys who received them know better and will do better next week when they play Nicholls.

“Guys that got the flags, they’re not crazy or nothing. They know. They know they can’t do that and they hurt the team. We just got to do better as a team.”