As the 2025 college football season unfolds, LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier continues to draw scrutiny for what appears to be a dip in his performance compared to his breakout 2024 campaign.
While the Tigers stand at 3-0 for the first time in six seasons, Nussmeier’s stats suggest a more conservative and less explosive performance. Many fans, coaches and analysts have weighed in on his play, often pointing to decision-making and scheme adjustments as factors, with a new injury concern coming to light this week.
“He’s been slowed a little bit with a torso injury, and he’s fighting through it, and he’s getting better,” LSU head coach Brian Kelly said. “I think he’s on the other side of that, but we had to be really careful with him the first few weeks.”
Before the season started, NFL Network analyst Daniel Jeremiah praised Nussmeier’s arm talent because “he has excellent touch on the deep ball and is also adept on over/under throws (over linebackers/under safeties).”
In 2024, Nussmeier attempted 86 passes that traveled 20 or more yards in the air downfield across 13 games, completing 31 of these deep throws. That’s a 36% completion rate on the season.
He connected for 980 yards, four touchdowns and zero interceptions, with an average of about 6.6 deep attempts per game.
Nussmeier put NFL-level throws on tape in 2024, drawing a lot of draft buzz and national hype, starting the season as the player with the highest betting odds to win the Heisman, according to FanDuel.
But so far, the hype has seemingly died, with some fans pointing to an apparent limit on his aggressiveness in the deep passing game.
It’s not a baseless claim, as there’s data to support this.
Through three games this season, the average of deep attempts per game drops to about 4.3, which is about a 35% reduction in the frequency of deep shots.
In 2025 so far, Nussmeier has only attempted 13 deep throws with four completions, which is a 30.8% completion percentage. In a 13-game season, Nussmeier is on pace for 52 attempts with 16 completions for 520 yards and four touchdowns.
The numbers for 2025 are through just three games and they don’t necessarily mean he won’t take off and find the deep attempts again. It also doesn’t mean that Nussmeier’s Heisman hopes or first-round draft dreams are gone.
He’s a very skilled quarterback, and a true gunslinger, but his playcalling may be limited this season. Kelly has stressed smarter playcalling to help Nussmeier prevent turnovers this season.
“He didn’t take the big play as being the only play, he started to figure out that zero was okay,” Kelly said. “Once he felt that zero is okay, and I don’t have to make a play each and every down, the offense played very well.”
Kelly’s offensive mindset is reflected in offensive coordinator Joe Sloan’s playcalling, as a growing reliance on short passes has emerged.
“We have a top ten defense in the country, and we need to play to that strength.” Kelly said. “Sometimes, you have to pull back a little bit here and there. Offensive coordinators want to score points too, but sometimes I’m tapping the brakes here a little bit in those situations.”
But now fans are questioning the shift as problems scoring have become more pronounced amid the Tigers’ offensive struggles.
The offense last season was averaging 35 points per game through the first three games. This year, the Tigers’ offense averages 17 points per game.
In 2024, the short throws, which are anywhere from behind the line of scrimmage to nine yards downfield, accounted for 210 attempts, or 40% of Nussmeier’s total 525 passes.
In 2025 so far, short attempts have risen to represent 48.1% of his 106 total passes, which is an 8.1 percentage point increase from last season.
The shift in approach for Nussmeier aligns with LSU offensive coordinator Joe Sloan’s emphasis on fundamentals for Nussmeier’s development in 2025.
“When his feet are on time, and staying what I call tight and he’s not having big movements, he’s extremely accurate, and especially more and more accurate down the field,” Sloan said.
Despite the strategic shift toward quicker and shorter throws, Nussmeier’s accuracy on deeper throws have yet to find a rhythm this season. Throws that he has routinely made in the past seem to fall at the feet of receivers or sailed over their heads.
But don’t worry about his status for this week versus Southeastern Louisiana, because as Kelly said, “this week is an opportunity for him. He’s doing some things in practice he hasn’t done in the last month.”
