How Garrett Nussmeier's injury impacts LSU's offense

LSU Tigers quarterback Garrett Nussmeier has had a somewhat slow start to the 2025 college football season. The No. 3-ranked Tigers are 3-0, but Nussmeier is averaging just 229 yards thrown per game, and he has a touchdown-to-interception ratio of three-to-two.

This is a quarterback that many expected to be a Heisman Trophy contender, so are his ho-hum stats to the start of the season concerning?

Without an explanation, perhaps, but head coach Brian Kelly revealed on Monday that his quarterback has been dealing with a torso injury that he suffered in fall camp.

That's not kept him out of games, but it has limited him in practice and perhaps made it harder for LSU to get reps for its deep-passing game.

"Come Saturday, he’s good to go,” Kelly said on Monday (h/t On3). “We’ve limited him a little bit during the week because of some tightness that he’s had in his torso. It’s an upper-body injury that you want to be careful with how many reps he’s getting throwing the football. So, he’s overcoming that, but we cut him down substantially. I think he’s on the other side of that, but we had to be really careful with him the first few weeks.”

LSU QB Garrett Nussmeier has been limited in practice

Kelly explained that while LSU wants to take deep shots when the Tigers get them in games, that's something they've had a hard time simulating with Nussmeier being limited with his throwing.

He did reveal that Nussmeier and LSU are starting to pick things up now that the senior quarterback is loosening up a bit. With that said, this was an injury the fifth-year quarterback suffered over the offseason because he was throwing too much.

"It's the product of a lot of throws. He worked a lot this summer, a lot of throws. This was really about more of a management and shutting him down a little bit during the week," Kelly said.

One would imagine that even as the Tigers let him let 'em rip a bit more in practice, Kelly is still going to be conservative with his play-caller's health.

After all, it's just practice, as Allen Iverson once famously claimed.

The thing Kelly and the Tigers will have to worry about is the likelihood that Nussmeier and the passing attack still need time to gel, which is high.

The issue for LSU is that there's really not a ton of time to work out the kinks. The Tigers are in championship mode, and after a Week 4 "cupcake" in Southeast Louisiana, things really start cranking up.

LSU will play No. 13 Ole Miss, South Carolina, No. 20 Vanderbilt, No. 10 Texas A&M, No. 14 Alabama and Arkansas in quick succession before a breather against Western Kentucky on Nov. 22.

That's one heck of a tough stretch, so the Tigers are going to need Nussmeier and the passing attack to be on their game. 

What that means is that getting him going quickly against SE Louisiana and then getting him out so that he can rest and get ready for the Rebels is going to be vital for the Tigers in Week 4.