Garrett Nussmeier injury update: LSU QB addresses his health status

Seemingly for the entire first half of the season, LSU Tigers quarterback Garrett Nussmeier has been dogged by a nagging injury. Now, he’s shared for himself where his health status currently stands.

While arguing that nobody is ever fully healthy, Nussmeier shared that he is feeling better. With that, improved health is going to come with improved confidence. Then, hopefully, that turns into better offense for the Tigers.

“At the end of the day, football is a game where you’re never really fully healthy,” Garrett Nussmeier said. “So, it’s not necessarily about that for me. It’s just trying to get the pieces going, trying to get us on the right track on offense. So, definitely there’s a little bit of a confidence booster there when I’m starting to feel better. I’d be lying if I said differently. But, still just focused on the offense.

The injury was to somewhere in Nussmeier’s torso, though the specifics of that injury have remained vague. That injury has seemed to have taken its toll on his play. In particular, his ability to drive the ball downfield, which has been limiting for an LSU offense that is struggling to run the ball this season. In no game was that more apparent than the Ole Miss loss when the Tigers scored just 19 points.

For the season, Garrett Nussmeier is completing 66.2 percent of his passes for 1,413 yards and 9 touchdowns to 5 interceptions. Effectively a non-factor on the ground, he has 13 rushing yards and one touchdown there. His average yards per attempt, yards per completion, and yards per game are all lower than they were a season ago.

LSU had a bye week to prepare for South Carolina. Then, once a rested Garrett Nussmeier took the field, he seemed to be in a better place, throwing for 254 yards and two touchdowns in the win. Now, head coach Brian Kelly is confident with his quarterback’s health moving forward.

“You know, all of those things are part of it, but the bottom line is he was healthy. On Thursday, I mentioned to you that we have the ball that has the GPS in it,” Kelly said. “And his numbers were up from any other time during the week. His ab injury is on the right side of it where he feels good, and he didn’t feel any pain on Sunday coming in. So, that’s a really, really good sign for us moving forward.”

LSU will certainly need Garrett Nussmeier healthy for this week. The Tigers are set to travel to Nashville to take on Vanderbilt. It’s the first of three games in a row against ranked opponents.