Luke Altmyer still trying to shake off Sugar Bowl performance: "I think about it every day"
When the Sugar Bowl started Luke Altmyer was standing on the sideline watching Matt Corral lead the Rebels against Baylor. Less than 15 minutes later he was the one under center in the biggest game of his young career.
That night sticks with him three months later as Altmyer is trying to shake off the performance in the Rebels losing effort to the Bears. Some of that is due to his own desire for perfection.
“It was a crazy deal. When you go in, you don’t really feel the magnitude of it all,” Altmyer said. “You’re just trying to do your assignment and do what’s best for your teammates. Looking back, thinking about how surreal it was. I think about it every day and kind of beat myself up over it. Really my biggest flaw as a player and a person is I’m the biggest perfectionist and overthinker there is. It’s hard to battle some days. But I wouldn’t trade the experience for the world.”
Altmyer threw for 178 yards and a touchdown, completing 15 of 28 pass attempts in the Sugar Bowl.
Months after that game, Altmyer is still trying to process that night while at the same time having to compete for the right to be Corral’s successor after already being it once.
Former Southern California quarterback Jaxson Dart is also vying to be the Rebels QB1, putting a physical challenge in front of Altmyer on the field while he is constantly battling an obstacle he cannot see.
It is not so much fighting the urge to allow self-doubt creep in, but more so trying to come to grips with the reality that not ever pass or even play is going to work out perfect.
“When I’m in the game and I’m playing, the perfectionism and overthinking wasn’t the game itself. It’s right now, today, how i deal with it,” Altmyer said. “What if I could’ve done this, how the outcome would’ve changed. That’s the thing I kind of battle daily. I believe in myself.”
This time last year, Altmyer was fresh out of high school having graduated early and mid-year enrollee at Ole Miss. Fast forward 12 months and he is one of the experienced players on the roster.
Growth is expected but with Altmyer it may be magnified due to the circumstances surrounding him during these four weeks of spring practice.
Leaning on the experience of playing last season, including that Sugar Bowl loss, and also using former Rebel quarterback Matt Corral as a model example is what Altmyer is doing to show that growth as a quarterback has and is still transpiring.
“From high school to college, the time you put in at the college level I think you’re forced to grow. In every single way,” Altmyer said. “Being around Matt and always following him and looking up to him, he helped me in a lot of ways. You obviously get better as a player. It naturally happens and things like that.”
