LSU QB Garrett Nussmeier opens up at Senior Bowl about injury
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Former LSU football starting quarterback Garrett Nussmeier has opened up for the first time about his season-ending injury at this week’s Senior Bowl.
After deciding to return to school for the 2025 season, passing up the NFL Draft last year when he was considering one of top quarterbacks eligible to be taken, Nussmeier started the first nine games of this past season before reaggravating an abdominal injury during practice leading up to the Arkansas game.
“(That Tuesday before the Arkansas game) in practice, I tried to rip a throw and reinjured my ab, which at the time we thought was a core injury,” Nussmeier told reporters. “We never really fully knocked it out.
“On the play when I decided I can’t do this, I was throwing a front-side shallow. Immediately after I threw it, I bent over in pain.”
Nussmeier was a place on the injury report that following Wednesday and was later ruled out for the Arkansas game. Two weeks after that going into the regular season finale at Oklahoma, then-interim LSU head football coach Frank Wilson informed reporters that LSU’s senior quarterback was going to be shut down.
“At that point, I knew if I can’t throw a front-side shallow, I’m not effective. I can’t help my team win,” Nussmeier said. “It wasn’t really a decision I had to make to not play. It was forced upon me.”
He said that he had created a number of bad habits because of playing through injury to try and be effective for the Tigers this season.
“It was a struggle at times,” Nussmeier said.
In eight-plus games, Nussmeier went 194 for 288 (67.4%) for 1,927 yards with 12 touchdowns and five interceptions in 2025. Through that stretch, LSU lost four of the final five games with Nussmeier at quarterback.
Since being shutdown and deciding months ago to not have corrective surgery for the abdominal injury, Nussmeier has worked on fully rotating his body through his throws among a few other things to redevelop better quarterback play and habits.
At this week’s Senior Bowl, the former LSU quarterback said he’s not in Mobile to prove himself to any NFL scouts, but that he is good enough to play at the next level.
Cory Diaz covers the LSU Tigers for The Daily Advertiser as part of the USA TODAY Network. Follow his Tigers coverage on Twitter: @ByCoryDiaz. Got questions regarding LSU athletics? Send them to Cory Diaz at bdiaz@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: What is latest injury update for LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier?
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