On Saturday, the LSU football program suffered its first loss of the 2025 college football season with a narrow road defeat at the hands of the Ole Miss Rebels. Now that the hype surrounding the Clemson win to open up the season has been invalidated for all intents and purposes, LSU is in dire need of a signature victory, and they let that opportunity slip away on Saturday in Oxford.
It was a particularly rough game for quarterback Garrett Nussmeier, who was thought to be a Heisman Trophy contender heading into this season but has underperformed so far in the campaign.
Recently, some NFL scouts attempted to diagnose what is going on with Nussmeier so far this year.
“I like him, and so do a lot of scouts,” said one NFL scouting director, per Bruce Feldman of The Athletic. “I feel like there is a sense of overconfidence with him. I don’t know if he’s struggling because of their O-line (with four new starters) or if he’s just making bad decisions.”
“He doesn’t look right,” said another NFL scout, who added that he is still high on Nussmeier despite the struggles. “Something’s off with him. He’s just not firing the ball the way he used to.”
All told, this year was supposed to be different for Brian Kelly and the LSU football program after a few years of frustration despite having some great players through Baton Rouge, including Heisman Trophy winner Jayden Daniels.
Nussmeier appears to be on the outside looking in on award season conversations at the current juncture, which is a major frustration for LSU fans considering that their defense, which has been the team's Achilles heel over the last couple of seasons, has largely played up to par so far in 2025.
In any case, LSU will look to get back in the win column on October 11 vs South Carolina following a bye week.
