Matt Rittenberg’s list of the top 15 college football QBs returning in 2025 made some people scratch their heads. Though he claims the list was compiled after taking in opinions from coaches and experts, it doesn’t seem to be so. He messed up big time by placing Arch Manning far below what he should be. Now, another discrepancy is getting attention.  This time, the victim is someone way up in the top spots of his list: Garrett Nussmeier. Though not as showy as Manning, Rittenberg can have it coming equally bad for poor judgments against Nussmeier.

The ESPN analyst placed the LSU returning QB in the 3 position. He follows behind Drew Allar and Cade Klubnik, who take the second and first positions, respectively. The ranking is fairly okay; there are no questions about it. The perplexing fact is what the coaches say about him. These opinions have been shared anonymously, which makes all of this even more puzzling. For Nussmeier, a particular SEC Defensive Coordinator said, “I wouldn’t say he’s an athlete in the pocket, but we thought he had good enough movement to extend the play to get it downfield. We thought his strength was his decision-making.” It is this decision-making that we know Nussmeier to be struggling with, and Matt Moscona had the exact same thoughts.

In an April 2 video of After Further Review: LSU, Moscona shared where the SEC DC gets it wrong. “If you poll LSU fans, people who watch Nuss and have, ‘What’s the biggest criticism?’ It’s, well, sometimes it’s his decision-making.” He did not mince his words. “He’s careless with the football.” “So, what I wanted to see was like, does our perception of Nuss, the gunslinger, takes too many risks; does that map to reality? Or does what this SEC defensive coordinator said actually map more to reality?”

Moscona then listed some of Garrett Nussmeier’s notable games. Against USC, he faltered in the second half and missed some important throws. Then came the defeat against Texas A&M, where he was intercepted three times, leading to the Aggies posting a 21-point lead. The Ole Miss game, which was a win, is regarded by Nussmeier himself as his worst. He completed only 22 of 51 attempted passes and had two interceptions along the way. But he pulled through in the second half, sealing a 29-26 win.

Moscona said that the ‘decision-making’ skill that was being praised only came into play in pressure situations. He then shared some pure stats from PFF to explain his point. “Garrett was pressured 153 times this year. So 153 pressures in 13 games. 16 times, he threw the ball away. 15 times, he was sacked. 12 times, he scrambled. And then they chart something called a turnover-worthy play […] There were 18 turnover-worthy plays. As a percentage, that’s 3.1%. Garrett being pressured 153 times, 3.1% of his decisions were turnover-worthy. It’s pretty good. It means 97% of the time he did the right thing, which kind of maps to what that defense coordinator said.”

Nussmeier is a star, but let’s face it: he’s had us on the edge of our seats too many times to count.

With a somewhat-there Garrett Nussmeier, LSU’s playoff hope is compromised

Multiple publications have predicted LSU making a surprise entry into the 2025 playoffs. A lot of that carried the hope brought by Garrett Nussmeier’s choice to come back for his last year of eligibility. He’s got some great numbers because they came in some crucial games. But there is the glaring problem of his turnover issues because he made a career-high 12 interceptions in 2024.

Against South Carolina, Nussmeier made a misjudged throw that resulted in Nick Emmanwori picking it off. In the South Alabama game, LSU had a big lead of 35-3 in the first half. Then, Nuss got into the pocket, headed right, and attempted to throw to Aaron Anderson. The throw was short short, and it landed in the hands of Lardarius Webb Jr. Nussmeier was intercepted again that night, hoping to get to Kyren Lacy. He missed safety Jaden Voisin, who caught on and picked off the LSU QB. There are many more instances where Nussmeier has struggled to deliver. He’s a great weapon when the chances are tight. But shouldn’t Nussmeier, with his caliber, also make plays that are far easier to make?

It seems that Brian Kelly is adamant that Nussmeier learn from his mistakes. In this off-season period, the latter is being made to do a lot of homework in the film room. “This offseason has been able to be a little bit different because now he’s going back, and when he’s studying, he’s not just studying his practice tape… he’s looking at specifically some stuff that he needs to improve on,” Assistant coach Joe Sloan said. Nussmeier will eventually declare for the draft after 2025, which makes this his make-or-break season.

Kelly is also going hard on the offensive line revamp, which is in stark contrast to 2023. He has Nussmeier back for another season. The question is, will all of this be enough for Kelly to chart a route for a playoff spot in 2025?