Garrett Nussmeier will miss the rest of the season

Amid LSU football’s preparation for the Texas Bowl, the Tigers’ starting quarterback revealed his plans for 2025.

Garrett Nussmeier announced his decision to don the purple and gold for his fifth season in an Instagram post on Wednesday. LSU was optimistic about Nussmeier turning the NFL Draft down, and LSU head coach Brian Kelly hinted at it last month.

In a press conference on Friday, LSU head coachBrian Kelly shared more information about the recruiting of Nussmeier, who he called “arguably the best quarterback in the SEC and maybe in the country.”

“We did our due diligence,” Kelly said. “We made our case as to why it was in everybody’s best interest for him to come back for another year and re-recruited him from that standpoint.”

LSU will see some heavy losses on the offensive side of the ball, with both starting tackles declaring for the draft, receiver Kyren Lacy graduating, and receiver CJ Daniels hitting the transfer portal. Starting tight end Mason Taylor is turning pro, too.

To maintain continuity and give the team a chance to compete for the SEC and national titles, Kelly knew he had to keep his starting quarterback on the roster.

Nussmeier is healthy and practicing at a limited pace following a shoulder injury that held him out for part of the regular season finale against Oklahoma. The gunslinger returned to the game but is still recovering.

Kelly hinted that Nussmeier would be active in the Texas Bowl on New Year’s Eve.

“We’re trying to keep his load down a little bit right now, and we’ll continue to ramp it up over the next week,” Kelly said.

The Tigers should feel confident in their program moving forward with their starting quarterback returning for the postseason and 2025, especially given the status of the current roster.

“There was always a sense of he’s waited for his opportunity, and he had been such a proponent of LSU and wanting to be here that there was always this sense that he was going to come back, but we never took it for granted,” Kelly said.