LSU’s QB Garrett Nussmeier has been battling with a torso injury, which has been bothering him throughout the season. The 4-star QB, who led the team to a 9-4 finish last season, with 4,043 passing yards, hasn’t been able to reach a 300-yard game this season. His injury reflected his game play, where he hit a career low against Ole Miss with 194 passing yards. Nussmeier admitted that he was “letting everyone down,” while revealing his personal struggles. Days after revealing his personal suffering, he now faces financial suffering that he has built up over the last four seasons.

After Week 7 of college games, On3 updated the NIL values of the players, where LSU’s QB Garrett Nussmeier’s NIL value has gone down from $4M to $3.8M in a week. With this, the 4-star QB lost $197K NIL, which is a 5% loss. Although he suffered a massive blow, the QB still ranked No.5 in the National NIL 100 athletes and No.4 in football. With a $3.8M valuation, he trails only behind Texas Longhorns QB Arch Manning ($5.3M), Miami Hurricanes QB Carson Beck ($4.9M), and Ohio State Buckeyes QB Jeremiah Smith ($4.2M). 

The significant drop in the NIL value was evident after the week 7 game against the South Carolina Gamecocks, where the Tigers won by 20-10. In the 10-point win, the QB completed 20 of 33 passes with a completion rate of 60.6%. He passed for 254 yards and two touchdowns, but still had two more interceptions. This was his second-most passing yardage and touchdowns this season, but also the most picks he had thrown this season.

Nussmeier currently has a QBR of 75.9, ranking No. 30 nationally and No. 7 in the SEC conference. In the five games he played this season, he was intercepted five times and was sacked six times. The drop in NIL value is a reflection of his struggles with injuries, lack of big plays, and interceptions. It is important to note that the QB signed a NIL deal with Nike earlier this year.

Despite Nussmeier’s obvious struggles, he has the full backing of his HC Brian Kelly.

LSU Head Coach Brian Kelly Believes in Garrett Nussmeier

Earlier this week, Cory Diaz of USA Today Network posted the most recent interview with Garrett Nussmeier on X, where the LSU QB admitted his physical struggles. “Yeah, I think just for one, just everything that I was kind of going through in the first couple weeks was obviously very frustrating and, you know, I think I let it get to me a little bit, just a feeling of helplessness at times, a lot of frustration,” Nussmeier said.

Although he has been going through a lot in recent times, LSU head coach Brian Kelly believes in him. In a recent media appearance, the coach said, “He plays with a swagger, and he’s better with a swagger, right. I didn’t know that he had that the previous weeks, thought he was a little robotic, and we said, ‘Listen, you need to be Garrett Nussmeier, ’ and he was.”

“Unfortunately, some of that comes with some mistakes…But I like the version of Garrett Nussmeier we saw. He was a lot more confident. He was a lot more active in the pocket…That’s the version we want,” the coach said. As the No.10 LSU Tigers will take on the No.17 Vanderbilt Commodores this Saturday, will Nussmeier pull out a massive comeback that he badly wanted? We need to wait and watch.