Brian Kelly and the LSU Tigers are still soaking in the celebration of their 20-10 win over Florida. The victory was no less than a surprise. After all, Kelly’s squad headed with an average ranking. LSU sat 84th nationally in total offense and outside the top 100 in yards per play. Kelly’s quarterback, Garrett Nussmeier, briefly looked revived, completing 6 of 7 passes for 75 yards on a second-quarter touchdown drive. However, throughout the game, he had multiple dull moments. But right now, someone else is catching attention. Kelly has been blessed with a quarterback player with experience in defensive back and running back. Who is the triple threat weapon?

That’s none other than Ju’Juan Johnson. As Kelly’s boys participated in their fall practice, Johnson turned heads, playing at the running back spot. Taking snaps in the rotation, the ex-Lafayette Christian Academy standout was slotted behind starting sophomore tailback Caden Durham, but ahead of Kaleb Jackson, with freshman Harlem Berry appearing limited. Now that Kelly and co. Landed in a sticky spot with Nussmeier’s name not on LSU’s availability reports. How is Johnson going to help the Tigers? 

LSU seems to be blessed with Mr Versatility. The 4-star recruit, Johnson, committed to Kelly’s squad in May 2023. The Tigers flipped him from Colorado, and the gamble has been worth it. Even though he excelled as a quarterback in high school, he initially enrolled at LSU as a defensive back. In 2024, Kelly shifted him to the running back position. While it must be too much pressure for him to handle, he called it a “blessing” during his interview on September 16. “I feel like it’s been a blessing, honestly, because just learning different positions, learning different things. It helped me to understand more authority of the offense,” said Johnson.

And in making this triple threat, he has received enough help from his mates, including Nussmeier and Mike Jones Jr., among others. From his interview, it’s evident that Kelly’s Swiss Army Knife prefers the quarterback position more than others. He was asked if there was anything specific he had learned from one position that he was now applying to another.

“Oh, of course. At quarterback, you’ve got to really learn what everyone is doing on the field. Like you just can’t learn what you’re doing,” replied Johnson. “So, going from quarterback to running back, I kind of knew already like what the offense was, what it was.” Now, is this a sign for Kelly?  

Brian Kelly’s LSU got knocked hard after flexing Garrett Nussmeier

Do you remember how the head coach flexed about Nussmeier? In their face-off against Clemson, the quarterback revved up his Heisman talk, coming up with 28-of-38 passing for 230 yards, one touchdown, and zero turnovers. ESPN placed Kelly’s starter in fifth rank after Week 1, as his QBR stood at 82.7, the fifth-best in the SEC. On The Paul Finebaum Show, the head coach claimed, “Coach, I just want to win. I don’t care about Heisman stats… I came back to win a championship.”

He definitely counted on his quarterback, who added, “he had the ball in his hands for an average of 2.1-2.2 seconds, and the ball came out.” But maybe Nussmeier and the Tigers caught some bad juju. Coming up with 69 of 106 passes for 689 yards and three touchdowns, the Tigers fans might have been eager to witness what their quarterback brings.

That’s when Brian Kelly broke his silence and admitted that the Heisman candidate is playing through a torso injury. “He’s been slowed a little bit with a torso injury – and he’s fighting through it – he’s getting better,” the head coach said. “He’s not going to be able to shut it down until the bye week. I’m not saying that that has had any of his troubles. I think he is a symptom of us not ripping it on fourth down…I think the bye week after Ole Miss, we should be in a good place.” All eyes are on September 27 to see if the wait ends for Kelly’s squad.