By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
Now, that’s how you end your college football career.
Not a national championship, but for former LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier, the Senior Bowl on Saturday was a super exit, and a much better way to go out than getting stupidly benched in a 20-9 loss at Alabama last November.
Nussmeier completed 5 of 8 passes for 57 yards and led the American team to two touchdown drives and a 17-9 win over the National team and won the Most Valuable Player award in the NFL Draft showcase Senior Bowl at Hancock Whitney Stadium in Mobile, Alabama. He did have one interception, but on a tipped pass that could have been caught by his receiver.
#LSU Garrett Nussmeier on the carry to give American the first touchdown of the afternoon.#SeniorBowl pic.twitter.com/hKoAxsFgxB
— Isabelle (@isabellecal17) January 31, 2026
Nussmeier took the American team on a 12-play, 68-yard drive on the first series of the game, scoring himself on a 3-yard touchdown run and then did a dance in the end zone.
“That was just the LSU coming out of me a little bit there,” Nussmeier said of the dance on the NFL Network after the game. “I had to do a dance for some of my boys for the last time. But man I’m so blessed and so thankful to God to have this opportunity. Been through a lot the last six months. God has got me through it, and so I wouldn’t be here without him. So blessed, so thankful.”
Garrett Nussmeier throws a dime that goes right through the hands of John Michael Gyllenborg and gets picked 😬
— SleeperCFB (@SleeperCFB) January 31, 2026
Nebraska’s Deshon Singleton with the INT 💪
pic.twitter.com/4XlhmvHSFZ
Nussmeier showed some pinpoint accuracy Saturday as he did throughout the practices on Tuesday through Thursday.
The Garrett Nussmeier Injury Mystery. Was it a mistaken diagnosis?https://t.co/ZXGywte4ro
— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) January 30, 2026
Nussmeier’s rough six months he spoke of started in August when he suffered an abdomen injury before the 2025 season and played through the pain in nine games. But he obviously could not throw as well with the core injury as he did in a fabulous 2024 season.
He completed 5 of 6 passes for 51 yards on the opening drive of the third quarter in his previous game in the state of Alabama against the Crimson Tide in Tuscaloosa last Nov. 8, but he failed to get the Tigers into the end zone after reaching a 1st-and-Goal at the Alabama 9-yard line. He threw an incomplete pass and was sacked for a 14-yard loss on third down, and LSU settled for a field goal and 17-6 deficit at the time.
Despite being 18-of-21 passing at that point, LSU interim head coach Frank Wilson replaced Nussmeier with Michael Van Buren. And Nussmeier never played again as he aggravated his abdomen tear the following Tuesday at practice and missed LSU’s last three regular season games and bowl in which LSU went 2-2 and finished 7-6.
It was a much better ending Saturday in Mobile as Nussmeier, a fifth-year senior who signed with the Tigers in 2021 out of Marcus High in Flower Mound, Texas, near Dallas, wore the LSU helmet for the final time.
“It means the world to me,” he said after donning a Saints cap as his dad Doug Nussmeier is the Saints’ offensive coordinator and was at the game and at practices all week.
“LSU will always be home for me,” Nussmeier said. “Always bleed purple and gold no matter what. So, always rooting for those guys, and hopefully I’ll always be able to come back home.”
Nussmeier likely would have gone in the first round had he entered the 2025 NFL Draft. He has been projected anywhere from the fifth round to the third for the 2026 draft, but he helped himself this week and on Saturday.
“I thought Garrett did a great job obviously,” NFL Network analyst David Carr said after the game. “During the week, he showed he can throw with some anticipation. He was coachable. I thought he did a fantastic job today. The one interception, I thought could’ve been caught. I thought Garrett played fantastic. Nice little RPO (run-pass option) zone read to get in the end zone. I thought Garrett did really well.”
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