By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
Former LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier tried to alter the explanation of his abdomen-related injury a tad Friday during media interviews at the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis in preparation for the NFL Draft on April 23-25.
Nussmeier played on despite the painful injury through nine games with the Tigers last season, and the injury significantly and obviously hampered his performance, dropping him in the 2026 draft projections to the third round – at the moment – from the first, potentially, had he entered the 2025 draft.
“We weren’t able to figure out exactly what it was,” Nussmeier said Friday at the NFL Scouting Combine general interview in Indianapolis. “It wasn’t LSU’s fault. It wasn’t the doctor’s fault. They did a great job of taking care of me. It was just a rare deal. We didn’t figure out what it was until about two months ago (after seeing a new team of doctors).”
Nussmeier said basically the same thing to Tiger Rag at the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Alabama, last month, but he pointed the finger more toward LSU’s medical team then.
“We found out what it actually was a month ago,” Nussmeier told Tiger Rag on Jan. 29 after a Senior Bowl practice. “It wasn’t what we thought it was throughout the entire season. And so, we’re making new progress there, and that’s why. We got the correct diagnosis finally about two months ago, so.”
So, it would follow that the incorrect diagnosis happened previously at LSU.
Nussmeier didn’t say then and isn’t saying now exactly what the injury was, but his dad – Saints’ offensive coordinator Doug Nussmeier – told Tiger Rag at the Senior Bowl that it was “torso/core related.”
Asked if his son received a mistaken diagnosis originally by LSU doctors, the elder Nussmeier said, “I wouldn’t say that. Some things you’ve got to work through different steps before you get to what you’re dealing with, and unfortunately it took a long time. You’ve got to go through the process, find out what’s wrong and the rehabilitation.”
On Friday, Nussmeier repeated that it wasn’t LSU’s fault, only to go on and say that it was.
“Just learning two months ago what it was,” he said, referencing again his new team of doctors, who got it right after LSU did not. “As I said, it wasn’t LSU’s fault. It was just a rare deal.”
Doctors – and LSU has many of them – are supposed to be able to handle “rare deals” by diagnosing them correctly.
“I won’t get into the specifics,” Nussmeier said, and get ready for his “but” comment.
“But, now being able to attack the ACTUAL injury and rehabbing, I’m feeling a lot better,” he said. “I’m at 100 percent, if not close to it. Starting to feel like myself again. It’s been awesome.”
Nussmeier did say Friday when the injury occurred, and he did refer to the injury as abdomen related for the first time.
“Practice two of fall camp,” he said. That would have been on July 31.
The injury did not go public until Sept. 15.
LSU QB Garrett Nussmeier “has been slowed a little bit with a torso (abdomen) injury.” … Brian Kelly:https://t.co/qtEguLJwLe
— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) September 15, 2025
Nussmeier’s description of the pain he felt, which was also obvious watching him play compared to his much better slinging 2024 season, shot holes in some of LSU’s quiet spin about Nussmeier’s injury, which included ridiculous claims that “it was all in his head,” and not physical.
“How much did it affect me? I think it was pretty evident,” Nussmeier said Friday. “I wasn’t really able to throw the football. I had a stabbing pain in my ab every time I went to throw the ball.”
Another question garnered an explanation of how he tried to relieve pressure on his abdomen by throwing in different ways.
“For one, not being able to use your core as a quarterback is pretty tough,” he deadpanned. “I had created many different habits, whether it was arm angles or things with my feet and trying to turn around my hips instead of my abs, and things like that. So, now it’s more of just learning how to use my abdomen again as I’m throwing the football.”
But he continues to be healthy now, as he was at the Senior Bowl practices when he registered the highest velocity of the quarterbacks in Mobile at 74.9 mph and threw the longest pass at 51.5 yards.
Garrett Nussmeier’s day 1 ball metrics.
— 104.5 ESPN (@1045espn) January 28, 2026
Leads all QBs in longest air distance pass and fastest initial air speed 🏈 pic.twitter.com/roRZEd96xG
Other Senior Bowl quarterbacks were Vanderbilt’s Diego Pavia, Arkansas’ Taylen Green, Illinois’ Luke Altmyer, Baylor’s Sawyer Robertson and North Dakota State’s Cole Payton.
Then he won the Senior Bowl game MVP award.
“Feeling much more like myself, which has been exciting,” Nussmeier said Friday. “Learning how to re-train myself, getting rid of the bad habits that I created. Being able to throw the football like I know I can. Just trying to be myself here. Hopefully, the questions that are out there about me will be answered through that. Hoping the authenticity of who I am answers those questions on its own.”
Asked about his goals, Nussmeier said he wants to be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.
“I want to wear a gold jacket one day,” he said. “I want to lead teams to Super Bowls. I just want to prove that I belong in the NFL. I believe that I belong in this league. I just want to prove that I am who I say I am.”
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