GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
In the end as the 2025 LSU football season is about to begin, there was no other choice for the honored tradition of wearing No. 18.
Hands down, it will go to fifth-year senior quarterback Garrett Nussmeier, LSU’s staff has decided.
Nussmeier will be the first quarterback to wear the number. But the No. 18 tradition was inspired by a quarterback, Matt Mauck, who is the last LSU player to wear No. 18 before it became a thing. Mauck helped lead the Tigers to their first national championship since 1958 in the 2003 season under coach Nick Saban after Mauck came back from a broken foot midway through the previous season and set the LSU record for touchdowns at the time in 2003-04 with 28.
LSU has also announced that junior linebacker Harold Perkins Jr. will wear the No. 7, which is another number tradition with the Tigers, and Nussmeier and junior linebacker Whit Weeks will be permanent team captains for the 2025 season.
No. 9 LSU opens the season at No. 4 Clemson on Saturday (6:30 p.m., ABC).
HOW THE LSU NUMBER 18 TRADITION REALLY STARTED
In the spring after that championship season, Jack Marucci, who was LSU’s director of athletic training from 1996-2021 before becoming director of perfrmance innovation in 2021, came up with the idea of bestowing the No. 18 to an LSU player along with then-equipment manager Greg Stringfellow, LSU football sports information director Michael Bonnette and Mauck.
They were honoring Mauck because of the way he battled back from injury and was key in LSU’s first national title in 45 years.
“It really kind of started as a joke,” Mauck said in an interview with USA TODAY Louisiana in 2013 from Denver, where he was the team dentist for the Denver Broncos at the time and in private practice.
“We wanted to give it to someone who’s a good player, but also has character and is a good person,” Mauck said. “We had no idea the way it would work out.”
GARRETT NUSSMEIER RESTS ARM DURING LAST LSU PRESEASON SCRIMMAGE
The first No. 18, strangely, went to someone who had not yet played at LSU – freshman signee running back Jacob Hester of Shreveport.
“I just knew him from being recruited,” Mauck said. “And he seemed like the type of guy we were looking for.”
They got that right. Hester kept the number for four seasons and helped lead the Tigers to their next national championship in 2007 under coach Les Miles. Hester gained 1,103 yards in 2007 and led the Tigers’ to one of their most storied victories in history – 28-24 over No. 9 Florida in Tiger Stadium on Oct. 6, 2007.
Hester gained 106 yards on 23 carries in that game and converted two 4th-and-1 plays on No. 1 LSU’s game-winning drive in the final minutes. On 3rd-and-goal from the 2-yard line on the same drive, he rushed in for the game-winning touchdown. He also had two other conversions on 3rd-and-short earlier in the game.
That is the tradition Nussmeier follows. Much was already expected of Nussmeier before getting No. 18, though. He is considered one of the top Heisman Trophy candidates and a projected high first round draft choice for the 2026 NFL Draft, coming off his junior season in 2024 when he threw 29 touchdowns and finished fifth in the nation with 4,052 passing yards.
Nussmeier is expected to be LSU’s next Joe Burrow, who led LSU to its last national title in the 2019 season and won the Heisman, and the next Jayden Daniels, who won the 2023 Heisman.
Neither wore No. 18, though.
The complete list of LSU players who wore No. 18 since it became a tradition before the 2004 season are:
RB Jacob Hester (2004-07)
TE Richard Dickson (2008-09)
RB Richard Murphy (2010)
S Brandon Taylor (2011)
DT Bennie Logan (2012)
LB Lamin Barrow (2013)
WR Terrence Magee (2014)
CB Tre’Davious White (2015-16)
DT Christian LaCouture (2017)
and RB John David Moore (2017)
TE Foster Moreau (2018)
LB K’Lavon Chaisson (2019)
and OL Lloyd Cushenberry III (2019)
RB Chris Curry (2020)
LB Damone Clark (2020-21)
LB BJ Ojulari (2022)
DL Mekhi Wingo (2023)
LB Greg Penn (2024)
and TB Josh Williams (2024)
QB Garrett Nussmeier (2025)
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