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Andrea Adelson
BATON ROUGE, La. — Doug Nussmeier not often will get days like this one anymore, hanging round a school soccer discipline, watching his sons Garrett and Colton mushy toss the ball to one another. Garrett has been at LSU, making an attempt to guide the Tigers on a title run. Colton has been in Texas, the place he has developed into an ESPN Junior 300 prospect as one of many high quarterbacks within the nation, with affords from LSU, Alabama, Florida, Georgia and plenty of others.
Doug has been within the NFL as an assistant coach, dwelling other than his household the previous two years so Colton might end out his highschool profession.
However on today in June, they’re all collectively on the LSU elite summer time camp. Doug Nussmeier smiles massive. He determined to depart the Philadelphia Eagles and take the offensive coordinator job with the Saints earlier this 12 months. Now, all he must do to go to his older son is hop in his automobile and drive for an hour or so.
The household calls this a “full circle second.”
Doug began his NFL profession as a quarterback with the Saints in New Orleans. He met his spouse, Christi, in New Orleans. He received a Tremendous Bowl within the Superdome. Christi, a Louisiana native, instilled a love for her dwelling state in her youngsters, a love that not solely led Garrett to LSU however stored him there for 5 years. Now right here they’re, Doug, Garrett and Colton, all again in Louisiana on a swampy scorching summer time day.
Doug stands off to the facet, watching, not teaching. Although he performed quarterback, he by no means put stress on his sons to play the place. However they needed to be similar to him. His No. 13 jersey and all.
“He was my idol rising up,” Garrett says. “He is essentially the most influential particular person in my profession.”
Via yard drills and days spent breaking down tape, via 12 strikes to observe Doug on his teaching journey, Garrett soaked up data, realized the right way to cope with change as a relentless, hung out on totally different campuses, in numerous stadiums — each second resulting in the one he faces now in his fifth and remaining season with the Tigers. His mom impressed his love for LSU and his dad impressed his obsession with the quarterback place.
They each led him right here, to the largest 12 months of his life.
CHRISTI NUSSMEIER WOULD have been completely pleased if her sons hadn’t turn into quarterbacks. However trying again, it does look like they had been at all times on the trail to operating an offense. When Christi says her sons had been born with a soccer of their fingers, she means it nearly actually. After Garrett was born in 2002, she selected a Sports activities Illustrated-themed delivery announcement. Within the picture, Garrett snuggles a soccer.
Garrett’s earliest soccer reminiscences begin at age 6, when he requested his dad to throw with him of their yard in Seattle. The warmup Doug confirmed him is the one Garrett nonetheless makes use of earlier than each apply and recreation, specializing in flexibility first earlier than shifting into segments that isolate totally different elements of the throwing movement.
At each school cease they made, Garrett noticed the quarterbacks: Drew Stanton at Michigan State, Jake Locker at Washington, A.J. McCarron at Alabama. Garrett noticed the best way every participant led his staff not solely in video games however at practices. He watched the best way they interacted with their teammates. He typically sat within the room with them to interrupt down tape.
“I used to be subconsciously simply studying issues with out really understanding what I used to be studying,” Garrett says. “As I obtained older, I began to appreciate, ‘Hey, OK, that is what they had been doing.'”
From there, Garrett steadily improved and stored his eyes targeted on getting a school scholarship, then ultimately enjoying within the NFL. Garrett was smaller for a quarterback at 6-foot-1, and his dad and mom had no thought the place he would possibly find yourself. However they inspired him to maintain pushing ahead, and Doug supplied suggestions each time Garrett requested.
“I hoped that as he began to develop into his center faculty years, perhaps he’ll be ok to be a starter on his highschool staff. After which if he is that, properly, then perhaps that opens the door for him to have the chance to play at a small faculty or someplace,” Doug says.
Doug had taken an assistant teaching job with the Cowboys in 2018, so the Nussmeiers moved to the Dallas space, the place Garrett would play highschool soccer. Christi remembers one second early in Garrett’s highschool profession that modified every little thing.
“Garrett made some strikes, and I simply bear in mind my face going, ‘Oh my gosh,’ and I checked out Doug. We each checked out one another,” Christi says. “We knew Garrett was gifted, and we knew he was particular, however I requested Doug, ‘That is not regular, is it?’ And Doug mentioned, ‘No.'”
Provides Doug: “He wasn’t the largest man, however unexpectedly, some faculties began coming to see him.”
Ole Miss was the primary to ask him to a soccer camp, then LSU invited him to campus, too. LSU held a particular place in his coronary heart. Garrett was born in Lake Charles, Louisiana, the place Christi grew up.
Christi was decided to offer her three youngsters — together with daughter, Ashlynn, additionally an LSU scholar — a spot they may name dwelling, contemplating all of the shifting they did. They could have modified addresses each few years, however they might at all times return to Lake Charles for the vacations and summers. Christi cooked specialties from dwelling and performed zydeco music. When individuals requested the children the place they had been from, they might reply, “Louisiana.”
“Lake Charles was the one place that was fixed my life,” Garrett says. “Whenever you solely dwell someplace on the longest three years, you are simply spinning round, and so Louisiana was simply at all times my dwelling. Once I got here on my first go to right here, I simply knew that is the place I need to be.”
Garrett beloved then-coach Ed Orgeron, however he actually needed to play for then-offensive coordinator Steve Ensminger. He dedicated in 2020 as a junior. Ensminger introduced his retirement later that 12 months, however Garrett signed in 2021 anyway, as an ESPN 300 prospect and one of many high quarterbacks within the nation.
Garrett performed in 4 video games and in the end redshirted, however halfway via that freshman season, LSU introduced Orgeron wouldn’t return for 2022. For months, Garrett felt uncertainty about his future and the way forward for this system.
Enter Brian Kelly.
ON JAN. 7, 2013, Garrett Nussmeier and Brian Kelly shared a soccer discipline for the primary time. Doug was the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Alabama when the Crimson Tide performed Kelly and Notre Dame within the BCS nationwide championship recreation in South Florida.
Garrett, who was 10 on the time, remembers falling asleep at halftime with Alabama up 28-0. However he additionally remembers heading right down to the sphere after the 42-14 victory, throwing confetti and holding the championship trophy. Throughout a quarterback assembly their first 12 months collectively, Garrett determined to have some enjoyable. He turned to Kelly and requested, “Keep in mind that nationwide championship?” That they had giggle.
However the transition to enjoying beneath Kelly wasn’t really easy.
Nussmeier thought that after his first 12 months at LSU, he was going to be the man at quarterback. However Kelly went into the switch portal and introduced in Jayden Daniels, who in the end received the beginning job in 2022.
“Issues had been just a little rocky at first,” Garrett Nussmeier admits. “However as time has gone on, my relationship with Coach Kelly has simply grown.”
Nussmeier had alternatives to depart via the switch portal, particularly after serving because the backup to Daniels in 2022 and 2023. However he knew what it was like to depart a spot, having completed it a lot rising up. He knew how onerous it was to start out over, make new pals, undergo proving himself yet again.
He watched his dad preach persistence all through his personal teaching profession. Perhaps greater than something, Garrett felt an unwavering loyalty to the state of Louisiana and desperately needed to deliver a championship to the place he calls dwelling.
“I simply did not really feel like my time right here was completed,” Nussmeier says.
“He got here in constructed for an old-school mentality of ‘I’ll stick it out. I’ll work my tail off and get that chance,'” Kelly says. “He noticed some issues that we had been doing in creating Jayden and getting him to be a greater model of himself. He grew up loving LSU. In the event you add all of these issues up, it wasn’t about simply throwing some cash at him. It needed to be greater than that. He’s a man that loves transformational relationships as a substitute of transactional.”
Garrett lastly obtained his alternative to start out final season, opening with a 300-yard passing day in a last-second loss to USC. LSU rolled to a 6-1 begin, however the subsequent three video games proved to be essentially the most humbling stretch of his profession. The Tigers dropped all three — to Texas A&M, Alabama and Florida — as Nussmeier struggled to play constantly and keep away from errors. In these three losses, he threw for 5 mixed touchdowns and 5 interceptions, misplaced two fumbles and took 11 sacks, together with a whopping seven towards the Gators.
“There was part of me that was doing an excessive amount of and making an attempt to be excellent as a substitute of simply enjoying soccer,” Nussmeier says. “There was a variety of overthinking, a variety of making an attempt to make issues occur once I did not have to. That was one of many greatest studying moments for me in my profession.”
Certainly, each Kelly and offensive coordinator Joe Sloan say Nussmeier needed to undergo these moments to study and develop. Kelly referred to as the losses a “low level” in decision-making and managing the sport.
“A whole lot of enjoying quarterback is creating some calluses, and he was capable of develop some calluses, and he is aware of what the fireplace appears like,” Sloan says.
At 6-4, with a as soon as promising season on the verge of catastrophe, LSU hosted Vanderbilt at dwelling in late November. “That was an enormous second for me,” Nussmeier says.
Earlier than the sport, he took a deep breath and advised himself to neglect about being excellent. LSU received its remaining three video games, together with a 44-31 victory over Baylor within the Kinder’s Texas Bowl. Nussmeier threw for 313 yards with three touchdowns and an interception, a recreation Kelly described as his better of the season.
“He did not take the large play as being the one play,” Kelly says. “He began to determine that zero was OK. As soon as he felt that zero is OK, and I haven’t got to make a play every down, the offense performed very properly.”
Doug would watch almost each recreation alone in a lodge room as he ready his personal recreation plans for the Eagles. Generally he would watch on TV, typically on an iPad. He made positive by no means to overstep or query the teaching Nussmeier was getting from Kelly and Sloan.
“They’ve a plan, and they’re working diligently to enhance the issues that must be improved and strengthen the issues that must be strengthened,” Doug says.
LSU ended the season 9-4. Nussmeier had already introduced he could be again for a fifth and remaining season. He requested his dad to deal with his NIL negotiations.
WHEN BAUER SHARP got here to LSU on his official go to, he went to dinner with Nussmeier and linebacker Whit Weeks. Nussmeier, Sharp says, was instrumental in serving to him resolve to switch from Oklahoma to LSU.
Certainly, Nussmeier took an energetic function in serving to LSU revamp its roster via the portal, understanding that each he and this system had championship aspirations for 2025. Along with tight finish Sharp, LSU signed two high 5 huge receivers (Barion Brown and Nic Anderson) and revamped a protection that has struggled at occasions.
The presence of a veteran quarterback, going into his second 12 months as a starter, proved to be an enormous promoting level, too.
“With him being within the offense for 4 years, that performed an enormous half in it, and simply to see what sort of management he had, and to attach with him, that was so inviting,” Sharp says. “It was so encouraging. I beloved what I noticed.”
Nussmeier is the uncommon quarterback who has stayed put. Of the highest 20 quarterbacks who signed in 2021, 14 ended up transferring. Seven are enjoying their fifth seasons in 2025. Of these seven, solely Nussmeier and Behren Morton at Texas Tech are nonetheless enjoying for the groups with which they initially signed. To Garrett, the choice to play yet another 12 months was not difficult.
“Whenever you have a look at the statistics of quarterbacks getting drafted excessive, a variety of them had been fifth years,” Garrett says. “That have issues for my place. So I believe there’s a variety of worth in staying.”
Kelly factors to statistical data, too, and the best way his quarterbacks play higher of their remaining season as his starter. Daniels is the right instance. In Yr 1 beneath Kelly, Daniels threw for two,913 yards and 17 touchdowns. In Yr 2, Daniels threw for 3,812 yards and 40 touchdowns, en path to successful the Heisman Trophy.
“I actually consider expertise at that place is a very powerful factor,” Kelly says. “Wherever I have been, your final 12 months is your greatest 12 months, so the expectations are that the identical will happen for Garrett.”
Certainly, early Heisman odds have Nussmeier second, proper behind Texas quarterback Arch Manning. Nussmeier is also ranked as one of many high quarterback prospects for the NFL draft subsequent season. (ESPN’s Matt Miller has him going No. 11 .)
“I undoubtedly assume he is able to successful a Heisman, however that trophy relies off a season,” Sloan says. “He has the expertise, and we have now the individuals round him. I simply know this. He is who we’d need to be a quarterback at LSU. If we obtained to draft, we would choose Garrett Nussmeier.”
Nussmeier labored this offseason to place himself in place to win a title, dropping a number of kilos, including muscle mass and dealing with non-public velocity coaches in Dallas. Sloan says Nussmeier is in the most effective form of his life, and that can enable him to assist extra within the run recreation. Managing the pocket, dashing up the method on the line of scrimmage and his footwork even have been an enormous level of emphasis this offseason.
“When his ft are on time, and staying what I name tight and he isn’t having massive actions, he is extraordinarily correct, and particularly increasingly correct down the sphere,” Sloan says.
He additionally took extra possession of the staff.
“He is an entire totally different particular person, the best way he carries himself, the best way he speaks to others,” operating again Caden Durham mentioned. “We see his vitality within the morning, 7 o’clock for exercises. All people is like, ‘We’ll go as onerous as you and even tougher,’ simply because he is the chief. He is the pinnacle honcho. This offense runs via him. So let’s go.”
Nothing about what’s forward will come as a shock. Strolling into SEC stadiums along with his dad ready him for giant crowds, massive moments. Recollections usually trickle again. The primary time taking the sphere at Baton Rouge in 2020, closing his eyes, remembering what it felt prefer to be inside a roaring, sold-out Demise Valley. When he walked onto the sphere at Auburn in 2022, he turned to Sloan and Daniels, pointed to the sideline close to the away staff tunnel and mentioned, “That is the place I used to be crying when the Kick Six occurred,” remembering again to the 2013 Iron Bowl when his dad was an Alabama assistant.
The Nussmeiers name all of those moments “God winks,” each intertwined, interconnected, getting ready Garrett for the second he has waited on since he first threw a soccer within the yard along with his dad.
Now with Doug only a drive away in Louisiana, the place Garrett loves greater than something, they’re nearer than they’ve been since they lived beneath one roof in Dallas. Christi will be capable of make her approach to LSU and Saints dwelling video games. Ashlynn will likely be there. Colton could make a visit or two relying on his schedule.
There’s, in fact, a method for this full circle second to be full: hoisting a championship trophy.
“I’ve at all times needed this stress. I’ve at all times needed this expectation. I’ve at all times needed individuals to speak about me the best way that they’re and have this expectation,” Nussmeier mentioned. “It is undoubtedly a dream come true.
“Nevertheless it’s not completed but.”