With a clean pocket, Garrett Nussmeier never hesitated.
The redshirt junior got through his reads and stepped up to make a throw. Even with safety Major Burns blitzing to his right, he delivered a perfect pass toward the middle of the field to wide receiver CJ Daniels for a first down and more.
It was Nussmeier’s first completion during the opening 11-on-11 scrimmage period of Saturday’s preseason practice, LSU football’s sixth in six days. And it was arguably his best throw of the morning.
“I thought his process was really good today,” LSU coach Brian Kelly said. “He stayed within himself. He looked under control in the situations that we created for him today. And I think when he does that, and his drop is in rhythm, he’s really good.”
This preseason hasn’t always been perfect for Nussmeier, but LSU’s first-year starting quarterback has improved through 14 practices. While most fans have focused on the defense this month, his ascension from three-year backup to starter has almost been taken for granted.
With a new scheme and coaching staff in place, the defense has ramped up its aggressiveness at practice, deploying more blitzes and often playing man-to-man coverage. The change in approach has forced Nussmeier to work on a potential weakness in his game.
“There’s a couple things in pressures (where) he thinks he’s got 52 timeouts. He takes timeouts when he wants to take a timeout,” Kelly said. “I think he’s got to work through a couple of things there… (his) decision making relative to some pressure looks.”
Nussmeier had a lot of practice against pressure on Monday and Tuesday. Those were days the defense consistently deployed its “prowler front” — a blitz package featuring linebackers Harold Perkins and Whit Weeks with edge rushers Paris Shand, Bradyn Swinson and Saivion Jones.
And initially, Nussmeier and the offense didn’t respond well to the defenses aggressiveness.
Nussmeier only completed 1 of 4 passes during Monday’s 11-on-11 scrimmage. One of his incompletions resulted in an interception, a pass that was deflected at the line of scrimmage by Perkins and caught by Shand.
The offense had just one first down in another 11-on-11 period on Tuesday. Nussmeier was forced into throwing two more incompletions and, at one point, he was chased out of bounds after escaping a shrinking pocket, the result of a cornerback blitz.
“Making mistakes is what you want in camp. You want to be able to learn from them,” Nussmeier said. “We’re not a finished product yet. I’m not a finished product yet. And you always want to get better. Hopefully I’m better in December than I am right now.”
By Wednesday, however, Nussmeier was already showing signs of improvement. He hit wide receivers Aaron Anderson and Kyren Lacy for receptions, despite later getting sacked and having a pass broken up by cornerback Ashton Stamps in the 11-on-11 period.
Both completions were steps in the right direction. By Saturday, LSU’s next practice that was available to the media, nothing much phased Nussmeier. It was his best performance of the preseason, despite center DJ Chester being out and right tackle Emery Jones limited with a stomach bug.
After his completion to Daniels, his next pass came off a play-action-boot concept, throwing on the run and hitting Taylor for another catch. He faced a blitz on his next drop back, but instead of caving to the pressure, he threw the ball away.
He later completed a pass to Lacy before his final throw of the period to Chris Hilton fell incomplete. Then, through two more 11-on-11 periods before the end of practice, he connected on 2 of 4 pass attempts, including one catch resulting in a touchdown to tight end Ka’Morreun Pimpton.
“I thought we saw a good version of him (today),” Kelly said. “(But) I think there’s a better version of him out there.”