Garrett Nussmeier sees startling drop in QB rankings despite LSU's Week 2 win

Garrett Nussmeier is 2-0 and has a Week 3 home game with Florida. But his reputation might not be in as good of shape as his record. Nussmeier, one of the top candidates for the Heisman Trophy, has had a fairly sleepy effort in LSU's Week 2 win over Louisiana Tech. And CBSSports' QB power rankings noticed the issue, dropping Nussmeier from No. 2 in their QB power rankings to No. 18.

CBS's reasoning

The rankings note the slide and cite Nussmeier throwing an early pick in last week's 23-7 win over Louisiana Tech. The ranking comments that this play was "emblematic of the sloppy showing... for the Tigers" and concludes that Nussmeier will "need to be better against Florida."

CBSSports jumped a bevy of passers over Nussmeier in the Week 2 field, including Oklahoma's John Mateer who now heads the QB list after an impressive win over Michigan. The leader in the list after Week 1 was TCU's Josh Hoover, who was off in Week 2 and thus fell to 5th in the current QB power rankings.

Nussmeier's issues

Nussmeier's performance has been statistically uneven. He's 15th in the SEC in QB rating at the moment, leading only Kentucky's Zach Calzada. Nussmeier is connecting on a solid 68.4% of his passes, but is averaging a meager 5.9 yards per throw, against next-to-worst among SEC starting QBs. His two touchdown passes also ties him for 13th, with only Calzada having fewer TD throws among SEC starters.

During his starting run at LSU, Nussmeier has had only two games lower in yards per pass attempt and that was in a pair of losses last season against Alabama and Florida. He was the only returning 4,000 yard passer from last season in FBS football, but two weeks into the 2025 season, he is 53rd in the nation in passing yardage.