Garrett Nussmeier had a 4,000+ yards season in 2024, although LSU’s season was a mixed bag. The QB wanted to pack his bags and depart for the NFL. But, as fate would have it, Brian Kelly came calling, and Nussmeier stayed for one last dance with LSU. The future looked promising, and no one doubted that the ace quarterback would be the game-changer for LSU going forward. Sure, he had some ups and downs earlier, but he was determined to change that. He posted a video and proclaimed his arrival in quite spectacular fashion.
“I am officially announcing that I am returning for my final year of eligibility, and I am fully committed to bringing this university a championship. My teammates, coaches, and the fans will get the absolute best out of me every single day until we complete that goal. Go Tigers“! However, even before the season has started, Nussmeier seems to be getting a little bit of disrespect. It comes from the predictions for the Heisman winner in 2025.
The Instagram account of Elite College Football shared a post putting Arch Manning as the leading contender to win the Heisman. His odds? +700. Players like Nussmeier, Cade Klubnik, and Dante Moore are lagging tbehind he new Texas QB1. Sure, the future looked bright for the QB, and it seemed his name was already written on the Heisman until it wasn’t.
To add more salt to the wound, analysts have even touted the young prodigy to surpass Nussmeier in his 2025 stats. This was something of an open threat to Nussmeier’s dominance in the quarterback rankings. But, most importantly, it was coming from a player who hadn’t started a single season as a starter and didn’t have stats to back him up. Matt Moscona, an LSU insider, also didn’t buy into the Manning hype in his recent video posted on 12th March.
“Garrett Nussmeier, he’s thrown for 4,000 yards in a season. The bigger surprise is that he co-favorite with Arch Manning (to win Heisman), who, while I understand the five-star and the Manning name and all the reasons why Texas was in the playoff a year ago, I get all the reasons why people will be high on Arch Manning. The truth is he hasn’t done it.” So is Arch Manning all hype and no-show?
Well, stats, of course, back Nussmeier pretty boldly, as he had 4,000+ yards per season with a 64.2% pass completion rate and a quarterback rating of 80 (ESPN). This ranked the QB 10th among overall quarterbacks in college football. All this he did in an offense that wasn’t quite world-class like at Texas. So, Nussmeier’s ability is no doubt immense. But Arch Manning has also proven himself in the limited games he featured in last season. He had 61 pass completions for 939 yards in 2 starts and a total of 10 appearances. He even stepped in for his QB1 Quinn Ewers in 2 games when he was out due to injury. He won the Mississippi State game by 35-13 and the ULM game by 51-3. So, he can definitely make that transition if required. But, still, it seems the talks of ‘nepotism’ aren’t slowing down.
Nepotism allegations resurface for Arch Manning
You can come to sports because of your father’s or your uncle’s name, but you can’t stay for long just because of that. In that sense, sports are a great leveler. Arch Manning sure would have gotten some type of advantage by coming from a family of legends, the likes of Peyton Manning and Eli Manning. He would surely have learnt the craft from his uncles, but can he stay and perform in college football just because of the Manning name?
Well, of course, he can’t. Every game will demand results, and if he fails to perform, he will be sidelined like the likes of Miller Moss. Even then, it seems the accusations of nepotism for Arch Manning haven’t died down. On February 18th, the College Football Instagram account posted the odds for Arch Manning to be the Heisman contender. “Arch Manning is the early Heisman favorite with +700 odds to win”. This post wasn’t taken lightly by the fans, and accusations started to pour in about the player being hyped up because of his Manning name. One user even said that, “If his last name wasn’t Manning, he’d be D3 at best.”
Well, the player has a NIL valuation of $6.5 million and also landed a huge deal with the energy drink giant Red Bull. But then there was Shedeur Sanders, the son of legendary Deion Sanders, who also had a similar valuation. So, it seems your last name does affect your prospects in some way. But, to say that it will translate on the field, that would be taking hollow potshots at best.
The post Garrett Nussmeier Succumbs to Heisman Disrespect as Troubling Insider Update Confirms Nepotism Allegations appeared first on EssentiallySports.
