Garrett Nussmeier, First Team Offense Shines While Young Defensive Players Elevate Their Stock in Spring Game

Last fall, the consistent theme for LSU was how explosive the offense was, but at the same time, the defense gave up just as many explosive plays. Things were pretty much the same when it came to this year’s spring game as the first team offense got the best of the first team defense scoring three touchdowns on three drives.

“We have been striving for controlling the line of scrimmage, running the football, and that will set up the explosiveness within this offense. It is not going to be Jayden Daniels, Malik Nabers, Brian Thomas. It is going to have a different look to the explosiveness. You can still be explosive, but it starts at the line of scrimmage.”

LSU HC Brian Kelly on offensive identity

Wide Open Zavion Thomas

TOUCHDOWN pic.twitter.com/pJvTzMiXl0

— LSU Football (@LSUfootball) April 13, 2024

Garrett Nussmeier showed that he was in total command of the offense and frequently showed off his rocket arm with two deep touchdown strikes on busted coverage. Nussmeier completed all seven of his passes for 187 yards. The first touchdown was thrown to a wide open Zavion Thomas from 45 yards out while the second touchdown was thrown to projected WR1 Kyren Lacy, who was streaking down the sidelines wide open for a 59 yard catch and run.

“I thought he did a really nice job. The throw as he stepped up in the pocket was quintessential in terms of what he’s able to do. He keeps his eyes down the field. As he steps up in the pocket, he sees an open receiver down the field. I thought he was clean today. I thought he was efficient. I thought he did the things that we expected him to do.”

LSU HC Brian Kelly on Garrett Nussmeier

28 is Special @Kaleb_TheGreat pic.twitter.com/LzrRFx1azh

— LSU Football (@LSUfootball) April 13, 2024

Kaleb Jackson also showed some of his raw potential as he broke through the line and scored on a 32 yard touchdown scamper to give the first team offense three scores against the first team defense.

“What I liked about Kaleb was his patience today. He was a lot more patient on his running fits. He was a lot more north and south. He had been a guy that had a tendency to bounce out and bleed out to the sideline instead of just hitting the thing north and south, and that was really encouraging. With his physicality and speed, if he hits those things north and south as you saw on the goal line piece of our scrimmage, he can crease a defense.”

LSU HC Brian Kelly on Kaleb Jackson

Although the first team defense struggled, linebacker Harold Perkins Jr. looked comfortable and made some plays on the inside with four tackles, a sack, and a TFL.

“I thought Harold Perkins did a really nice job working in the box and seeing counters. We were purposeful in running the ball at him, making him defend, get over the top of the veer block of the tackle, getting it back out and forcing to tackle that so that was good to see.”

LSU HC Brian Kelly on LB Harold Perkins Jr.

The depth of the defense also showed as plenty of young players flashed in the spring game.

It was headlined by freshman defensive end Gabriel Reliford, who consistently showed pressure off the edge with two sacks. The Evangel Christian Academy product also had four tackles, two sacks, and 3.5 TFLs. His performance skyrocketed his stock and could potentially get him some looks against the first team offensive line.

Gabe Reliford sack! The freshman DE with a great rep pic.twitter.com/PWs5fmmS3b

— Matthew Brune (@MatthewBrune_) April 13, 2024

“Gabe was going up against a freshman, and he’s a freshman. I get that, but now, we’re going to have to take Gabe and we’re going to have to get Gabe some reps against Will Campbell. We’re going to have to get him up against Emery Jones because he’s earned that now.”

LSU Head Coach Brian Kelly on Gabriel Reliford

Fellow early freshman enrollee Dashawn McBryde snagged a pick in the end zone during the red zone portion of the game while sophomore safety Kylin Jackson added three tackles, a sack, and a PBU.

#LSU HC Brian Kelly has really loved from what he has seen of early enrollees Da’Shawn McBryde, Gabriel Reliford, and PJ Woodland.

— Jace LeJeune (@JaceLejeune) April 13, 2024

A big storyline coming in was to see who would separate themselves at QB2 between Rickie Collins and AJ Swann. As up in the air as it was before spring, it is just now as questionable after spring as both quarterbacks combined to complete 10 of 21 passes for 107 yards.

However, Colin Hurley gave Tiger fans a glimpse into the future when the early enrollee threw a 64 yard touchdown strike to Khai Prean.

Collin Hurley with a DIME to Khai Prean! pic.twitter.com/9JyLdxO29c

— Matthew Brune (@MatthewBrune_) April 13, 2024

In the end, the final score is only just a number as it turned out to be a tie in the end with the offense tying the defense with a final score of 34-34, but just like any other spring game, there were some positives and some negatives.

With the first team offense not skipping a beat and some young defenders being able to shine on a big stage in front of the LSU fans, there was a lot to like, but Kelly and the rest of the Tigers coaches will be looking to sure up some holes heading into fall camp.

“Some guys took this as a real game opportunity. Kyren Lacy has had a great spring. Let’s see him in a game-like situation. I thought that was clear. Then, the other thing we highlights is a running game and how important that is with our offensive line to exert our will, and I thought I saw that. Now, you also saw the things that we have to get better at. Certainly, we can’t let the ball over our head. We had coverage mistakes. Those can’t continue to happen, certainly. We’ve got to evaluate and recruit at the defensive tackle position. That’s a must. I like what our edges are doing. We’re getting good pressure from the edge, but we’ve got to be really stout inside so those are a couple of the observations that I think were what we talked about as a group in the sessions that we had that I saw today.”

LSU HC Brian Kelly on what he liked and what he wants to see improvement after spring game

We will have more breakdown from the spring game this week so make sure to keep up to date with everything going on at www.gridironfootballusa.com!

Final Stats:

Offense Passing

#	PLAYER	C-A	YDS	TD	I	C%	RTG
10	COLLINS,RICKIE	6-12	52	0	0	50	86.4
15	SWANN,AJ	4-9	55	0	0	44	95.8
13	NUSSMEIER,GARRETT	7-7	187	2	0	100	418.7
16	HURLEY,COLIN	4-6	77	1	0	67	229.5
	PASS TOTALS	21-34	371	3	0	62

Offense Receiving

#	PLAYER	NO	YDS	TD	LNG	AVG	TGT	C%
88	PIMPTON,KA’MORREUN	3	16	0	9	5.3	3	100
11	THOMAS,ZAVION	2	52	1	45	26	3	67
19	NICHOLAS,JAVEN	2	36	0	29	18	3	67
4	DANIELS,CJ	2	33	0	21	16.5	3	67
1	ANDERSON,AARON	2	15	0	13	7.5	5	40
82	PREAN,KHAI	1	64	1	64	64	1	100
2	LACY,KYREN	1	59	1	59	59	2	50
17	HILTON JR.,CHRIS	1	16	0	16	16	3	33
30	LANE,MALACHI	1	11	0	11	11	1	100
86	TAYLOR,MASON	1	10	0	10	10	1	100
81	WILLIS,RJ	1	6	0	6	6	2	50
27	WILLIAMS,JOSH	1	4	0	4	4	1	100
84	MARKWAY,MAC	1	4	0	4	4	2	50
45	PETERSON,GIVANNI	1	3	0	3	3	1	100
	14 RECEIVERS	20	329	3	64	16.5	34	59

Offense Rushing

#	PLAYER	ATT	YDS	TD	LNG	AVG
28	JACKSON,KALEB	14	59	1	32	4.2
30	LANE,MALACHI	4	21	0	6	5.3
27	WILLIAMS,JOSH	3	12	0	12	4
88	PIMPTON,KA’MORREUN	1	9	0	9	9
32	EBUN,JOSEPH	2	4	0	5	2
16	HURLEY,COLIN	1	-1	0	0	-1
19	NICHOLAS,JAVEN	0	-2	0	0	—
15	SWANN,AJ	2	-7	0	0	-3.5
10	COLLINS,RICKIE	7	-26	0	8	-3.7
	9 RUSHERS	34	69	1	32	2

Offense Punting

Punter	NO	YDS	AVG	LNG	I20	50+
TODD,PEYTON	4	144	36	44	0	0

Offense Field Goals

Kicker	Time	Dist	Result
Ramos,Damian	1st-03:15	23	GOOD
Corbello,Aidan	2nd-00:00	37	GOOD
TOTAL	2-2	LONG OF 37

Offense All Purpose Yards

Player	Tot	Rush	Rec	KOR	PR	IR-FR	TDs
PREAN,KHAI	64	0	64	0	0	0	1
LACY,KYREN	59	0	59	0	0	0	1
JACKSON,KALEB	59	59	0	0	0	0	1

Offense Defense

#	Player (Starter)	TotTk	Solo	Sack	TFL	Int	BrUp	QBH	FF
2	Lacy,Kyren	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
11	Thomas,Zavion	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
28	Jackson,Kaleb	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
34	Ramos,Damian	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
36	Corbello,Aidan	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
44	Roy,Slade	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
82	Prean,Khai	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	TOTALS	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Defense Defense

#	Player (Starter)	TotTk	Solo	Sack	TFL	Int	BrUp	QBH	FF
36	Ausberry,Austin	7	3	0	0	0	0	0	0
33	Weeks,West (LB)	5	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
95	Washington,Shone (DT)	5	1	1	1.5	0	0	0	0
19	Reliford,Gabriel (DE)	4	3	2	3.5	0	0	1	0
21	Yaites,Ryan	4	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
30	Penn III,Greg (LB)	4	0	0	0.5	0	0	0	0
4	Perkins Jr.,Harold (LB)	3	3	1	1	0	0	0	0
23	Jackson,Kylin	3	1	1	1	0	1	0	0
27	Woodland,PJ (CB)	3	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
40	Weeks,Whit (LB)	3	1	0	1.5	0	0	0	0
10	McBryde,Deshawn	2	2	0	0	0	0	0	0
16	Womack,Da’Shawn (DE)	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
25	Toviano,Javien (CB)	2	1	0	0.5	0	0	0	0
26	Stamps,Ashton (CB)	2	2	0	0	0	0	0	0
44	Brathwaite,Christia (LB)	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
48	Cobbins,Kolaj (LB)	2	2	1	1	0	0	0	0
56	Makane’ole,Kimo (DL)	2	1	0	0.5	0	0	0	0
97	Carpenter,Dylan (DE)	2	1	1	1.5	0	0	0	0
98	Hickey,Preston (DT)	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
12	Johnson,JK (CB)	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
8	Burns,Major	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
15	Ryan,Sage (CB)	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
17	Brown,Jyaire (CB)	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
38	Blount,Darian (CB)	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
39	Short,Tyson	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
42	Keys,Davhon (LB)	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
46	Singleton,Tylen (LB)	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
55	Ibieta,Jake (DE)	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
92	Lee,Jalen (DT)	1	0	0	0.5	0	0	0	0
93	Breaux,Ahmad (DE)	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
96	Johnson,De’Myrion (DT)	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	TOTALS	71	27	7	13	0	1	1	0