Frank Wilson’s Spectacle of Ridiculousness: Bench Garrett Nussmeier and Welcome to Clown Town
An interim position coach makes a horrific move in a lost season.
Let’s get one thing straight: Frank Wilson benching Garrett Nussmeier was not a bold coaching move. It wasn’t strategic. It wasn’t gutsy. It was pure, unfiltered nonsense — a clown act in broad daylight from a coach who’s supposed to be holding the ship together, not drilling new holes in the hull.
This team is in shambles, and Wilson just lit a match on one of the few things that wasn’t broken: the quarterback. Nussmeier has been a warrior all year — dragging a dysfunctional LSU offense down the field while everything around him burned. The line hasn’t protected, the play-calling’s been a mess, and the defense has hung him out to dry. Through it all, Nussmeier still posted 1,927 yards, 12 touchdowns, and a QBR above 70. He’s shown up every Saturday with more grit than excuses.
And what does he get for it? Pulled in the middle of the Alabama game while he’s completing 85% of his passes. Not benched at the half. Not swapped out because of injury. Yanked during a game where he was one of the only LSU players not actively unraveling.
Wilson’s reasoning? Unclear. Vague postgame mumbling about rhythm and momentum, as if momentum exists when you’ve got five false starts and your offensive line folds like wet cardboard. Instead of owning the deeper failures — protection, discipline, offensive identity — Wilson tosses his QB under the bus mid-drive.
Let’s run the checklist of why this was an egregious mistake:
- Nuss wasn’t the problem: LSU was losing the line of scrimmage, not the quarterback battle. Nussmeier started 18-of-21 with 121 yards. That’s efficient, composed football against one of the toughest defenses in the country. He wasn’t torching Alabama, but he was managing the chaos.
- The backup was unprepared: Sophomore Michael Van Buren Jr. is a promising prospect. That’s it — a prospect. He’s thrown fewer passes all season than Nussmeier averages in one game. Throwing him into a live SEC game against Alabama’s front seven is the definition of setting someone up to fail. He went 5-of-11 for 52 yards. That’s not on him — that’s on the coach.
- Undermining your leader: Nussmeier is a fifth-year guy, the emotional and strategic backbone of the offense. When a coach benches a player like that mid-game without a legitimate reason, it doesn’t motivate anyone. It sends a message: no one is safe, and performance doesn’t matter — only chaos does.
- Optics matter: Interim or not, Wilson is the face of the program right now. You don’t fix dysfunction by making irrational sideline decisions. You don’t rally a struggling team by pulling your quarterback who’s completing nearly every pass he throws.
Wilson didn’t make a tactical switch. He made a panic move. A loud, performative mistake that threw off whatever rhythm LSU had. And it blew up instantly. The offense stalled, the team lost focus, and Alabama walked away with exactly what they expected — an LSU team that beat itself.
Nussmeier deserved better. He fought through a bad season without pointing fingers. He stood in the pocket behind a crumbling O-line and kept the wheels on. And this is how it ends — not because of poor performance, but because an interim coach wanted to shake things up like this was a video game.
LSU fans have seen bad seasons before. But what they witnessed on Saturday was something worse — a betrayal of effort, leadership, and common sense. Garrett Nussmeier didn’t deserve to be benched. He deserved a damn statue after surviving this year.
Benching Nussmeier mid-game was a disgrace in itself. Now, you’re going to burn the redshirt of your future quarterback in a lost season, with nothing but pride to play for? At a place with championship aspirations each year? Comical.
This is LSU. A place loyalty doesn’t seem to exist any more. The fans are loyal, but the executive decisions made by coaches and athletic administrators sure are not.
Frank Wilson didn’t just make the wrong call. He made the dumbest possible call at the worst possible time. And the Tigers paid for it.
Do better, Frank Wilson. Nuss deserves better and LSU fans do too.
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