Why Ed Orgeron stuck with Garrett Nussmeier in LSU football's OT loss to Arkansas

BATON ROUGE — After a 16-13 overtime loss to Arkansas in overtime, LSU coach Ed Orgeron was peppered with postgame questions about the quarterback situation Saturday.

Did Orgeron consider going back to Max Johnson? Was the moment too much for Garrett Nussmeier?

And the Wildcat call? Yikes.

“We could’ve went back and forth right there but I didn’t want to put (Johnson) back in when we were already that far in,” Orgeron said. “We felt like we wanted to give Garrett a shot, and he made some big plays, but I didn’t want to go back when things went south.”

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The switch to Nussmeier looked good on the first play of the second quarter. The true freshman spun out of sack and fired a pass to tight end Jack Bech in the end zone. Bech made the catch for a 10-3 lead.

LSU wouldn’t score another touchdown for the rest of the game.

“I’ve dreamt of that moment my whole life,” Nussmeier said. “It did not go the way I wanted it to, but all it is going to do is make me hungrier.”

As the game wore on, the passing windows shrunk for Nussmeier. Arkansas tightened up its coverage and intercepted Nussmeier twice. Those turnovers led to six points, none more impactful than Cam Little’s game-winning field goal in OT.

Nussmeier completed 18 of 31 attempts for 179 yards with the touchdown and two picks. Johnson played two series and was 3-of-6 for 21 yards.

“Well, we have to call better plays,” Orgeron said. “We have to do better things, and that’s obvious. It was obvious last week when we were 1-of-3 in the red zone (at Alabama).

“There’s a lot of chances that we had to make plays to win this football game, but again we have to find a way to do it. They did and we didn’t.”

The play that produced Nussmeier’s last interception was a called fade to the end zone. Montaric Brown outmuscled Devonta Lee to make the play. Arkansas quarterback KJ Jefferson carried on three consecutive plays to set up Little’s kick.

“It was a great play call — that was on me,” Nussmeier said. “I have to make the play and be smarter in overtime. I can’t turn the ball over. We kick the field goal and we keep playing. That is on me, and I’ll take it any day of the week.”

When Orgeron said LSU must call better plays, he was referring to offensive coordinator Jake Peetz’s puzzling call to line up Tyrion Davis-Price as a Wildcat quarterback in the second quarter. Davis-Price fumbled the snap and Arkansas recovered.

On the previous series, LSU had taken the lead on Nussmeier’s pass to Bech.

“I don’t think it was a very good idea to put (Davis-Price) back there in Wildcat when we haven’t done it all year,” Orgeron said. “They caused a fumble and we could’ve went up 17-3. I wish I could’ve had that call back.”

LSU actually outgained Arkansas 308 to 281. Davis-Price ran for 106 yards on 28 carries but the Tigers only made two trips to the red zone.

“We have not been able to get much of a rhythm going the last two weeks,” center Liam Shanahan said. “We are trying to keep pounding the ball, but we have to do a better job of it. We ran the ball decent at some points, but it was inconsistent.”

Orgeron was noncommittal about the quarterback situation going forward. LSU closes the regular season with home games against Louisiana-Monroe on Nov. 20 and Texas A&M on Nov. 27.

“We’re trying everything,” Orgeron said. “I don’t think we can put it all on the quarterback. I think we have to look at everything, encompass what we’re doing and let’s just go from there. We have two games left and we have to regroup.”

Adam Hunsucker covers LSU for the USA TODAY Network. Email him at ahunsucker@gannett.com or follow him on Twitter @adam_hunsucker. Enjoy Adam’s work? Consider a digital subscription for unlimited access.

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: LSU football: Why Ed Orgeron stuck with Garrett Nussmeier vs Arkansas