Mississippi State Has a Much Better Idea of Which Quarterback it Will Face When it Opens SEC Play

The LSU quarterback situation looks all but decided now.

Mississippi State plays three non-conference games (versus LA Tech, versus NC State, at Memphis) before it opens SEC play against the LSU Tigers in Davis Wade Stadium on Sept. 25.

The Bulldogs will aim to come out with a victory just as they did in the 2020 season with the 44-34 road win, and they now have a good idea of which quarterback they'll be going up against.

LSU officially announced Monday that last year's starting quarterback Myles Brennan had suffered a severe left arm injury that will require surgery. There's currently no timetable on how long it will take him to recover and return to the football field.

The Tigers quarterback competition has been considered "wide open" all offseason, with Brennan, sophomore Max Johnson and true freshman Garrett Nussmeier all g equal consideration for the job -- though Johnson and Brennan have largely been considered the frontrunners.

Johnson finished out the season with a 2-0 record as a starter -- something head coach Ed Orgeron has brought up multiple times this year -- helping guide the team to an upset win over Florida and an impressive home victory over a visiting Ole Miss team to round out an otherwise disappointing, 5-5 season.

It seems to have been an unfortunate series of events for Brennan, who suffered a severe lower abdomen injury in 2020 that had him sidelined for the remainder of his first season as a starter after he was beaten out by Joe Burrow and Danny Etling in the years before.

Brennan, headed into his fifth year in Baton Rouge, had a solid spring game performance this year though and has shown some flashes in the limited time we've seen him in.

He played in and started just three games in 2020, completing 60.3% of his passes for 1,112 yards with 11 touchdowns and three interceptions. 

Now, it'll be interesting to see if we ever see him start a game for LSU again at all. At the very least with this situation, there doesn't seem to be a realistic scenario in which Brennan is both healthy enough and considered the top option at quarterback by the time LSU travels to Starkville.

Of course, it's still early, but dependent upon the amount of time it takes Brennan to recover and how well Johnson and Nussmeier perform throughout the season, it's a dismal possibility for the signal-caller who has faced so much adversity and hasn't transferred in the midst of it.