QB Nussmeier Has Decision Date Set, Visits on Deck

Garrett Nussmeier is counting down. 

The upcoming months for the Flower Mound (Texas) Marcus quarterback will determine plenty in his life. Beginning in March, he will make several visits with the NCAA dead period lifted. In April, he'll make a private verbal commitment between more than two dozen options from coast to coast. He'll kick off his senior football season in August and graduate in December. 

Before those milestones, evaluating his own recruitment will prove paramount. For that part of the process he will have both parents at his side from the visits to the final call. 

Doug Nussmeier has helped as much as one would expect given his experience in coaching the quarterback position in college and the NFL. The current QB coach for the Dallas Cowboys doesn't advise his son solely from that perspective, however. 

"He tries to keep his hands off as much as possible," rising-senior Garrett told SI All-American. "He wants it to be my decision. Obviously he's helped me a lot in developing my game but as far as recruiting, he's kind of tried to take the back seat and allow me to drive the car."

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Droves of programs have been in on Nussmeier but the spring visit tour is to be focused on a limited group. The family is still ironing out unofficial visit dates to campuses like, "LSU, North Carolina, Texas, Arizona State, South Carolina, TCU, Miami."

Then big decisions will be made.

"I think the plan has been to commit on Easter (April 12)," he said. "I'm not quite positive when I'll be committing to the school but it will be released the following weekend, the 18th or 19th. I kind of have a group of schools I won't really release. I'm still going through it and I've got to take visits all spring and try to make my mind up from that.

"I'm looking for a great place to be developed, looking for a place to help me get to the NFL and will I be a better person and player when I leave campus from the day I stepped on it? I also want to enjoy campus, I want to be able to enjoy my life." 

Helping Marcus to an 11-win season in 2019 with nearly 4,000 yards and 40 passing touchdowns to his name, Nussmeier wants to take the next step with his game once his verbal commitment goes public. 

The 6-foot-1 1/2 passer has already seen considerable gains dating back to his first year as a starter in 2018.

"I think the biggest thing I continue to work on is my size," Nussmeier said. "I played my sophomore year around 145 (pounds) and right now I'm 182.  The biggest thing for me was to be able to put weight on the play at a high level. With that came more power and more accuracy.

"I've always tried to work on my consistency. I think that's a big part of me and when I'm consistent I can make big plays when things fall apart."

In between getting better and picking a program to call a college home, the camp circuit will occupy some performance time. The Elite 11, Under Armour and Rivals stops in the state of Texas will be included during the busy spring. 

Nussmeier will then take an in-season official visit to the program he settled on. At this point, that question is still one seemingly far from figuring out.

"I would like to say that I'm on the top of their board," he said of several schools still in the conversation. "I think I could commit to just about any of those schools right now."

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