(Photo: Marina Williams (WCSN)
Sam Leavitt started the recruiting process for the second time in his career in late 2023. Following a freshman season that saw him appear in just four games for Michigan State to maintain his redshirt, the No. 18 ranked quarterback in the 2022 class was looking for a home once again.
In mid-December, Leavitt made his way to Tempe to make his official visit with head coach Kenny Dillingham and offensive coordinator Marcus Arroyo. First was a dinner where Leavitt and Arroyo had a two-hour conversation about the quarterback position. The next day, Arroyo and Leavitt met for what Arroyo deemed ‘the longest recruiting meeting’ he’s ever been in, talking for over six hours.
“We had a six-hour position meeting on an official visit, and I wasn’t letting him come out of the room,” Arroyo said Monday following Leavitt officially being made the starter. “He had four or five other visits set up, and my only goal was to break all the visits and cancel them. Kenny came in like five times.”
Every time Dillingham poked his head into Arroyo’s office during that meeting, Leavitt was ‘dialed in’ to the conversation, starting the meeting after lunch and continuing all the way through dinner.
“It matters to him like he loves this crap,” Dillingham said. “That’s a sign of a quarterback that can lead and win football games. My impression (of the meeting) was, ‘Let’s get this kid now, holy cow like we won.’”
Now eight months later, after beating out redshirt freshman Jaden Rashada in the spring and senior Nebraska transfer Jeff Sims in the fall, Leavitt has earned the starting job for the Sun Devils’ season opener against Wyoming on August 31.
“I kind of had that idea coming along, and that was my goal this whole time,” Leavitt said. “I definitely took a moment to thank God for the opportunity and just feel appreciative of it.”
Leavitt came to campus in the spring and immediately impressed both Arroyo and Dillingham with his performance on the field, but his leadership on the field did not gel with some of his teammates. The brother of an NFL safety and the son of a Division I college football player, Leavitt was not hesitant to let his teammates know when he thought they ran a route wrong or made a mistake.
However, after meeting with Dillingham following spring practice, Leavitt has come back in the fall with a new leadership style, focusing more on those 1-on-1 conversations and critiques with his teammates instead of airing it all out in front of others. The change he made was so great that he was selected as a part of the 12-man Pat Tillman Leadership Council.
“Coming into spring, I just wanted it so bad that I was just approaching people and myself too harshly,” Leavitt said. “I was beating myself up, and then I was taking that out on the team as well. Kenny had a lot of talks with me, and just really emphasized that, and said that was one of the biggest transitions that Bo (Nix) made coming from Auburn to Oregon.”
With his leadership style evolving throughout camp, it was just up to Leavitt’s on-field performance to decide who was on the field for the first snap of the season, and one characteristic of Leavitt’s stood out above all others. Last season, ASU’s 14 total interceptions ranked second in the Pac-12, and that, combined with the defense’s struggles in creating turnovers, meant ASU lost a couple of close games solely due to the turnover battle.
According to Dillingham, Leavitt threw an interception just two times in over 300 team segment clips, equivalent to about five football games worth of plays. On Tuesday, Leavitt threw his third interception of camp but also completed two deep touchdown passes of over 50+ yards, including an impressive cross-body throw when rolling to his left.
“In 300 clips of team series, he has two interceptions, so that’s roughly five football games, and you have two interceptions, that’s pretty good,” Dillingham said. “Talk about taking care of the football; that’s at a high level. On top of that, he cares, his work ethic, he’s mobile enough, and he’s got a lot of traits, so I think that he’s a really, really good football player.”
Eight months after that initial meeting went four hours too long, Leavitt’s position as ASU’s starter is secured, but that doesn’t mean his competitive drive is diminished. Every day is a chance to get better.
“Every single day, my brother and I live by a motto, ‘How great do you want to be,’” Leavitt said. “That’s the question. I have that on my mirror. When I wake up, I ask myself this question:… Every single day, just push yourself to the max.”
