(Photo: Spencer Barnes/WCSN)
TEMPE — Arizona State football head coach Kenny Dillingham has announced quarterback Sam Leavitt will not play this weekend at Cincinnati due to an injury. Dillingham said he will be sidelined for the next 2-4 weeks, with the earliest possible return coming after ASU’s bye week following the Cincinnati game.
“I could give you a timeline, it’s not real,” Dillingham said. “It could be two weeks, it could be four weeks. Hopefully the sooner the better, we have a bye week after this week so maybe the following week versus Oklahoma State.”
The redshirt freshman exited last Friday’s win over No. 16 Utah after taking a hit to the ribs from linebacker Lander Barton as he scrambled midway through the second quarter. He wasn’t sidelined for long, though, returning in the waning moments of the first half and playing for the rest of the night. Leavitt finished 11-for-18 with 154 yards and one touchdown to one interception, helping lead ASU to its first top-25 upset since 2022.
“It’s not just (the ribs),” Dillingham said. “There’s some things involved. I don’t want to get too much into the details of that. But he battled through it in the game and kudos to him, he’s really tough.”
Despite only being in his second season of college football, Leavitt quickly cemented himself as the Sun Devils’ No. 1 signal caller after spending his true freshman year at Michigan State. In six games as the starter, he has completed 90 of his 152 passes for 1,166 yards and a 2:1 touchdown-to-interception ratio.
With Leavitt out at Cincinnati, senior quarterback Jeff Sims will likely garner his first start of the season. He brings a wealth of experience to the Sun Devils’ offense as he’s in his fifth season of college football, previously spending time at Georgia Tech (2020-2022) and Nebraska (2023). During that stretch, Sims accrued 4,746 yards through the air and tossed 31 scores to 29 picks.
But where Sims excels is as a scrambler. He’s demonstrated his ability to find gaps in the defense and gain yardage with his legs — and even averaged over five yards on 70 carries in 2021. In the 10 snaps he played in Leavitt’s absence on Friday, Sims connected on one of his two passing attempts and punched in a two-yard score on his only rush of the night.
Dillingham expressed confidence in Sims ability as a starter, citing his experience and strong performance during fall camp.
“We brought him in to compete to start,” Dillingham said. “I think (Leavitt) is a really good player, and Sam beat him out, but it was close, (Sims) had a good camp. Now Jeff, whose started a crap ton of games, gets to start again. There’s not much drama — we’re just starting a different guy.
“If you can’t rally behind who’s a senior, who transferred here to start, who’s been the starting quarterback going into four collegiate seasons… who’s been nothing but a phenomenal teammate who’s been nothing but dialed in the entire time.
If you can’t get behind that and have a belief in that, then I don’t know what you can get belief in.”
