How Sam Leavitt Will Improve as Season Progresses

The Arizona State QB is in a decent spot, but has to improve in these two areas.

Sep 6, 2025; Starkville, Mississippi, USA; Arizona State Sun Devils quarterback Sam Leavitt (10) hands the ball off during warm ups prior to the game against the Mississippi State Bulldogs at Davis Wade Stadium at Scott Field. Mandatory Credit: Petre Thomas-Imagn Images | Petre Thomas-Imagn Images

TEMPE -- Arizona State's starting QB Sam Leavitt is back to square one after a promising start to the 2025 campaign.

The redshirt sophomore came into the season facing lofty expectations after a 2024 season in which he proved to be one of the best players in all of college football in the closing stretch of the season.

NFL draft attention, Heisman Trophy conversations, and more surrounded Leavitt's offseason at every turn - the 20 year old even indulged in the conversations himself - stating his self-proclaimed goals were to win the Heisman and a national title during the upcoming season.

A four-touchdown performance in week one against Northern Arizona was nearly entirely negated by a performance against Mississippi State in which Leavitt only completed 10 passes and failed to even net 100 yards in the air.

Now, more questions than answers being in the picture is the reality for Leavitt once again - the field general is clearly sufficiently talented in many ways, from having some of the best pure arm strength in the college football world, to being one of the sneakiest athletes at the quarterback position.

The questions lie in if Leavitt and OC Marcus Arroyo can channel the talent on a consistent basis with an offense that has faced some changes from last season to the current one.

Arizona State on SI takes a dive into a pair of things that Leavitt has to improve on as the season progresses - if the offense is to hit the ceiling that they have.

Footwork

One of the areas of Leavitt's game that had become a point of contention last season was his tendency to display unconventional footwork in conventional situations.

Although Leavitt is phenomenal outside of structure, he shouldn't rely on throwing off-platform. There are also scenarios in which the talented quarterback shows questionable footwork from within the pocket - even in clean platform scenarios.

It may have not been the best idea for Patrick Mahomes to be the player to study during the offseason. Although Mahomes is one of the greatest quarterbacks to ever play, his footwork is far from conventional, as is his playstyle. Leavitt absolutely has to get back to the basics and develop some of the minutia of his game.

One of the other major points of criticism surrounding Leavitt in 2024 was the relatively low processing speed relative to other quarterbacks - the then-freshman typically took around three seconds from the ball being snapped to release the ball.

This formed an interesting conundrum - as Leavitt typically was able to push the ball downfield without putting it in harm's way, only creating turnover-worthy plays just over one percent of the time.

This season had been a different story. Coach Dillingham has frequently alluded to the fact that Leavitt has to continue to be aggressive while also trying to find ways to set him up to make the safe play more frequently on early downs.

Leavitt has appeared to be shaken more frequently behind an offensive line that has been reshuffled a bit - he has to settle in, read through his progressions, and target multiple receivers - including TE Chamon Metayer, who has yet to secure a reception this season.

Read more on major takeaways from Arizona State's week two loss here, and on taking a dive into coach Dillingham's comments after the game here.

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