How Big of A Season Could LSU's Sam Leavitt Actually Have?

When LSU was building its roster through the transfer portal, one position was still a question mark for most of the cycle.

Then Lane Kiffin and the Tigers gained commitments from three of the top quarterbacks in the portal, including Arizona State standout Sam Leavitt. He quickly became one of the starring pieces of LSU's offseason additions, and will take the reigns as the team's starting quarterback.

It's not often a team can land a starter with experience leading a team to the College Football Playoff, but LSU now has one in its hands.

Leavitt missed the back half of the 2024 season undergoing foot surgery and recently had the pins removed from his foot. Kiffin said that he is basically at 100% and is ready to get up to speed in summer and fall camps.

Leavitt's ceiling

Sam Leavitt throws the ball in a game against Houston | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

Leavitt has the chance to force himself into conversations of being a first round draft pick with how his season could go. But comfortability in a new system will take time.

"Now we’ve just got to put everything together in year one a little bit late, because now he’s finally cleared now with a lot of new pieces around him," Kiffin said. "It’s going to be a big summer and fall camp.”

But Leavitt is a natural born winner and competitor. Arizona State went 16-4 in his starts including a Big 12 Championship and loss in double overtime of the playoff quarterfinal. This experience at the highest stage should help him quickly get past the pressure of starting at LSU this year.

In his two years as the Sun Devil starter, he passed for 4,513 yards over 361 completions on 589 attempts. That's good for a 61.3% completion rate and 226 yards per game.

In a fast paced offense like Kiffin's, he should be able to easily exceed his averages, leading this to be the biggest season of his collegiate career. 250 yards per game is a reasonable goal, especially if he even slightly improves his completion percentage.

One of his biggest benefits is that Kiffin and Co. brought in a pallet of top-tier wide receivers, who will be able to rotate in an out to keep fresh legs on the field for the passing game. If Leavitt dedicates himself to improvement like Joe Burrow did in the summer of 2019, Leavitt can skyrocket his performance numbers in 2026.

Another important piece to any quarterbacks game under Kiffin is the ability to scramble. Leavitt averaged 4.1 yards per carry at Arizona State, and averaged 37.5 yards per game on the ground.

In 2025 as opposed to 2024, he had more rushing attempts per game while also racking up more yards per game, improving from 34.1 to 43.7 in his two seasons out West.

Eyes will be kept close on his scrambling ability in fall camp and the first week of the season because of his injury, but he likely wouldn't even be on the field if he wasn't able to move in and out of the pocket.

Since he matches up so well with Kiffin's offense, Leavitt's ceiling is high enough to where he can be one of the best quarterbacks in the country in 2026.

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