Former Spartan Deemed Top-3 QB

It's no secret Michigan State football hasn't been in a good place in recent years.

The Spartans have only made one bowl game in the last five years, and their lack of NFL Draft production has been a testament to that.

As painful as that is for Spartan fans, perhaps what is just as gut-punching is the success that outgoing transfers have found at their new schools. Former Spartans like Keon Coleman and Derrick Harmon went on to become second- and first-round draft picks, respectively, adding salt to the wound that Michigan State football has been suffering.

Yet again, another former Spartan has taken off with his new program: quarterback Sam Leavitt of Arizona State. So much so that ESPN's Greg McElroy ranked him No. 3 on his list of "top 10 quarterbacks heading into 2025."

"This is higher than most people would have him," McElroy said on a recent episode of Always College Football, "but I would encourage you just to do some due diligence and dive in because what you see when you watch Arizona State's Sam Leavitt is a guy that can break you down in a bunch of different ways.

"His stats aren't going to blow you away. He finished last year with 2,800 passing yards or so -- 2,885 -- 24:6 touchdown to interception ratio, under 62% completion, but he did add 440 rushing yards and six touchdowns.

"What I think is amazing with Leavitt is he kind of was under the radar for most of the year last year. And then people finally got a chance to watch him in the Big 12 Championship Game, and they got to watch him in the College Football Playoff game against the Texas Longhorns. You watch him in those two games, you're like, 'Woah, all right, this guy's a guy.'

" ... And I think what's amazing, too, is that, while he arrived from Michigan State kind of under the radar, he was in the same quarterback room as Jayden Rashada, everyone wanted to talk about Jayden Rashada, but everyone also -- you kind of hear it from the staff and hear it from people, 'Man, this Leavitt kid, there's something about this kid. Something about this kid.'

" ... While he's not going to necessarily blow you away with how big he is, how wide he is, how huge his arm is, I think this is a guy that people, when they watch him, are going to fall in love with this young man."

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