Nick Saban Delivers Blunt Reality Check on Sam Leavitt Injury Controversy

With questions swirling around whether Lane Kiffin's injury report for LSU was entirely accurate, Nick Saban makes his view abundantly clear.

USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

If there wasn’t enough drama ahead of this week’s LSU vs. Ole Miss matchup in Oxford aside from Lane Kiffin’s return, some more emerged in a surprising injury report when LSU quarterback Sam Leavitt was suddenly listed as doubtful to play in the game.

That naturally led to speculation that Leavitt was in fact not injured, or at least not seriously so, and that Kiffin was engaging in a little subterfuge ahead of the game in an effort to redirect the Ole Miss defense’s attention and plant some misinformation among its ranks.

You can count Nick Saban among those who are skeptical of the Leavitt injury designation.

‘Nothing Wrong’ with Sam Leavitt

“If I was a betting man, I would say there’s absolutely nothing wrong with Sam Leavitt. I would be psychologically telling the defensive players that this doesn’t matter,” Saban said on The Pat McAfee Show.

"If I was a betting man I would say there's absolutely nothing wrong with Sam Leavitt 😂😂

I'm 100% expecting Sam Leavitt to play in this game" ~ Coach Saban #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/MUIcskDGxH

— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) September 18, 2026

What else would Saban tell his team if he was at Ole Miss? “‘Sam Leavitt is going to play, he’s going to be the best, we’ve got to stop him. Don’t lose your edge because you think he’s not going to play.’ And then he shows up and plays and it’s a downer.”

What LSU Has Said About Its QB

LSU surprised everyone in college football when they listed Leavitt as doubtful on its first availability report, a designation that in the SEC would mean there was a 25 percent chance he would actually appear in Saturday’s game.

That was despite Leavitt not appearing to be injured following last week’s win against Louisiana Tech, but you never know, sometimes an issue can flare up after a game, and the Tigers’ quarterback is known to take a physical approach when he runs the ball.

Then came an apparent improvement later in the week, when LSU upgraded Leavitt’s status to questionable, but whatever the case actually may be, it will be difficult to find anyone outside Louisiana who actually believes what the program is saying.

Including especially at Ole Miss, where “no one” was convinced that Leavitt was actually injured, according to a report this week, so if there were some dirty tricks being played from Kiffin’s direction, it doesn’t appear his opponent actually bought it.

What will the latest information on Leavitt actually reveal, at least according to LSU? We’ll know that at 8:10 p.m. Eastern time when the Friday availability report comes out across the SEC, with Sam Leavitt’s name the first everyone will look for.