Quarterback Sam Leavitt headlined both LSU’s highly touted incoming transfer class and its list of storylines to watch as the team opened fall camp this past week.
The former Arizona State star arrived to Baton Rouge as the nation’s top-ranked portal signee with a proven track record at a high level at the game’s most pivotal position, but also still recovering from a Lisfranc injury that ended last season early and limited him this spring with his new program.
Just a few practices into the ramp-up toward a Sept. 5 opener, Leavitt assured Monday he feels on track physically and mentally and that he in fact has for much of the summer.
“I’m 100% right now, and I’ve been 100% for the past few months,” he said in his first scheduled media conference in purple and gold. “I just wanna show a lot of love to (senior associate athletic trainer) Dalis (Boyette) and the whole staff just constantly grinding and getting me back. And my health is one thing that I take very seriously whether it’s the food I eat, the way I sleep, the way I recover, so it was really never a question for me. You can ask everyone from everywhere I’ve been. That’s kind of something I prioritize in my life, I think, on kind of an extreme level. So, yeah, I’m ready to go.”
Coach Lane Kiffin explained this past Wednesday that he had not considered Leavitt behind schedule for the season because of the amount of mental preparation he had been able to put in behind the scenes.
The quarterback further detailed some of that work Monday with gratitude to director of performance innovation Jack Marucci and his staff and the state-of-the-art virtual-reality tools LSU has incorporated into its facilities that Jayden Daniels referenced as consistently and famously anyone during his 2023 Heisman campaign.
He said he fell in love with film-study back in ninth grade when his older brother Dallin Leavitt, who reached the NFL as a safety with the Raiders and Packers, helped him work on identifying coverages.
And LSU’s virtual-reality tools and focus on sports science have been championed in recent years by past quarterbacks such as Daniels and Garrett Nussmeier and 2027 commitment Peyton “Pop” Houston among other players and coaches.
“It’s just been a blessing to come here and resources like that,” Leavitt said. “People are really pouring into the entire organization from all cylinders, so just taking advantage of that as much as possible. Obviously going through fall camp right now is difficult — there’s not that much time — but grinding as much as I can, and it’s incredible to be able to see reps live. It’s almost like a live rep without taking the toll on your body, so it’s been a blessing.”
Those available resources may have provided as significant a value to Leavitt as anyone yet given the circumstances of learning a new team and playbook while sidelined physically.
They also provided a perfect pairing with Kiffin and his staff’s track record of quarterback development as he decided to join them in Baton Rouge during an eventful, whirlwind of a transfer-portal recruiting process in January.
“Portal process was pretty crazy,” Leavitt smiled, being admitted selective in what he wished to share publicly. “I didn’t expect it to go in that direction, just the whole situation. And then when I came out here, took my visit and just kind of fell in love with the place, fell in love with the vision. And LSU, you walk around, it’s a historic place, and it’s just been so many great players to come out of here.
“And then you view the players that you’re gonna view the players that you’re gonna play against every day in practice, going up against guys like Whit Weeks and T.J. Dottery and Ty Benefield, and it’s a special situation for me to be in just to be able to grind every day and get better. That’s ultimately the end goal. And to come here and be with this staff, it’s a situation where I don’t really see how anyone can pass it up.”
Leavitt continued his travels to visit other programs after his stop in Baton Rouge, which had included subsequent plans for Tennessee and Miami.
But Kiffin flew to Knoxville, Tenn., to follow up with Leavitt again after the quarterback’s meeting with the Volunteers and effectively closed the deal to land him for LSU.
Leavitt declined to discuss specifics of that portion of the trip, but Kiffin said earlier Monday that the overall football pitch and successful selling point was fairly straightforward.
“I just think quarterback development’s an easy thing to sell: How well people play, how well people play in a short period of time with us — that they don’t have to come and wait a year and learn,” the coach said. “And him projected to miss spring a lot and not be fully cleared in spring, we kinda sold, ”Hey, just look just at the last place without a spring what the quarterback was able to do.’ And we brought in pieces around him, and so I think it’s kind of an easy sell. And then you’re playing here, playing quarterback at LSU, which has been a pretty good move the last 10 years.”
Trinidad Chambliss didn’t join Ole Miss until late last spring after transferring from Division-II champion Ferris State.
But he took over the starting role by Week 3 and proceeded to lead the Rebels to a historic season and College Football Playoff run.
Leavitt said he quickly clicked with both the new staff and the new location because of the shared passion he felt for football and winning.
And after an offseason of recovery and mental work, he’s also now quickly feeling — and looking — back to himself physically.
A viral video on social media last this summer showed Leavitt leaping and dunking a football over an upright in the Tigers’ indoor practice facility. And he’s looked increasingly sharp and on-target during media viewing periods of the first few practices of fall camp.
“It was definitely more challenging within the first four or five months,” he explained. “I had a second surgery where I got the pins pulled, so I have no hardware in my foot right now. And initially after that, I thought it was just gonna snap back into being full-go — that’s just how my brain works. But just going through the process and keeping my head down and putting in the work and just understanding. Delayed gratification as a big thing for me, you know, how much can I put in the work without seeing immediate results.
“And then after I kind of figured out something with the whole medical staff on what was kind of limiting some of my foot coming back after that surgery, it kind of just popped from there. And it’s just been incredible. I really don’t think about it out on the field at all. Just have to obviously warm it up a little bit before practice, but just keeping on my routine and everything at night, it’s really easy a thought process for me.”
The early performance in encouraging that Leavitt’s addition could be well worth the investment and the wait and position Kiffin and company for some familiarity.
Like Chambliss at Ole Miss in 2025, Leavitt arrives to LSU with notable postseason experience after leading Arizona State to the College Football Playoffs in 2024.
The bulletpoint on Leavitt’s résumé is not lost on his new teammates, who hope to be in that conversation this winter and see him as the type of leader and playmaker at the position who can help compete at that level.
“I think while Sam was out gave the young quarterbacks an opportunity to go in there and get reps with the (No.) 1 receivers and (No.) 1 O-line, and we saw what those guys can do,” said center Braelin Moore, one of the few returning starters on a largely overhauled roster. “Man, those guys are super-talented, and they’re gonna have a bright future. And then when we got Sam back, it’s almost like a comfort blanket. He comes in, and he’s been there before. He’s already played in the Playoffs. He knows what it takes to win. So having a guy back there to really orchestrate everything is huge.”
