Many believe the No. 12 Arizona State Sun Devils should have beaten the No. 3 Texas Longhorns in the Peach Bowl. A missed targeting penalty cost them, and they eventually lost in double overtime. Senior running back Cam Skattebo was the star of the show, while freshman QB Sam Leavitt also made his mark. Going by the way the signal-caller seamlessly played with the team and Cam, it would be tough to imagine that he had trouble gelling with them in his “first three or four months” in Tempe.
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A few weeks before the College Football Playoff quarterfinal matchup against Texas, Skattebo had spoken about Leavitt’s evolution since his arrival in 2023. Apparently, he clashed with the rest of the Arizona roster for weeks. Sam eventually meshed with the guys during the Sun Devils’ Cinderella season this year.
“The first three or four months, Sam didn’t like anybody and no one liked Sam,” Cam had said on the PHNX Sun Devils Show.
“He was a guy that came in and was not comfortable at all… He knew what he could be. And nobody really believed him because he’s this 19-year-old kid… transferring in from Michigan State. We didn’t really know what he was about,” added Skattebo.
Despite that rocky start, the Oregon native kept at it, continuing to “push people even though he didn’t like people”. Eventually, Leavitt’s talent couldn’t be ignored by his teammates. By fall camp, he’d turned the tide and earned the QB1 job in his first season with the Sun Devils.
“I think towards fall camp, people started to understand like, ‘oh my gosh, this kid is good’. During summer workouts and stuff, he started to get a little bit more comfortable and a little bit more confident. Ever since then, everybody started to like him, everybody started to buy in. As you can tell, he’s a helluva player,” elaborated Cam.
Skattebo predicted that Leavitt “is an absolute star” and would “win a Heisman in his next three years at Arizona State”.
While that might be a bit premature, Leavitt has certainly built a good foundation during his first year as a college starter in 2024.
There were a lot of reasons why Arizona State went from 3-9 last year to 11-3 with a Big 12 Championship this time around. And Leavitt was one of them.
His stats don’t jump off the page, but they didn’t need to. The Sun Devils had Skattebo for that. Leavitt threw for just under 3,000 yards while tossing 24 TDs against just six picks. He was also a more than capable rusher, tucking and running 110 times for 443 yards and five TDs.
With Skattebo likely heading to the NFL, it’s going to be up to Leavitt to make sure the Sun Devils repeat this 2024 performance next season.
