How three plays that stick with Arizona State QB Sam Leavitt are fueling his 2025 Heisman bid

Three plays keep looping in the mind of Sam Leavitt this offseason. Without even a pause to collect his thoughts, the Arizona State quarterback quickly rattles off the three moments from the College Football Playoff loss to Texas still gnawing at him.

“There’s one on the goal line where I got tripped up and I didn’t score, and we ended up not scoring,” Leavitt says, not missing a beat. “I just remember if I had just pushed a little bit harder, I felt like I could have gotten in the end zone.”

He then points to a crossing route on the final drive of the first half. Had he released the ball quicker, it might have resulted in a big gain. Instead, that drive ended with a missed field goal. That play changed how Leavitt watches film.

“I think about it a lot,” Leavitt admitted. “That play has got me more motivation to get in the film room. And when I’m in the film room, the way that I approach it. Just like it’s 1-2-3, he’s there, I’m there. Just quickening up my mental reaction.”

The third play is the interception he threw in double overtime to end the game. Those traits to quickly recall plays and identify issues drew Kenny Dillingham to Leavitt in high school, when he offered the quarterback at Florida State. It’s why the coach jumped at the chance to get him out of the portal in December 2023 and bring him to Tempe.

Leavitt put the entire nation on notice last year about just how talented he is, leading a program that went 3-9 in 2023 to 11-3 with a Big 12 championship and CFP berth. The quarterback threw for 2,885 yards for 24 touchdowns and six interceptions as a redshirt freshman. The Big 12 Freshman of the Year is now in the conversation as one of the top returning players in college football, and he’s not shying away from it.

But an immediate return to Arizona State in 2025 was not a foregone conclusion. After a historic season at Arizona State, programs lined up to make a transfer portal pitch to Leavitt. In the age of the transfer portal and NIL, schools felt they could offer enough to sway Leavitt away from the Sun Devils.

“It was a quick conversation, and then it was squashed,” Leavitt said. “I’m in such a great position here. Got all my best friends, best team to play on. The culture is incredible. I’m at Arizona State, and I’m still getting taken care of.”

Dillingham does not dismiss the notion that Leavitt could have left. But the third-year head coach also knew his quarterback was not prioritizing short-term cash over competing for a national title at Arizona State and developing his draft stock.

“You get a chance to be in the same system again,” Dillingham said. “If your end game is to play on Sundays, do you want to have to go learn a new vernacular and a new verbiage? Or do you want to fine-tune your quick game footwork, like you did this spring? Fine-tune getting better at protections, mastering this system, which does correlate to playing on Sundays, return and play with a guy that you have unbelievable chemistry with, in [wide receiver] Jordyn Tyson. If you drop yourself one pick for the change you choose to make, it’s not worth it.”

“… To me, eventually, I think substance wins in this game. And I think you’ll see enough guys where that move doesn’t work. Where the moving and the shaking and the changing don’t help them in the long run, and I think once it does that, it’s going to come back to balance.”

Next to Clemson, no other team in FBS returns more production in 2025 than Arizona State. Of On3’s latest preseason top-15 teams, just eight of the top 15 have second-year returning starters.

Arguably, nobody on that list has the same returning quarterback-wide receiver duo except for the Sun Devils in Leavitt and Jordyn Tyson. The 6-foot-1, 195-pound wide receiver evolved into Leavitt’s top target during last year’s run. But Tyson was not available in the Big 12 title game or CFP loss, dealing with a collarbone injury.

Leavitt says their relationship and his understanding of where Tyson is on the football field have only grown stronger over the past year. But the quarterback is also excited about the new wide receiver talent around him, highlighted by the portal additions of Clemson’s Noble Johnson, NC State’s Jalen Moss, Alabama’s Jaren Hamilton and NIU’s Akim Lanieux.

Leavitt believes what he and Tyson can do on the field together can take a step forward this fall.

“That’s my guy, but we didn’t click automatically and become best friends,” Leavitt said. “I think one of the things about him that nobody realizes is the extra work that he puts in. He’s at the facility all the time. He’s a really competitive person, just like me, so we started to play ping pong, compete in swimming laps and basketball. It’s honestly about anything that we’re doing, we’re competing in. Who’s going to eat the healthiest? When you find someone like that who has that much love and passion for the game like you do, you start to gravitate towards them.

“There’s a certain amount of work that you can put in to get there [building a relationship with a wide receiver], but it doesn’t happen with everybody. There’s a connection that has to be made. It just happens. He has a super special feel for the game.”

Sam Leavitt is not blinking when he talks about his goals for 2025. Back at Arizona State after a quick break in May, he has two clear goals going into the fall: Compete for a national title and win the Heisman Trophy. A year ago, many across the country viewed the Sun Devils as an afterthought. This year, they are viewed as a preseason top-15 team.

The quarterback’s Heisman odds currently sit at +3300, according to FanDuel. Leavitt is unfazed by what anyone thinks about what he plans to tackle this fall. He’ll be at the Manning Passing Academy this summer to see how he stacks up to his Heisman competition.

“I have the national championship and the 2025 Heisman as my goals,” Leavitt said. “But I don’t like to look at things from a big perspective all the time. Just day-to-day getting better. … It’s how I viewed myself since day one, so it’s never been a question mark from my belief system. It’s just been, when is everybody else going to buy in and understand? So I got my shot this last year and put it on paper. It’s been what I believed in and said since Day One.

“Coach Dillingham can attest to this, I just have a weird belief in myself. People might say it’s cockiness or whatnot, but it’s just the confidence from the work that I put in. Why wouldn’t everybody feel like that? That’s when you’re going to play the best.”