Lane Kiffin on Sam Leavitt: ‘You wouldn’t think there was an injury’
By Andrew Olson
Published:
Excitement is building in Baton Rouge for Lane Kiffin‘s debut as LSU head coach. The Tiger faithful expect Kiffin’s squad to feature a high-powered offense, and it all starts at quarterback.
One of the first big wins for Kiffin’s staff in the transfer portal was landing quarterback Sam Leavitt. An Arizona State transfer, Leavitt had a standout 2024 season but missed most of 2025 due to injury. There are always questions about how a player will bounce back from injury, but Kiffin said you’d never know his QB was hurt if you watched him in practice.
“He looked really good,” Kiffin told reporters Wednesday. “Sam’s moving really well. If you just went out today, I don’t think that you’d think there was an injury. I think he’s all the way back from that; now it’s just getting the timing of everything.”
Before camp started, LSU Quarterback Sam Leavitt was recovering from a right midfoot Lisfranc injury. Kiffin said that "you wouldn't even have known that he had an injury" based on how he was moving on the practice field. @Lane_Kiffin @LSUfootball #lsufootball
— WBRZ News (@WBRZ) August 5, 2026
Full story:… pic.twitter.com/njYenRSi0m
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Leavitt was the Big 12 Offensive Freshman of the Year in 2024 when he led the Sun Devils to a conference title. A 13-game starter for 11-2 ASU, Leavitt completed 61.7% of his passes for 2,885 yards with a touchdown-to-interception ratio of 24-6. He added 443 rushing yards and 5 TDs on the ground.
Last season, Leavitt was limited to just 7 games because of a foot injury. Leavitt and the Tigers host Clemson to open the 2026 season.
Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaign of Fred Taylor.
