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NCAA, College League, USA Football: Texas Tech at Arizona State Oct 18, 2025 Tempe, Arizona, USA Arizona State Sun Devils quarterback Sam Leavitt 10 against the Texas Tech Red Raiders in the second half at Mountain America Stadium. Tempe Mountain America Stadium, Home of the ASU Sun Devils Arizona USA, EDITORIAL USE ONLY PUBLICATIONxINxGERxSUIxAUTxONLY Copyright: xMarkxJ.xRebilasx 20251018_mjr_su5_018
Imago
NCAA, College League, USA Football: Texas Tech at Arizona State Oct 18, 2025 Tempe, Arizona, USA Arizona State Sun Devils quarterback Sam Leavitt 10 against the Texas Tech Red Raiders in the second half at Mountain America Stadium. Tempe Mountain America Stadium, Home of the ASU Sun Devils Arizona USA, EDITORIAL USE ONLY PUBLICATIONxINxGERxSUIxAUTxONLY Copyright: xMarkxJ.xRebilasx 20251018_mjr_su5_018
LSU Tigers’ head coach Lane Kiffin had a press conference earlier today and was forced to deliver unpleasant news to the fans. Despite the number of athletes that came in through the transfer portal, the absence of one of their key players at spring practice keeps posing a huge threat to their progress.
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Before Lane Kiffin even took the podium, Leavitt had already sparked worry online. The quarterback shared an Instagram photo of his bandaged foot, confirming his surgery pins were out. That forced Kiffin to step up and deliver the tough reality about his spring timeline. Kiffin gave updates on quarterback Sam Leavitt’s injury and admitted that the chances of seeing him return this spring are very slim after the Lisfranc injury.
“None of these are surprises,” Kiffin said about Leavitt’s injury. “This is the timeline we expected. Sam had the screws removed yesterday, and everything went well. It was something that going into it we were going to know that it was going to be unfortunate. He was going to miss spring – a lot of it.”
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LSU HC Lane Kiffin said it’s unlikely that QB Sam Leavitt will return this spring. He had surgery yesterday to have a screw removed from his foot (that was put in during his first foot surgery). pic.twitter.com/DFMNKDiHpS
— Jon Sokoloff (@JonSokoloff) April 7, 2026
Which Prospects should OSU target next?
Let Tony do the scouting, you just make the pick.
Revealing Leavitt is now on crutches, the head coach confirmed the quarterback’s Instagram post, where he posted a picture of his bandaged foot and wrote that the screws from his surgery last November have been removed.
“Small step back for a bigger one forward!! Let’s GEAUX!!” Leavitt wrote in his Instagram stories. “Got the pins out of my foot from initial surgery, lol, did not get injured again.”
Leavitt joined the LSU Tigers as the No. 1 player and No. 1 quarterback in the transfer portal from Arizona State. Before going down with an injury last season, he started seven games for the program and threw for 1,628 yards and 10 touchdowns with three interceptions. He also showed his running game with 306 yards and five touchdowns on the ground.
The Arizona State transfer has such a pivotal role to play in LSU, seeing how much their offense struggled in 2025. Their offense averaged 5.2 yards per play and 22.8 points per game, ranking 103rd nationally. Unfortunately, former Tigers quarterback Garrett Nussmeier contributed to this due to the team’s offensive struggles with his inconsistency and injuries. Before getting injured, he threw for 1,927 yards, 12 touchdowns, and five interceptions, and completed 67.4% of his passes.
Garrett Nussmeier’s drop-off from his first season as a starter, where he passed for over 4,000 yards, made the offense highly unpredictable last year. According to Pro Football Focus, he was last in the SEC in average depth of target and second-to-last in yards per attempt among quarterbacks with at least 250 drop-backs.
These are the kinds of challenges Leavitt is expected to overcome at LSU. He knows what it means to make a team compete, having led Arizona State to a 16-4 record as QB1, including an 11-2 run and an appearance in the College Football Playoff in 2024.
The LSU Tigers’ offense is worse than their defense
Kiffin’s team is not anywhere near its best, and it is obvious to casual fans. With Leavitt out, Kiffin has had to make do with two freshmen to fill the quarterback position. Having had to face several challenges, especially in the offense, Kiffin had to highlight the fact that the team has had to deal with over 40 new entries, which has affected their chemistry so far.
“There’s a lot of work to do,” Kiffin said. “If we were to play today, which we’re not, we’d be a defensive football team. That system has been in place. A lot of those players returned comparable to the offense. We’re always going to look different every year based off our players. I’m never going to say, ‘This is just what we do.’ We may put together teams that win in different styles, and we’ve done that before.”
If the defense is better than the offense, then his update about the spring game may see the offense end the game in an embarrassing defeat. Kiffin claimed the Purple and Gold game will not be against another opponent; they will have the Tigers’ offense play against the defense.
There is so much hope about Kiffin’s move to LSU. Despite the controversy around his move, Kiffin is keen on bringing LSU out of its problems, and the offense is where it all begins.
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Edited by
Himanga Mahanta