Sam Leavitt is healthy.
The transfer signal caller is full speed during fall camp and said Monday that he’s been full strength for some time. Rehab is in the rearview. The present is acclimating to a new school, new system and new teammates.
Leavitt had an idea to expedite that process, so he called J.R. Belton, LSU’s Assistant General Manager, and set up a trip to Texas with some help from Gordon McKernan.
“Just hit up my guy J.R. Belton, and he makes he makes stuff happen,” Leavitt said. “I told him what I wanted. Made it happen in about four days. I told the guys and hopped on the plane, went down to Dallas, went and trained and put in some good work with Jeff Christensen. Learned some things. Got to go spend quality time with them, see them, you know, in a little different scenario.”
Christensen played quarterback in the NFL in the 1980s and is now a renowned quarterbacks coach who has worked with Patrick Mahomes and Baker Mayfield among others.
Leavitt and his receiving weapons worked on the field but were also able to bond off of it prior to fall camp beginning.
“We just rented an Airbnb, so we woke up in the same house,” Leavitt said. “It’s kind of different being in a situation like that versus just hanging out with them on the regular. You see how people are when, you know, maybe their social battery’s out and they don’t want to talk to people or everything like that. But it really created a tighter bond with us. And I was just very grateful to be able to do that with them before fall camp. It’s just going to blossom from there with relationships.”
Those bonds will help when the season rolls around, but ultimately, it’s the play calls and execution that produce yards and points. Leavitt, offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr. and Kiffin have worked tirelessly on the installation of the offense which has included a lot of mental reps for Leavitt as his foot healed.
Kiffin has mentioned multiple times how hard Leavitt has worked in the film and meeting rooms to get a grasp on the system.
“I think they really see my passion for the game, and I see theirs,” Leavitt said. “I’d say this staff is probably the hardest working staff I’ve been around. It’s just a blessing for me to be held accountable in that way. I just keep saying we’ve been grinding. We’ve been grinding because that’s really what it’s been. It’s been a grind since I got here in January.”
The work is not new for Leavitt.
Dating back to his time in high school, he’s loved the preparation. He’s now in his third college offense having begun his college career at Michigan State prior to moving over to Arizona State where he was the Sun Devil starter.
Having an older influence to instill that type of work ethic always helps.
“I think that really started from my brother,” Leavitt said. “He kind of instilled that in me probably ninth grade. Just started to kind of learn the game. I remember in ninth grade I was like, ‘oh, cover three, throw a seam ball.’ Stuff like that. It was awesome just having him in my life. He went on to play six years in the NFL at 5’10”, so you kind of have to be pretty special mentally to be able to do that. He instilled that in me and just took it from there.”
