LSU Tigers secure dynamic Arizona State Sun Devils quarterback Sam Leavitt in a whirlwind recruitment, ending positional uncertainty and injecting explosive potential into their offense.
A few days before the transfer portal closes, the LSU Tigers finally land their quarterback, and it was one of the biggest names available from the start: former Arizona State Sun Devils standout Sam Leavitt.
Leavitt committed to the Tigers on Monday morning, per ESPN's Pete Thamel. Lane Kiffin and company will be able to let out a huge sigh of relief now that they have their guy.
Just a couple of days ago, LSU was completely without a quarterback. All scholarship quarterbacks had either transferred or run out of eligibility. It was starting to get hairy for Kiffin.
The Tigers did also sign Elon Phoenix transfer Landen Clark on Sunday night, but he's more of a backup with a high ceiling at this level right now. He has a cannon of an arm, but is young and unproven.
LSU still needed a star passer, and many had begun to think that they had blown their shot with Leavitt.
In the middle of Leavitt's visit to Baton Rouge, and while he was at a basketball game with Kiffin, Whit Weeks and Eugene Wilson, Washington Huskies star Demond Williams entered the transfer portal.
Reports immediately came out that the Tigers were a favorite to land Williams and were going to push hard. It's a bad look while hosting someone that was already a second option after missing out on Brendan Sorsby.
No one questioned when it came out that it did put a bit of a damper on the relationship between LSU and Leavitt. However, those same reports stated that it was salvageable, which proved to be true.
In the end, the Tigers end up with their second impact quarterback transfer from the Sun Devils in recent memory, following the footsteps in Heisman trophy winner Jayden Daniels.
While LSU was pulled in a couple of different directions throughout this process, many believe that Leavitt was the best option all along.
The Oregon native was someone that people thought could end up in the NFL this year if this past season went well, which it did not. Injuries and having fewer elite offensive weapons to work with led to Leavitt struggling a bit at Arizona State last year. He wasn't awful; it just wasn't as explosive and his season was cut short.
Over essentially one and a half years with the Sun Devils, Leavitt completed 61.3% of his passes for 4,512 yards with 34 touchdowns to nine interceptions. He also ran the ball 183 times for 749 yards and 10 more scores.
Kiffin's first quarterback in Baton Rouge is a very good one and should have this Tigers offense humming sooner rather than later.