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Arizona State Sun Devils quarterback Sam Leavitt has a list written on a whiteboard in his room.
It’s a list of quarterbacks, and no, it’s not the ones he aspires to be. It’s the quarterback he wishes to topple heading into his 2025 season.
Leavitt wouldn’t divulge the exact names on the list, but it’s a tactic he’s used for some time now to help give him that extra push of motivation whenever he needs it.
It’s something Leavitt learned from his older brother, Dallin, who played six seasons in the NFL at safety.
“I never had a list growing up,” Leavitt told Fox News Digital. “There were always people ranked higher than me that I’d look at, but I guess my brother kinda told me at one point, ‘You gotta go chase somebody.’ For him, that worked out really well. He always chased this one player growing up that was always rated above him and stuff, and he’d play against them, he’d win, and he’s still rated above him.
“Took a few years before I really cared about that because I just was so under-recruited growing up that I wasn’t even listed – wasn’t even in the top 25 or the top 50. So, it’s kinda hard to put names up.”
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The list, now, is warranted for Leavitt, whose breakout season in his first year with the Sun Devils showed someone worthy of being in the conversation of the top college football quarterbacks heading into the 2025 campaign.
Leavitt was an overlooked Oregon Ducks prospect before transferring to Michigan State in 2023. He only saw time in four games, and he made the jump again, this time to head coach Rob Dillingham’s Big XII squad in Tempe.
The move proved to be the best, as Leavitt helped lead Arizona State to the College Football Playoff after winning the Big XII Conference. Leavitt threw for 2,885 yards with 24 touchdowns to six interceptions, while also rushing for 443 yards and five scores.
“Now I’m at this point where I’m around top-10 guys, I put those names up and it just gives me a little bit extra,” he said. “When I need a little bit extra motivation to get up 30 minutes earlier, or go to bed earlier, do my last few stretches, or watch this little bit of tape when it’s like, ‘Ugh, I really don’t want to.’ That list gives you that last little kick.”
While he can provide fuel when needed, Leavitt’s drive doesn’t need to revolve around reading other quarterbacks’ names every day.
In fact, despite all the good that came out of last year for Leavitt, he isn’t satisfied at all with the results.
“I didn’t play to the level I wanted to play at, and I left so much on the table I felt like,” he said when asked how he’s reflected on the 2024 season. “That just gives me the drive in the offseason to go do what I should do. And that’s how every player should feel – you should never feel satisfied with what you did.
“I even look back to my senior year when we won the state title, it just never sat right with me. I don’t know, I just didn’t play to the level I wanted to play at, and I guess that perfection is what drives me and makes me who I am.”
The Sun Devils now have a target on their backs as the reigning Big XII champions, so Leavitt and his Arizona State teammates head into the new year with high expectations.
And that’s perfectly fine for Leavitt, who has another word on his whiteboard next to the list of quarterbacks: Heisman.
“I’d say a Heisman and national championship, that’s the end goal,” he said. “But every single day it’s getting the team to get better. You gotta have these big goals for overall to chase something. But that doesn’t come without the day-to-day work, so it’s just getting better and outworking myself from last year. Outworking the team, out-studying myself, out-playing myself, so everything like that is the main goal day to day.”
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