By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
New LSU quarterback Sam Leavitt is about 2,500 miles away from where he grew up in West Linn, Oregon – 75 miles east of the Pacific Ocean and a 36-hour drive to the LSU campus.
“I’m from Oregon,” Leavitt said during player interviews on Monday after a morning practice. “So, Louisiana kind of felt almost fake to me.”
As in not a place you can touch or sweat profusely.
“I didn’t think it was a real place,” he said. “But after being out here, I just love the trees. And I always wanted to be here in the South.”
Leavitt has also lived in Utah and spent his freshman season at Michigan State and a redshirt freshman and sophomore season at Arizona State, and he has already grown to like the outdoor ovens of South Louisiana.
“The humidity obviously was something I had to get used to, but I love it now,” he said.
Now, LSU coach Lane Kiffin really sold this Pacific Northwest kid.
“I love the way it makes my skin feel,” he said. “It’s been amazing.”
Leavitt didn’t actually say, “It’s just different,” the patented mantra Kiffin began saying in his second day on the job last December, but he followed that game plan.
“People are great in Louisiana,” he said. “The passion, you know. Just walking down the street, it’s pretty incredible the way that they love the state and put on for the state. Just makes you want to be here even more. It’s just been a blessing being out here.”
Everything you need to know about QB Sam Leavitt:https://t.co/dil69Tv1k5
— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) August 5, 2026
So much so that it makes one wonder now why Kiffin made a special trip to Knoxville, Tennessee, last January while Leavitt was visiting Tennessee on a recruiting trip after Leavitt had already visited the LSU campus just a few days prior.
“When I came out here and took my visit, just kind of fell in love with the place,” Leavitt said. “Fell in love with the vision. At LSU, you walk around, and it’s an historic place. So many great players came out of here (including 2023 Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Jayden Daniels after a transfer from Arizona State). It’s a situation where I don’t really see how anyone could pass it up.”
But Leavitt did consider Tennessee, Miami and Kentucky. Kiffin visited him in Knoxville between visits to Tennessee and Miami.
“Yeah, portal process was pretty crazy,” Leavitt said. “I didn’t expect it to go that direction, just the whole situation.”
Asked about the Kiffin visit at the Knoxville airport, Leavitt said, “I don’t really want to go too much into the portal process, but yeah, he definitely did some great tactics from his side. Ultimately, I made the decision to come here, so that all worked out.”
In recruiting Leavitt, Kiffin pushed the fact that he and offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr. a year ago were able to quickly get another transfer ready in just a few months at Ole Miss for the 2025 season, even though that quarterback missed spring drills. That quarterback was Trinidad Chambliss, a late transfer from Division II Ferris State who finished third in the country last season with 3,937 passing yards. And he guided the Rebels to the College Football Playoff semifinals.
“When does that ever happen?” Kiffin said last week of the season Chambliss had last year with such brief preparation from Kiffin and Weis.
So Kiffin last January pushed that to Leavitt, who knew at the time he would miss most of spring drills wherever he went because of a mid-right foot injury he suffered last season that required surgery and limited his season to seven games. The recovery was expected to stretch through the spring.
“I just think quarterback development’s an easy thing to sell,” Kiffin said Monday morning at a press conference when asked what his selling point to Leavitt was.
“How well people play, how well people play in a short period of time with us,” Kiffin said. “And not having to wait a year and learn. With him projected to miss a lot of spring, we sold, ‘Well, hey look at the last place (Ole Miss) without a spring what the quarterback (Chambliss) was able to do.’ And we brought in pieces around him (receivers, offensive linemen), and so I think it’s kind of an easy sell.”
Kiffin also pointed to previous LSU transfer quarterbacks Joe Burrow, who won a national championship and the Heisman in the 2019 season, and Daniels.
“And you’re playing quarterback at LSU, which has been a pretty good move the last 10 years,” he said.
Leavitt has been walking and running in practice without pain in that right foot, by the way, after the October surgery and another procedure last spring that took the screws out from the surgery.
“I’m 100 percent right now, and I’ve been 100 percent for the past few months,” he said. “So, yeah I’m ready to go.”
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