Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
- Sam Leavitt, Arizona State's quarterback, aims to defeat No. 14 BYU.
- Leavitt, once a BYU legacy prospect, has excelled at ASU, throwing 17 touchdowns.
- BYU faces a challenge with ASU's strong offense, including top running back Cam Skattebo.
PROVO — There were probably a lot of reasons for Arizona State quarterback Sam Leavitt to join the BYU football team.
Instead, the redshirt freshman sophomore will try to beat the 14th-ranked Cougars on Saturday (1:30 p.m. MST, ESPN) — and try to all-but put the No. 21 Sun Devils through to the Big 12 championship game.
Leavitt's father Jared played defensive back for BYU for two seasons in 1990-91, and his older brother Dallin spent two years in Provo in 2013-114 before finishing his collegiate career with Utah State.
Leavitt himself even played a year of high school football at Pleasant Grove High, a 10-mile drive from LaVell Edwards Stadium when the then-high school sophomore moved to Utah in 2020 and threw for 1,672 yards and 17 touchdowns.
Leavitt, a former four-star quarterback who was named Oregon's football player of the year by Gatorade and MaxPreps as a senior at West Linn High School, never received a scholarship offer from the Cougars, according to 247Sports. But when the former Michigan Sate freshman entered the transfer portal last year, BYU was definitely among his suitors.
But now, the Cougars are just another opponent on the schedule, the 6-foot-2, 200-pound signal caller told Arizona media this week.
"It's the same as every other week," said Leavitt, per the Arizona Republic. "It doesn't change based on what my family has done in the past but it's pretty funny just watching them growing up and now playing against them."
Leavitt has done more than well enough for himself in his time in Tempe, connecting with head coach Kenny Dillingham and completing 61% of his passes for 1,906 yards and 17 touchdowns with just four interceptions.
He hasn't thrown a pick in the last three games, and wasn't available during the Sun Devils' most recent loss, a 24-14 setback to Cincinnati that is the only blemish in the past six games that include wins over Kansas, Utah and last week's 24-14 victory over then-No. 20 Kansas State.
"He's a really good player," BYU coach Kalani Sitake said of Leavitt, who ultimately decided to transfer to Arizona State over Oregon State, Utah and Washington State. "He's super athletic, has an accurate arm and has a really good football IQ. He's dangerous. He's got a lot of football to play. He's thriving in his role at ASU. It's going to be a difficult matchup for us for sure.
"It's good to see good young men that you know from amazing families get what they want. The sky's the limit for him. Hopefully we just don't see that great type of performance this weekend."
Leavitt leads an offense that ranks just ahead of BYU nationally, averaging 399.4 yards per game for 54th nationally (and 43rd in scoring offense with 30.8 points per game).
He gets plenty of help from running back Cam Skattebo, a top-10 running back in the Football Bowl Subdivision who averages 119.3 yards per game with 11 rushing touchdowns, and a top-25 wide receiver in Jordyn Tyson, who has 833 yards and nine touchdowns.
"He's a dangerous running back, and you have to give credit to that offensive line," Sitake said. "There are a number of running backs who can run the ball. Their offensive coach knows what he's doing well. I really like the way he plays football. He's physical and looks like he's having fun."
It's the sixth time this season BYU has faced a top-10 running back in the Big 12, including Kansas' Devin Neal a week ago, when the Cougars held the Jayhawks star nearly 40 yards below his average of 92.6 yards per game but couldn't keep him out of the end zone twice in a 17-13 loss.
Skattebo's 131.6 yards per conference game for 1,184 yards ranks second among Big 12 running backs, trailing only UCF's RJ Harvey (132.8 yards per game for 1,328 yards).
"He's a great player, and the other backs are good, too. We've got our work cut out for us," BYU defensive coordinator Jay Hill said of Skattebo and company. "I'm excited about the challenge. I think that they'll come ready to go.
"It seems like each week that we've faced a big-time back that the guys have risen to that challenge. We'd better be ready to do it again."
How to watch, stream and listen
No. 14 BYU (9-1, 6-1 Big 12) at No. 21 Arizona State (8-2, 5-2 Big 12)
Saturday, Nov. 23
- Kickoff: 1:30 p.m. MT
- TV: ESPN (Dave Pasch, Dusty Dvoracek, Taylor McGregor)
- Streaming: WatchESPN
- Radio: BYUradio SiriusXM 143, KSL 116 AM/102.7 FM (Greg Wrubell, Hans Olsen, Mitchell Juergens)
- Series: Arizona State leads, 20-8
- Back to the WAC. BYU and Arizona State are meeting for the 29th time in a shared history that dates back to 1935. The two schools spent time together in the Western Athletic Conference from 1965 through 1977, when ASU joined what was then the Pac-10 Conference. The last time the teams played in Tempe, BYU won 13-10 on a fourth-quarter field goal in 1997.
- Top-25 matchup. BYU and Arizona State are meeting as ranked teams with the Cougars at 14/15 and ASU at 21/22. The two schools were both ranked the last time they matched up as well in 2021, when BYU was No 23 in the AP poll and the Sun Devils were No. 19. This is the first ranked-on-ranked matchup this year for the Cougars, who have beaten one current top-25 opponent (No. 13 SMU).
ON TO THE NEXT. pic.twitter.com/0b1seRZso6
— BYU FOOTBALL (@BYUfootball) November 18, 2024
