{"id":213306,"date":"2025-10-10T03:14:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T03:14:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/213306\/"},"modified":"2025-10-10T03:14:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T03:14:07","slug":"sam-leavitt-injury-update-arizona-state-qb-downgraded-to-doubtful-vs-utah-jeff-sims-likely-to-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/213306\/","title":{"rendered":"Sam Leavitt injury update: Arizona State QB downgraded to doubtful vs. Utah, Jeff Sims likely to start"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>According to ESPN\u2019s Pete Thamel, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.on3.com\/sites\/asu-devils\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Arizona State<\/a> quarterback <a href=\"https:\/\/www.on3.com\/rivals\/sam-leavitt-104361\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sam Leavitt<\/a> has been downgraded to doubtful for Saturday\u2019s game vs. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.on3.com\/college\/utah-utes\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Utah<\/a>. If he cannot go, a familiar face across college football will take over for the Sun Devils \u2014 former <a href=\"https:\/\/www.on3.com\/sites\/jackets-online\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Georgia Tech<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.on3.com\/teams\/nebraska-cornhuskers\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Nebraska<\/a> QB <a href=\"https:\/\/www.on3.com\/rivals\/jeff-sims-59657\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jeff Sims<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cArizona State quarterback Sam Leavitt is doubtful for the Utah game,\u201d Thamel <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/PeteThamel\/status\/1976474892859281592\" rel=\"nofollow\">said<\/a> via X. \u201cHe\u2019s been downgraded from probable. Per a source, veteran Jeff Sims would be in line to start for ASU if Leavitt can\u2019t go. He\u2019s a sixth-year senior who has played at both Georgia Tech and Nebraska.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sims has spent the past two seasons as the Arizona State quarterback. Not much gametime is on the resume this season, playing mop-up duty against <a href=\"https:\/\/www.on3.com\/college\/northern-arizona-lumberjacks\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Northern Arizona<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.on3.com\/college\/texas-state-bobcats\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Texas State<\/a>. Just three rushing attempts are on the stat sheet for a total of 22 yards.<\/p>\n<p>A start was needed from Sims during the 2024 season, a road game vs. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.on3.com\/college\/cincinnati-bearcats\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Cincinnati<\/a>. Arizona State lost and the performance did not inspire too much confidence from Sims. Only 52.2% of his throws were completed for 155 yards. On the ground, Sims ran for 53 yards and 14 carries.<\/p>\n<p>Now, another opportunity to impress is in front of Sims. Arizona State already holds a 2-0 record in the Big 12, a conference they certainly are competing for alongside Utah. Getting a win would bring a head-to-head advantage, something that might be useful down the road.<\/p>\n<p>Everyone in Tempe hopes Leavitt is back in the near future. But Sims appears likely to get the start on Saturday,<\/p>\n<p>Kenny Dillingham speaks highly of Sam Leavitt before injury<\/p>\n<p>Before Leavitt was downgraded to doubtful, there were some kind words coming on his most recent performance from his head coach. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.on3.com\/rivals\/coach\/kenny-dillingham-134879\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Kenny Dillingham<\/a> spoke on the progress being made, talking a lot more about the mental aspect of the game. Everyone knows how skilled Leavitt is, recently working on becoming a more complete quarterback.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYeah, last week was really good,\u201d Dillingham <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/college\/arizonastate\/sun-devils-football-head-coach-kenny-dillingham-utah-utes-sam-leavitt-preview\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">said<\/a>. \u201cYou know, I think it\u2019s how you can go back. But like, I like to go by where people are now. Last week, he was really, really good, really efficient on early downs. Got the ball up fast. We weren\u2019t forcing first and seconds. Weren\u2019t scrambling in first and seconds. So I thought I thought I was, I was really, really impressed by how he\u2019s played really the last three weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"According to ESPN\u2019s Pete Thamel, Arizona State quarterback Sam Leavitt has been downgraded to doubtful for Saturday\u2019s game&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":213307,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[399,121318,398,396,397,7326,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-213306","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-jeff-sims-20-sandalwood","10":"tag-ncaa","11":"tag-ncaa-football","12":"tag-ncaafootball","13":"tag-sam-leavitt-23-west-linn","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213306\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}