After a College Football Playoff (CFP) berth a year ago, the 2025 season has proven less successful for the Arizona State football program, and the Sun Devils' fans have also had to endure quite a bit of talk surrounding their head coach and now, their star quarterback.
With ASU's path back to the CFP supremely unlikely, a lot of attention has been paid to next year, when the Devils could make a run back to the top of the Big 12 and the playoff. However, it's unclear who will be leading the charge in 2026, as rumors have swirled around head coach Kenny Dillingham and quarterback Sam Leavitt, the latter of whom is out for the rest of the year and is reportedly being ‘shopped' as a high-priced potential transfer by his representatives ahead of his redshirt-junior season.
Despite that, Dillingham says he is not paying attention to the hoopla surrounding Leavitt.
“I'm focused on Colorado,” Dillingham said, via DevilsDigest.com. “We came out on fire this week (in practice). I don't listen to the outside noise. It's November and we're in the hunt (Big 12 championship game).”
Although he is not discussing this one, Dillingham is getting a lot of practice fielding questions of the sort, considering he has been the subject of rumors for the better part of two months. Specifically, vacant head coaching jobs like Florida, LSU, Auburn, Arkansas, and Penn State have led to him and many other coaches being thrown out as potential hires. The Arizona State alumnus has denied that he is leaving Tempe, though, saying this past weekend after the Devils' win over West Virginia that he “was never leaving” and that ASU “is home.”
Leavitt, whose third year of college football ended early due to a Lisfranc injury that required surgery, is far less of a guarantee to return to Arizona State for 2026.
An Oregon native, Leavitt committed to Michigan State out of high school and played four games — the maximum allowed while redshirting — for the Spartans in 2023 before transferring to ASU in the aftermath of Mel Tucker's firing. Linking up with Dillingham, Leavitt was a breakout star for the scorching-hot Sun Devils in 2024; the starting QB of all but one game, Leavitt threw for 2,885 yards, ran for another 443, and scored 29 total touchdowns while leading ASU to its first-ever Big 12 title and CFP berth.
While Leavitt and Arizona State fell short in a double-overtime Peach Bowl loss to Texas, the Sun Devils entered the 2025 season with high expectations. However, an early-season loss to Mississippi State and Leavitt's foot injury, which he battled through for several weeks, led to the quarterback only playing seven games and Arizona State losing two of them, as well as the first game Leavitt missed.
The good news is that Jeff Sims, Leavitt's backup, has performed well over the last two weeks since being promoted to starter status. First, on the road at Iowa State, Sims threw for 177 yards, a touchdown, and interception, in addition to running for 228 yards, more than any ASU quarterback in history, and two scores. This past weekend, he was much more efficient through the air, completing 19 of his 28 passes for 207 yards and three touchdowns while rushing for 81 yards.
At 7-3 and 5-2 in the Big 12, Arizona State has an outside shot of making it back to Arlington for the conference championship game; the Devils need to win vs. Colorado and Arizona to close the season, as well as losses from the likes of Texas Tech, Utah, and Cincinnati.
ASU and Colorado will kick off on Saturday in Boulder at 6 p.m. MT.
