Thursday’s Big 12 player availability report had a major development for one of the league’s top matchups this weekend — No. 21 Arizona State at Utah.
Sun Devils quarterback Sam Leavitt was listed as doubtful for the game between the two old Pac-12 rivals, moving down from his probable status the day before.
On Friday morning, Arizona State head coach Kenny Dillingham provided further details during an appearance on the “Bickley & Marotta” radio show on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM.
“Sam’s been battling something going back to Baylor (on Sept. 20),” Dillingham told the show. “Bye week was good for him to get kind of back and this week it didn’t feel as good as we wanted to. … If he plays in the game, it’ll be a mini miracle. I’d be absolutely shocked.
“At the end of the day, we got to protect people from people.”
Leavitt, a junior, was one of college football’s top-rated quarterbacks going into the 2025 season, one year after he led the Sun Devils to a Big 12 championship and a College Football Playoff berth.
While Leavitt started the season slow — earlier this week, he attributed that to putting too much pressure on himself amid the expectations — his play had picked up in recent weeks. After throwing three interceptions over the team’s first two games, he’s gone the past three weeks without a pick.
On the year, Leavitt has completed 63.1% of his passes for 1,039 yards, eight touchdowns and three interceptions. The dual-threat QB has also rushed for 281 yards and five more scores.
The Sun Devils are 4-1 on the year and 2-0 in Big 12 play, with wins over Baylor and TCU.
If Leavitt is unavailable, sixth-year senior Jeff Sims is expected to start.
Sims previously played at Georgia Tech and Nebraska before transferring to Arizona State ahead of the 2024 season.
Leavitt was injured in ASU’s 27-19 win over Utah in Tempe last year, and Sims came on briefly in relief for him. Before Leavitt returned for the second half, Sims completed 1 of 2 passes for 13 yards and scored on a short touchdown run in the victory over the Utes.
“The game plan is not changing. We got a lot of confidence in Jeff,” Dillingham told “Bickley & Marotta.” “This is his opportunity. I’m excited for him. That’s one thing I can say.”
Arizona State lost the only game that Sims started in place of Leavitt last year, in a loss at Cincinnati the week after the Utah matchup. In that game, Sims completed 12 of 23 passes for 155 yards and had 53 rushing yards on 14 carries.
Utah and Arizona State will play Saturday night at 8:15 p.m. MDT at Rice-Eccles Stadium. The game will be televised on ESPN.