PAYSON — Sam Leavitt and Jeff Sims played against each other last year in the Big 10. Now they’re teammates at Arizona State and fighting for the same job.
They were the main attraction Saturday morning as the Sun Devils took to the picturesque tree-line turf field at Camp Tontonzona for a scrimmage wrapping up four days of drills and team bonding exercises.
Less than three weeks away from the season opener against Wyoming, ASU coach Kenny Dillingham is still sizing up his quarterback candidates, both of whom are newcomers with Leavitt coming from Michigan State and Sims from Nebraska.
It was Leavitt gaining some separation in the live scrimmage. His first pass attempt was batted down at the line of scrimmage by linebacker Keyshaun Elliott. Leavitt fumbled two plays later but recovered from that mishap and ended up throwing for two touchdowns, one to running back Kyson Brown and the other to tight end Chamon Metayer. He also ran five yards for another.
“I thought Sam had a really good day. He got off to a little bit of a slow start but really responded after that fumble.” coach Kenny Dillingham said.
Leavitt, who directed five drives, was pleased with his showing and said he’ll continue to try and earn the job.
“I got off to a little bit of a bad start but I was able to work my way through that,” he said. “Things aren’t always going to go great and it’s about how you bounce back from adversity or a bad play so I was glad I was able to do that.
Sims, who had issues with turnovers last season at Nebraska, had two interceptions, one by linebacker Zyrus Fiaseu and the other by defensive back Kamari Wilson. He also took four sacks, three on one drive. His best of five drives was one in which he completed three straight passes but it ended with a 45-yard field goal by Ian Hershey.
Both quarterbacks have strong arms and give…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/sam-leavitt-jeff-sims-battle-212431806.html
Author : AZCentral | The Arizona Republic
Publish date : 2024-08-10 21:24:31
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