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 ASU more mobility at the position than it had last year but that’s where the similarities end. Sims is on his third stop, having started his career at Georgia Tech. He’s in his last season of college eligibility so there is a sense of urgency for him to excel.
“I think at Nebraska the pressure didn’t come from all the fans in the atmosphere,” he said, after Friday’s practice. “It came from myself. I lost touch of why I was doing it. I tried to do too much. I overthought a lot. Like I was in my head, but I wouldn’t say that the outside factors in Nebraska put pressure on me. I think I just put too much pressure on myself.”
Leavitt had a few cameo appearances last year in East Lansing but retained his redshirt, eventually opting to leave after the coaching change there. He has taken first-team reps every practice except one. Dillingham singled out Leavitt as the front-runner coming out of spring ball although Sims was not yet in the fold.
During spring drills ASU was down to just two scholarship quarterbacks in Leavitt and veteran Trenton Bourguet with true freshman walk-on Navi Bruzon, who starred at Liberty High School in Peoria, also seeing some action.
Bourguet had a solid day, leading two touchdown drives, one ending with a touchdown toss to speedy freshman Zechariah Sample and the other on a crossing route to Jamaal Young II but both of those came against the third-team defense. The Tucson native is in his sixth year in the program and is the longest-tenured player on offense with injured defensive lineman Anthonie Cooper, who has been in the fold as long.
Bourget, who played high school ball at Marana High School, has become a fan favorite. Spectators along one sideline hoisted letters reading THANKS TB16, a gesture the quarterback acknowledged.
The Sun Devils will have Sunday off and return to the practice field on Monday.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Sam Leavitt, Jeff Sims battle for Arizona State QB spot
