Jordan Hamm
ASU football will face plenty of challenges on Saturday against Cincinatti. They are playing a 4-2 team on the road and kick time would be 9 AM Arizona time.
They’ll also be without their starting quarterback.
Sam Leavitt will be out due to an injury he suffered during the Utah game last Friday, meaning Jeff Sims will get the starting nod.
Leavitt left the game against the Utes after taking a big hit halfway through the second quarter. After the game, the quarterback said he got hit in the ribs and it “started to spasm and I couldn’t really breathe.”
He returned for the final snap of the first half – a kneel-down – and remained in the game. After returning from injury, Leavitt went 5/8 for 55 yards in a half that featured two Cam Skattebo touchdown runs.
Sims went 1/2 and had a rushing touchdown in his time filling in for Leavitt on Friday.
“We have a lot of confidence in Jeff, we really did,” Dillingham said after ASU’s win Friday.”Put him in there, put the ball in his hands and he scores a touchdown.”
“He’s a great teammate. He’s a great person and he goes in there and gets the job done when he was called upon and that’s the culture we’re trying to build and the program we’re trying to build.”
Sims spent three years at Georgia Tech and one season with Nebraska before coming to Tempe. The 6-foot-3, 215-pound dual-threat QB was considered a top quarterback transfer target coming off the 2022 season.
In three years at Georgia Tech, he threw 30 touchdowns and 23 interceptions while rushing for an additinoal 11 scores. In his lone season with the Huskers, he totaled two touchdowns and four interceptions.
Ahead of the season, Kenny Dillingham described Sims’ game as “holy cow, freak show” for 85% of the plays. It was the other 15% that led to turnovers and “catastrophic plays” for the offense. The Sun Devils were confident Sims could quiet that 15% in the correct settings.
For the first half of fall camp, Sims really pushed the quarterback competition before Leavitt took the reigns and eventually earned the starting nod.
ASU will hope Sims can utilize the 85% throughout the day on Saturday.
