With Joey Aguilar out of eligibility and his fight to gain a year looking bleak, Tennessee football needed to find a new starting quarterback for the 2026 season. At the top of the list was the top-ranked signal caller and player in the portal, Arizona State’s Sam Leavitt.
However, on Monday morning, it was announced that he was committing to LSU and joining Lane Kiffin in Baton Rouge. Then, in the afternoon, Matt Zenitz dropped a report that gave Vol fans some hope. He said that UT was still making a push for Leavitt and wasn’t going to give up without a fight.
Just hours later, the momentum swung away from Tennessee, though. Zenitz followed up with another report that indicated the expectation was for Leavitt to stick with the pledge to LSU. Now, on Monday at 8:16 p.m. ET, Leavitt has officially signed with the Tigers, according to Zenitz.
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Leavitt was the starter for the Sun Devils in 2025, but suffered an injury that is expected to linger into spring camp. He did not play a game after Oct. 25, with the season not going as planned to that point anyway.
In 2024, he was one of the better quarterbacks in the country, though. Alongside running back Cam Skattebo, the pair led Arizona State to the College Football Playoffs. In 13 games, he threw for 2,885 yards, 24 touchdowns and six interceptions.
Now, with Leavitt officially off the board, Tennessee has to rethink what it will do at quarterback. The Vols have two players on the roster that they could choose, but both redshirt-freshman George MacIntyre and true freshman Faizon Brandon have little to no experience.
The other option is to hit the transfer portal for another signal caller. There are limited options remaining at this point, but Tennessee has been tied to Beau Pribula out of Missouri already. He struggled for the most part with the Tigers last season, his first in the SEC, but Josh Heupel has proven to get more out of his quarterbacks throughout his UT tenure.
