The McShay Show - Scouting Sam Leavitt: Why the Arizona State Quarterback Could Be a More Talented Brock Purdy

Episode Date: June 19, 2025

Welcome back to The McShay Show! Todd and Steve are back with a deep dive into the tape of Arizona State quarterback Sam Leavitt. (0:00) Welcome to The McShay Show! (2:03) Summer Scouting Series: Evaluating Sam Leavitt(12:04) NFL Comps for Sam Leavitt(16:35) Breaking Down Sam Leavitt's Tape(28:00) 2025 Expectations for Sam Leavitt Next week, they’ll be moving on from quarterbacks and diving into the tape of top 2026 draft prospects Caleb Downs (S, Ohio State) and Jeremiyah Love (RB, Notre Dame). Be sure to subscribe to The McShay Report for full written breakdowns of every player discussed in the Summer Scouting Series. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Host: Todd McShayGuest: Steve MuenchProducers: Tucker Tashjian, Mark Panik, Conor Nevins, and Daniel ComerSocial: Eduardo Ocampo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You know, some people are saying that Sam Levitt, the Arizona State quarterback, was lucky last year. He stepped into a great situation with Cam Scataboo, the running back, and he just rode his coattails all the way to the college football playoffs. But, Mench, you know I don't believe in luck. My number's 13. I'll walk under the ladder. I'll smash a mirror. I'll stare that black cat right in the eye as he tiptoes past me, okay?

luck is when opportunity meets preparation and that's what happened for levit last year and i can't wait to break down his tape right now three hundred and eight days until the NFL draft meant you good i'm good man roll it tuck levit guys talented man mm-hmm that's all you got for me yeah yeah i was i thought you're going to go on another rant i can't wait to talk about him i have a comp that i can't get out of my head remember the club nick baker mayfield comp that we had that we just couldn't stop talking about. Yep. No, no, no, no.

Was it Nussmeier? Nussmeyer and Baker Mayfield. Yep. Sorry. Nussmeyer. They're blending together now. Nussmeyer and Baker Mayfield, that, that comp was so obvious to us. I think there's an obvious comp for this guy.

You've been on a wild ride with comps this summer. I can tell you're in a good move. Things are going well in the Mench family. You get, you get kids graduating college going off in the real world. You've been giving out Matthew Stafford. You've been given out Joe Namath, Joe Montana's, Tom Brady. You've been giving out some pops. So I'm excited.

I thought, John McHear from Oklahoma, I almost said John L.A., but I knew it was going to put you over the edge. You're in just driving out of the deck. That's kind of the direction you've gone this summer. Let's just get into it, right? Not that bad. Let's get into it. Sam Levin. He's listed at 6-200.

Did I get that wrong? Nope, that's correct. He looks bigger than that, but a little thicker. Yeah. thicker than 200. Yeah. So he began his career. I think people,

because everyone, remember, he won like freshman of the year last year. And in the big 12, he won, or whatever it was. He won a bunch of awards and all the talk in the college football playoff leading up to

and in that game against Texas was a freshman quarterback, freshman quarterback. So I think people were surprised when there was like, mentioned as the 2025 NFL draft wrapped up and people are starting to talk about prospects for next year. People were surprised. What do you mean?

Levin is just a freshman. He's not eligible. He began his career at Michigan State, okay? I played in four games, sparingly, 23 pass attempts. He went 15 for 23, wound up red shirting before he transferred to Arizona State. Comes into ASU, had a fight on his hands. They didn't hand him the job, okay? He beat out Jeff Sims, who's a talented quarterback.

And then goes on to have the season he had. He led him to the Big 12th. It's a championship win. Let him to the Sun Devils of the college football playoff. I mean, we'll get to the Arizona State, Texas game in the CFP. But, you know, he was an integral part of what had happened. And I thought he progressed significantly, especially after kind of a rocky start to the season. He finishes the year, 11 and 2 record.

He missed the Cincinnati game. I think it was an illness or something. He missed one game. It was 11 and 2 in the 13 games he started. Completed 61.6% of his passes. 2875, 2,875 yards. And another guy, like Mateer, for a lot of the running and some, like the play,

for a lot of the playmaking ability at that position, really did a nice job of protecting the football. 24 touchdown, six interceptions. Three to one ratio. is like kind of the Mendoza line, if you will. Not to play on Mendoza from a couple shows to go. And speaking of shows ago, you can go back and watch all of these. We've done Mendoza.

We've done, we've done Ked Klobnik, Lenora Sellers. We've done Drew Aller, Garrett Nussmeyer, Arch Manning. All of these shows is a whole series if you want to watch on YouTube, Spotify, Any of the anywhere you get a podcast including especially Apple as well. Go back and check those out. Mench while we're here, why don't you tell the folks how they can continue to support us and the support has been unbelievable,

even in the summer months, is we're kind of a dead period in college football and the NFL, still the support that we're getting. We're greatly appreciative of. And we're going to need that continued support going in the year to try to build this thing in our first full season, our first full year on the NFL and college football, calendar of the McShea show.

So how can people help support us, Mitch? Go to YouTube, find the McShay show, hit the subscribe button, go to Spotify, hit the follow button. He's at McShay 13 on all the socials, including threads, which apparently have to get into now. That's another thing I have to do. Yeah, talk to Marissa. Talk to Marissa. I'm at you, Good, M-Mensch, which is M-U-E-N-C-H, and then please consider subscribing to

the McShea report. It's good, listen, if you want to be ready for the next year's draft, if you want to get right now is the time get in now don't wait get in now because you want a baseline of where these guys were and you want to be able to say your friends oh mcchey was talking about you know lorne's sellers way back when and i knew about this guy because i'm following you know i'm on the mitche report just go ahead and get it now the second half of our careers i've talked to you about it and i know you're in agreement it's it's dedicated to we're trying to create a smarter audience around stuff, especially the NFL draft, but even the NFL process,

the college football game, evaluating talent. And that's kind of my mission now. And I know I know you share that with me. Let's just let's get out ahead of stuff. Let's do it. Let's share the process. So that there's, I guess I got to the point, you know, at ESPN, like trying to climb the ladder, trying to get on that first night of the draft and then getting on the first

night, one on the, you know, be a part of all. it and ABC and like and climb and get better games and I'm working with McDonough and and and and Spielman and now and Levy and greasy and like always like climbing it's a competitive nature and now it's like all right we're home what we want to do what's our mission our mission is to not have not allow fans who love this game that we love who who put in a ton of time you'd be shocked at how many people I talked to mentioned like they're watching tape where they can get it. They're making their own boards. They're creating their own mock drafts. So if we're all going to do this together, let's just be smarter about it. Let's share all the 25

years of experience and let's create a smarter community, if you will, and let's kind of grow it from there. And that's what we're doing. So that's all part of this. Back to Levin. So this year, he puts up those big numbers and they have a great run. I was excited to getting into his tape because I saw a lot of things. Can we also just put this in perspective, too, that this Arizona State program had won three games the year before and looked like it was in a bad spot. And then they were in trouble at the beginning of the year at Texas State. They won that game by a field goal.

And if you're looking at where that Arizona State program was on September 12th coming off that Texas State win, you're wondering where things are going. And for him to really take, you know, take that the bull by the reins or whatever we'd say, the horse by the reins, and take that program where he took it, I think speaks volumes about who he is in terms of his competitiveness, in terms of his leadership to. I do have a note on that to bring up later on that I want to ask you about something. But in terms of being a leader and being a guy who wants to be a winner, this guy screams winner to me.

He wants to do whatever it takes to get his program where it needs to go. And that's why I opened this up, because just in doing some. reading and different things. It's like, you know, yeah, he's talented, but man, he got lucky that he was dropped in an offense with Scadaboo and Skadaboo and Skadaboo carried him and the play action set everything up and his like, like, get out of, man. I can't wait to drop this call. Okay.

Get out of here with that stuff. It's not about luck. It's about preparation. And we're not talking about Nussmeyer five years of waiting around for his turn and all that. But we are talking about a guy who Michigan State programs an array, gets. an opportunity, takes the opportunity, got himself prepared for it, won a QB battle, and now all of a sudden starts 13 games and goes 11 and 2. That's preparation meeting opportunity. And I've kind of lived my life on that. Like I don't believe in luck. I believe in, like, it's not always going to go your

way just because you're prepared. You might not get the opportunity. It might not all match up. But get your ass prepared. So when you get that opportunity, you don't have any regret in life, right? So that's what he did, and I appreciate that. Let's play our game. Mental makeup, accuracy, release slash arm strength, and pocket mobility, the four quarterback specific traits. We talk about it always, and I'm still wearing my golf shirt from the other day. We're taping two shows on Monday. It's no secret when you see how we're dressed. Really letting behind the curtain now. Yeah, whatever.

I told everyone I'm going to be completely transparent in the show. Why wouldn't I? Yeah. We're all, we're all trying to utilize some time during the down time to be with our family and have a little break from it. So we're taping two shows on Mondays and we're doing all the work and then in the six days in between. But I mentioned golf because it's similar, like our grading scale. We go through one, one through five, one being excellent, two being above average,

three being average, four being below average and five being, margin okay um and the lower the score the better if you will so you're trying to keep your keep it below par here um and so we'll start and this game has become my favorite game is munch versus micksh it's not even a versus it's just comparing the grades that we have and let's go through each of them accuracy what do you got one through five minch two i went two point five okay not far off release arm strength We'll get back to it. I always want to make comments, but I'm going to shut up. Wait, do we do mental makeup?

Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, mental makeup. Two. I gave me two as well. Okay. So now we're on the release. Mental makeup is two for both of us. Accuracy, uh, 2.5, you had two.

Yep. Okay. Release arm strength. 2.5. Really? What'd you go with? One point five. Interesting.

Okay, we'll get to that. Pocket mobility. Two. I'm a two as well. I hate when we agree. So, release, you gave him 2.5. Okay. Yeah.

All right, Mitch, as we've been doing with all these quarterbacks once we settled in on a format, you, you start things off. I don't have a comp yet. I don't have a cop. Go ahead. And he has not played a snap in the NFL. Another guy who was, who said that was lucky. He played on the right offense.

Didn't get a lot of passing attempts his last year. JJ. That is. J.J. McCarthy, man. I could not get it out of my head. Same kind of frame. JJ ended up being 219 at the Combine.

He was listed around 200 at Michigan and was kind of a leaner guy. So I see similar frames. I think that Levitt's probably a little bit bigger and JJ was probably a little bit bigger than what he was listed. Similar frames. I love the thing that really jumps out to me is their intermediate passes, the 10 to 19 yard passes, the timing, the touch,

when the ball gets out in rhythm, these guys, both of these quarterbacks are really good in that area, especially on in-breaking routes, throwing into windows. I also think that you can say whatever you want about Cam Scaddy when there's a lot of great stuff to say about what he did for that team,

and you can say whatever you want about Blake Korn for Michigan two years ago. When these guys need to make plays to their team, both McCarthy and Levin, they step up and make plays and they will get hit in the mouth they will get cut in half levit got cut in half in the b yu game trying to make a throw they will make a throw when they need to and i don't think either one of them i think levit's probably a little bit better of an athlete and a little bit better of a runner i don't think either of them is an elite athlete as a runner

but they will hurt you if you give them a chance to scramble or extend to play they will find a way to make plays with their feet too to extend a drive to to keep things going, whatever it takes again to win. I couldn't get it out of my head. And then you add the ball skills, the way they move. Again, not elite athletes, but they move really well when they're getting out from under center, all of these things. They're ball skills on play action.

The way they can get linebackers to come up and then exploit those windows that they've created for themselves, all of those things, to me, it's JJ McCarthy all over again. And I was super high on McCarthy coming out. I had a quarterback four behind Drake May, who was the quarterback three. that was just a great class. I think in a lot of classes, McCarthy would have been higher. And you can look at it. Again, Leavitt played two fewer games.

But when you look at it, McCarthy had 32 passing attempts his last year. And Leavitt had 350 last year. I mean, McCarthy's last year, which was 2023. Leavitt had in 2024 18 more passing attempts. So you're looking at a similar body of work. Some of the passing concepts are different at Arizona State that they were in Michigan, but a lot of play action, a lot of a very run heavy offense and the way that it's set up the passing game.

And to me, man, this screams JJ McCarthy all over again. I like it, actually. Yeah. I like it. You should like it. I actually, I actually think he has a little bit of a stronger arm. Interesting. Leavitt than McCarthy, but.

I think people were low on McCarthy's arm strength. I think he has a stronger on that people realize. That's not a knock. And here's the other thing. We've talked about some of the other evils, and you've got to be careful about it, is watching Mateer's arm strength, which is the quarterback we evaluated just before this.

I think he has a stronger arm than Levitt, and whether or not that made me push Levitt's overall grade, the trait grade down a little bit. That's a real possibility, and you've got to be aware of that as an evaluator. It's hard sometimes, too, when you're evaluating a quarterback. There's differences in energy on the ball. I think Levitt throws a heavier ball

and I don't mean that like it's like it's hard to describe what's in my brain sometimes but like with with Mateers it's like snap you know yeah this is like barrel I guess it's a difference between like a Ferrari

going fast and and like an SUV barreling down at the same speed or whatever you know what I mean it's just has a different energy about like you know versus a kind of like cutting through anyway um i i think levin i think we're just seeing the beginning with this guy i think his future is really really bright i think a lot like mityer we talked about on monday tough competitive i think you know what i like about him i just

think he's a natural athlete i think he's a natural runner i think he's a natural runner i don't know I don't think, again, I don't think he's an elite athlete, but he has an instinct as a runner. He can make guys miss every once around. I'm like, where did that come from? He'll shake a guy every once around. I'm like, where is that? Coordinated, like, you're not light on his, he's not at all. I don't want to oversell that.

But he's like, kind of like that basketball athletic. Like, and that's why, I don't know, he seemed like he was closer to 6-3 or something. Like, he just kind of looked a little longer than, like, 6-2 guys are usually like, I don't know. But I felt like he was coordinated. He had just had a good sense of his surroundings. He, like, he made that one move when he needed to, extended plays. He extends a lot of plays, man. Yeah, he has a great deal for it in the pocket.

Yep. And he knows when to take off and run. And we'll get to the pocket stuff in a little bit. But, like, he just knows when to run, where to run, how to attack. It makes, like, I forget. I think it was the Arizona game maybe. Like, take tucks it runs. and he's the one guy in the in the like a line backer in in space and it just makes that one cut like

it's not a lot of nonsense just like you know and goes um great feel is a runner great feel is a runner like instinctively athletic is what i wanted to say like coordinated instinctively athletic he's just like one of those guys like oh he's that guy's a ball you see him out he's the guy pick up with this kid in high school you play with this kid in high school who looks He's not very, he doesn't impress you with the way he's built. And then you get him on, and he may not run the fastest 40. He may not jump the highest vertical. And then you get him on a field and you're like, dude, where did that come from?

Like this kid is balls. Yeah, he doesn't dress real sharp. He like, he doesn't have like a, he doesn't have like an aura about him. When he walks in the room, he's that, but like, but then you get him. I'm like, fuck how that? What, wait, him? Johnny's that? Johnny scored 24 today?

Johnny threw five touchdowns. Johnny had three home runs. Like, you know, like, they don't. Yeah. So in pads, he may be the best dressed son of a gun, you know, he might be Brad Pitt for all I know. He might be beautiful and buttoned up and all those. I'm just saying to draw your comparison, he's just, he's so, he's just a guy who walks in and you don't, you're not like, oh, okay, we're in for a long day. But then he, he just carves you.

more importantly getting into this i think he has fast eyes i think he doesn't always know where to go with his eyes i think he's still learning i saw a lot of progress from like that wyoming game to um to kansas sorry the uh Wyoming game you could see this guy as a pup you know and there were some things but then i wanted like kansas game a little bit more confident then you get down to like Arizona. And now he's like, now he's dealing. It's also worth noting with this guy. First four games, man, three touchdowns, two interceptions. Yeah. I felt like UCF was a big turning point for him. I felt that game was a big turning point for him. The way he played at the end of that game. I was after Kansas. That was his team. Arizona, I think, right? Yeah, now it's his

team after that game. And he just kept getting better. And then, and then down the stretch, um, Yeah, it was three touchdowns, two interceptions, first four games. Then he threw 21 touchdowns and just four interceptions in the last nine. So you always want to see the, go ahead. Or two picks over the last seven games. I mean, he, yeah, he's starting to get it. You can see it on tape. You can see it the numbers.

He's starting to get it. I think he's at his best off play action. Oh, which would make sense with Scataboo and that offense. But especially, as I say, started charting these plays and going down, you know, red flagging all of them, he's deadly accurate on in cutting routes. You know, yep, yep, the in cutting route. Yep.

When they're breaking over the middle, man. Breaking over the middle. Now, it's not as, I'm not doing a deep dive like I did with Drew Aller and Alar, guys running away from him versus in cutting versus, like, Aller was a, Alar was like a mind fuck, like going through, like, what is actually going? You know what I mean? like because he's so talented and all these things. But why is he struggling with these throws,

even like the flats in the flats and the dump-offs when guys are running away from him versus like the harder throws, like between windows, in-cutting, and when guys go on comebacks and different things. This one isn't as like complicated. This is just the in-cutting routes. And what I liked about it is throwing between defenders, leading receivers open, knowing the right time to pull the trigger. Like he's really good in like intermediate.

stuff. I thought. I thought he's really good and intermediate stuff, especially good play action and especially, like his best thing is come off the play action, play action, get his eyes around, throw to a spot that a receiver goes and off and running. It almost look like muscle memory to him. It's, don't over, don't overthink it. I've got this look. I've got this route. I've got this match up. Drilled this my whole life. Yep, you know, you just did step one, step two, step three. We're not, we're not overthinking it. We're just going to continue to take what this what this defense is giving me. And it's honestly,

some people might not think that's that fun to watch. For me, I love it. I just love seeing the rhythm that those kind of passers get into. So to me, I mean, and when we talk about play action, he's best off play action.

I think some people might look at that, like, well, he needs to get bigger windows and he needs a strong running game. I actually think it's a good sign. There's a hard to it. Yeah,

and I also think it's a good sign of him transitioning to a pro-style offense. I think there's a lot of play action in pro football. Like, it's a good trait to have. I think he's a more talented Brock Purdy. Interesting. I don't hate that.

And I think he would be awesome in the Shanahan tree. Mm-hmm. I see that too. Kevin O'Connor, obviously Shanahan, San Francisco, you know, whether it's a Mike McDaniel. You're like, I think, but he has a bigger arm than some of those guys. He's a bigger arm than Purdy. He's more mobile than Purdy. Like, let's see after a couple years, I don't know whether it's going to be after this year

after 2026 for the 27 draft, whatever it is. Yeah, he doesn't turn 21 until December, by the way. He's going to be 20 for most of the season. So we're doing this report, like knowing full well that it's probably going to be for 2027, and that's fine too. It's also just getting prepared for college football season. It's coming off of an awesome year he had last year. It's a guy that's kind of a household name that we wanted to get to.

But he's got a lot of upside. I think I like his accuracy throwing on the move, right? Does a nice job of getting his hips around. It's like it was such a departure from from Mateer. And I told you like, you know, back to the line of scrimmage, arm out like that. Like that was so wild that it was good to see like he's a, I don't know who coached him in high school. I don't know like what coaching he got at Michigan State before coming to Arizona State. but while young and still developing and has to drill home some of the, you know, the footwork and especially the deep ball stuff, I saw a guy that's pretty mechanic, like even when rolling out to his left, getting his hips back around. You know what I mean?

It's been somewhere in his history, and this is why we do it in June. Now we can go back and we can read a little bit more. I'm going down to the Manning Passing Academy, which was kind of all. came about last minute. You're going to come down in future years, but I'm going to swing down there for a couple days. But I'm just excited. I want to get to know more behind the scenes than some of these guys in the history. I'm really curious to see what his training has been, because I see some mechanical, like some fundamental things that I really like. His deep ball, though, is interesting. He can do it. He threw a, there's a beautiful ball, 159 third quarter Kansas game.

No, that's the in cutting route. Oh, it was 1153 earlier in the Kansas game. I knew it was Kansas. Beautiful ball early in the game. A few minutes into the first quarter. Perfect, perfect trajectory down the right rail. Right on time. It was like from the 35 or something going in the end zone.

And not like one thing to get it there and they go out, like dropped it over the DB's head with late energy on the ball, whereas the outside shoulder, it's like exactly where you, and we're talking about dropping in the bucket, to put the bucket in the back corner of the end zone and try to drop the ball in. He did it from like the 35. It wasn't from the 10. But it's like to drop it in with that energy and the right. It wasn't like a high arcing ball.

It was like on the right line and right at the end. Beautiful. But there were a lot of other examples of him overshooting, a couple undershooting. throwing guys out of bounds every once in a while. Yep, yep, yep. So I saw all those things. He does an excellent job of throwing to the corner of the end zone. I think that's something that he excels at.

When you get him in the red zone and he's got to, you know, you're wanting to run those rub routes, pick routes, depending on which side of the ball you're on. Yeah. And you want to hit the guy right in the corner of the end zone on the run. That's something that he's, that's a great trait to have again. And that's something that he excels at. when he misses on intermediate stuff or, you know, 10 to 30 yards,

like when guys are facing him, he tends to miss high. It's correctable. But there's a lot of a lot of throws, even catches, whereas outside the strike zone did. I just felt like he's missing high. So it's deep ball accuracy, more consistent with that. It's the missing high aspect where he can improve. Okay.

And it's just playing more games, like more game experience and doing it this year without Scataboo. Are you worried about the sacks? I think he takes some sacks that he doesn't need to take. I think there's this time, and this is that you take the good with the bad, right? He's so competitive that I think that he is not willing to just throw the ball away.

He is going to try and extend, extend, extend, and it ends up him taking seven, eight-yard losses where he's just got to get rid of the ball, learn to, you know, learn to live to fight another day, whatever it is. There are times where I was like, just get rid of it, man. It's over. I know, I know. I've seen you make plays on plays like this before, but this one's over.

You just got to get rid of the ball, throw it out of bounds, and move on. I don't disagree. Yeah. Here's the other thing. Tell me if I'm an old angry scout because this is the thing. It's not a big deal. I'm not saying it's a big deal, but a minor thing that I'd like to see him clean up a little bit is I love stuff like this.

Whenever you preface something, I'm tiptoeing because I enjoy it. Yeah, I'm tiptoeing because I know everybody gets in trouble with some people, but the body language at times has to be a little bit better. The throwing the hands up, you know, throwing the hands on the iPads. And it's, you know, don't show. He's also like 14 years old, man. Totally great. And he's also, again, you take the good with the bad.

I'd rather that guy who's going to be competitive as hell than the guy is like, oh, well, just get him next time. You know what I mean? But I think there's a right way and a wrong way to do it. And I think when you're. So, yeah. I mean, let's see some maturity. I'm not making a mountain out of it.

Munch hates Levitt because he can't control his emotions. That's not what I'm saying. It's kind of a fiery bunch there in Arizona State from the head coach. The running backs of a lunatic last year. They got after each other. I felt like a couple times. I didn't see it on tape, but I saw it during the year during like some of the TV production. It was they didn't, yeah.

There was no hold. punching punches there it's kind of yeah there's it is it is it is not a it's not for the like faint of heart playing for no state uh which is which can be a great thing as long as it doesn't become a detractor you know um talk to me about texas talk to me about texas what do you think about the texas game ups and downs gritty didn't have his best receiver jordan tyson wasn't there uh we should have mentioned earlier in this that that right and when you say best receiver that's like taking Jordan Jefferson off of Minnesota. That's like, you know what I mean?

Especially because of what Tyson does in there. He's a lot of like quick, quick game. He can take the top off the coverage, but he does everything. He's an extension of their running game. There's so many things that the Jordan Tyson does for them that opens up their entire offense.

And you're going to look at that, and you're going to see the interception in overtime, and you're going to see that the numbers weren't great. I thought he was really gutsy. I think Scataboo was obviously the story of that game, but Levitt was gutsy in that game. He made some plays with the, his feet, just, you know, trying to find a way.

They were, listen, as they just were the, they were not nearly as talented as that deep Texas team. And the fact that they took him to two overtimes, I think he made a lot of plays where he was just gutting it out. And there were some mistakes. He could have been more consistent and all of that stuff. But I don't walk away from that performance being like, ah, well, you know, as soon as they played a real team, this kid couldn't hang.

No, and the thing about football is when you play a, it's not like NBA. It's not like it's not like baseball. It's not like basketball. It's not like we got a pitcher and a batterer. We got we got we got five on five, but there's a lot of ISOs. It's not like that. When you're a quarterback playing in the game of football,

like if you can't protect and you're only a receiver that can actually line up with those Texas DBs and create a problem and maybe maybe draw a safety over and all that isn't in the lineup, it's tough sudden man and that front four for Texas every year and especially last year is is brutal you got you got you got Sorrell you got the big guy not with 95 you got drafted you got you got you got to know they have brought brought in Collins and Broaden yeah Collins Sorrell um oh and the freshman yeah we're missing the best player I can't think was name right now yeah uh William right are um how we not Anthony Hill oh there's Anthony Hill Colin Simmons Colin Simmons

but Anthony Hill too man yeah so my point is like they're not protected all of it but yes I saw the things you saw I did see the grit I did see the competitiveness they they were in a hatchet fight with a butter knife yeah as my old baseball coach you said used to say like show up to a hatchet fight with a hatchet well they they just didn't have a hatchet at their disposal right so um but a lot of like a lot of positive things to take from this season i i am like to sum it up for me the talent is there there's enough good athleticism and pocket mobility there i want to see him sometimes the eyes are dropping sometimes he's a little bit like like if the first thing isn't there it's it's kind of like let's run to then pick the eyes back up and look.

I don't want to oversell. But there's just a little bit of that quarterback immaturity. And I talked about all the, like, I do think he's been drilled well. I do think he has good mechanics. I think he's got a foundation to build on. Now it's about taking that next step this year. And now he's going to do it without scatiboo. I ain't calling it luck last year.

Everyone can go bleep themselves, go make love to themselves about the luck last year. because he was every bit a part of everything that happened last year. But now he does have to do it without scatibou. And now defenses are going to be focused on him. And we always talk about phases of quarterback. The first year is putting it on tape, being the starter, handling all those pressures. Now the second year is, what was my line that you hated? Because it was actually good.

It was rinse, repeat and refine. Rinse, repeat, refine. Rinse, repeat. So now he's in the rinse, repeat. So like, wash everything away that we had. last year, repeat it, repeat all your process and get, but then now we got to refine it because you get defensive coordinators that have seen you once. There's a whole year of tape, even if they didn't play you one-on-one. So like, this is a big year for him. And now you don't have that

star running back in your back. So I'm excited. I'm excited to see Matia, we talked about on Monday in Oklahoma. This guy's not going anywhere. I'm excited to see because it almost feels like a whole new team. It's his team now. Everyone knows. who he is, what he does, what his tendencies are. So how does he counter that with the way he, with what he's done in this offseason and the way he comes out and plays? Because he got that much better from that Wyoming game and even the Kansas game to what we saw down, you know, in the second half of the year. So, so now it's on him to make that next step. But I, I, I freaking love this dude. I'm telling you, I think he's got a chance. I think he's got a chance to really elevate.

love his grit. I love his competitiveness. I love how instinctive he is. I love his athleticism. I like, I like his arm better than you, all those things. I think Leavitt is going to be an NFL starting quarterback and could be a pretty good one. And I'd love to see him in a Shanahan tree, but we'll see that that's for way down the road. Agree on all of it, man. I'm excited for me. There's just another guy to talk about with this class. Yeah, it is a loaded class. This is fun. All right. But next week, next week we're back. We're going to, we're going to, we're change it up. I think this is it for the quarterbacks. We're going to go Caleb Downs next week.

We're going to go Jeremiah Love and some of the other top running backs. We get some other top DBs. Clemson fans hang around. Let's go. We're getting, this is Mentches team this year. We're getting to Clemson. Like scouts are just rae. If you're a southeast scout and you get Clemson in your area, this is like the best group they've had in about a decade of talent.

They used to have like, it used to be like up there with the Georgia's and Alabama's and the, you know, old days of the like USC's. and so like Ohio states. So this is going to be a fascinating year for Clemson. And we're going to cover all that. We're going to have an NFL mailbag coming up. There's a lot to be excited about this summer as we're trying to strike the perfect balance between grinding it out and enjoying life a little bit before it gets crazy in August.

We appreciate you. We love you for being here. Thanks for joining us in this ride. And we'll see you next week. Later. Must be 21 plus and present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus and present in D.C. Gambling problem?

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