Arizona State Sun Devils College Football Pregame Quote, 12/30/2024

SAM LEAVITT: Yeah. I mean that’s your entire life. So I don’t know if you can really put it into words. It’s every single thing that you worked for since day one, every decision you make in your life; you know, am I going to go do this or do something to make me better with football.

It’s every single decision that goes into everything, what food I’m going to eat, what am I going to do tonight? Am I going to hang out with my friends or am I going to go stretch and get an extra workout in or watch more film or everything like that? I don’t know if you can really put it into words, but you get glimpses of just really understanding what this moment means to you, and when those come and hit, it hits pretty powerful.

Q. The support from fans has been almost overwhelming, obviously crowds showing up outside the stadium. Obviously last night little children and fans waiting to like 10, 11:00 at night to get autographs from you guys. What does it mean to embrace not only this moment and this experience but to embrace how far you guys can go?

SAM LEAVITT: It’s one of my favorite parts is just seeing the kids being happy and stuff like that because I remember when I was at that age and how hyped I would have been to go see Cameron Skattebo or a quarterback or something like that. It’s super cool to see that we can activate the valley and really change this thing. And Coach Dillingham is going to take this in a trajectory that’s going to be a constant growth throughout the next years, and it’s just going to continue to grow, and I’m just happy to be the catalyst for that.

Q. (Inaudible)?

SAM LEAVITT: Yeah. It’s definitely a tricky way to go about things because you get so wrapped up in the moment. You gotta enjoy the fame and the glory for a little bit, just soak it all in and stuff like that, and then get back to work and just do your normal routine that you do every single week. Get your same hours of film in, same hours of stretching, whatever icing you do or recovery or massage or anything you do with that. So I have such a planned — I’ve had the same process for the last 20 weeks. So it’s just finding different times to get that stuff in because the schedule is a little bit different, and you have a mandatory dinner at 7 and a movie at 3 and event here and there. So it’s just being able to get everything that you need to do in.

Q. Do you (inaudible)?

SAM LEAVITT: Yeah, there are certain things, but some are mandatory so it’s kind of just all on our schedule.

Q. You said the other day you were going to take this opportunity to prove why you’re the best quarterback in this game and it picked up some traction. A lot of people put headlines on that. Are you surprised by how much that story got legs and took off?

SAM LEAVITT: I mean, I don’t know. I don’t really have any expectations going into the comment. I was just saying the comment to my fullest belief, and I hope that every player on the field feels that they’re the best. That’s how it should be. You put all this work in and get to do so stage, so why would you not believe that yourself?

Q. Are you getting notifications a lot about the stories once it blew up?

SAM LEAVITT: I turn off my notifications always. I don’t really have them on during the season and stuff like that. But when I open up the app, yeah, I see it blew up a little, which is cool, get my name out on the stage a little bit more.

Q. So you were okay with that?

SAM LEAVITT: Yeah, I didn’t mind it.

Q. Why?

SAM LEAVITT: I don’t feel like publicity is bad, especially if you’re not saying anything — and just being able to put that on the stage. And Quinn Ewers is such a big- time name in college football, and now that’s going to be a big talk on the show, and now you’re going to go into the game and people are going to be watching for stuff like, so it’s just an opportunity for me to go prove myself.

Q. Does that put more pressure on you since you already put it out there?

SAM LEAVITT: No, it doesn’t change anything for me. I’m just going in to win the game. I don’t care about what people think. I just like to say that I believe.

Q. (Inaudible)?

SAM LEAVITT: I understand it because you look at a season like last year, and the majority of predictions going into next season are predicated on that. I wasn’t a big name going into this year, and Skatt blew up the majority of this year, and Coach Dillingham’s second year, so it’s not like people were projecting us to go crazy. So when we’re constantly keep proving ourselves, it’s not like they’re just going to jump to the top and say, oh, they’re one of the best in the nation. It’s going to be like, wow, they just barely won this game. And then it just keeps progressing from there and there. So I understand it, but I do feel like we’re getting overlooked always, but that’s something that we carry as a chip on our shoulder as a team, and that’s kind of our identity.

Q. What is it about the Texas defense that stands out to you?

SAM LEAVITT: Yeah. They’re where they’re going to be. They’re really smart players. They’re aggressive, driving the ball in the secondary. Really big up front. And they’re sound. They’re not playing too many coverages, showing too many fronts and everything like that. We’ve seen some pretty exotic stuff this year. So it’s going to be a game where we just gotta go do what we gotta do and just execute and take care of the ball.

Q. Obviously it’s a little different this week to be on such a big stage. Just kind of walk me through, I guess, some of the differences in preparing for a game like this.

SAM LEAVITT: Yeah. I keep getting that question a lot, and I don’t know if there really are too many differences. You might watch an extra 30 minutes of film just because you want to be the most prepared you’ve ever been, because this is the biggest stage of your life. So you’re going to do the most you can.

But other than that, it’s the same as every single other week. It’s not like I’m going to stretch harder or do stuff like that or practice harder, because I already feel like I practice as hard as I can. So that’s kind of the impression that I take always. And then nameless, faceless opponent is something that I live about. Why would I be scared or change that for someone else?

Q. What was it like with the sendoff?

SAM LEAVITT: It’s incredible just to be able to activate this valley and have people show support. It’s people you care about. It’s not random people. And families and everything and people that have been rocking with you since spring ball before you guys really got popping and everything like that. So it’s one of my favorite things to see just getting the valley activated, and I’m just really happy to do it for this team and this coaching staff.