Is Sam Leavitt still the guy for LSU Football after his rough start? | with Former SU QB Rohan Davey

Offensively, right? I think there was a lot left to be desired in that game on Saturday, left a lot of meat on the bone. I think that was the part I liked about Lane's pressure yesterday, was that they looked at the film and when the players watched it, they realized they had the game in their hands, right? Even though you go down 24-7 in the first half at halftime, you had every opportunity to win it and you didn't. I really wanted to dive into the quarterback discussion because there are a lot of people that feel a lot of ways about the quarterback situation in Baton Rouge after the last two games and, of course, the first loss. For you, what did you see from Levitt first half versus second half? Because I think you saw really kind of two different versions of him in the first and second half. What did you see specifically from LSU's quarterback in the two halves of football? Well, I think to start the football game, just like any quarterback, man, if you affect them with the rush, it affects them. Yeah. And he got affected by the rush. They're putting a lot of pressure on him early with blitzes and also just linemen not holding up. Yeah. And the pressure got to him. It got to him early, and I think it got to his psyche early with him at times not even getting pressure later in the first and second quarter. But you saw the quick, happy feet, and him could have just simply slid to one side or another. But because he's been getting so much pressure and because he relies so much on his athletic and running ability, that is what he defers to quick. So if I get the ball and I look to my first read and it's not there and I've been anticipating pressure, even if I don't get it, I'm trying to make something happen. And the problem with him when that starts happening is his mechanics already aren't the greatest. So now the ball gets lowered. Right. His eyes now go down into the ground instead of up, maneuvering so you can see. And that's part of the reason why you saw in the football game at times when he's moving that he's missing open guys running. Because that ball is not in a throwing position ready to get it out. He's moving around and it's below his chest plate and it's low. And so now it has to come up. And by the time it's come up and it's ready to go, those guys where he anticipated going at first, they're moving. Right. And so that's why we're behind. That's why we're late. That's why we're overthrowing. And that was all affected by the rush to me in the first half of the football game. And also, honestly, playing in the SEC, man. Yeah. I mean, I'm serious. It really does make a difference when you come. You can say, hey, we played in this conference, this conference. But when you come and you see these guys and they getting on you is quicker than you thought. Right. And you're seeing things and they're moving and you're not used to the coverages rotating and so on and so forth. It's different. And I think that affected him in the first half. And I think that halftime was a time the WUSA is a time where Charlie Weiss Jr. and those guys got together, put a simple game plan together of what he does great and what he doesn't. And I think the second half, you saw the ball come out quicker on certain things. He still made plays with his feet because that's just naturally who he is as a quarterback. But I think the second half, you just saw a more comfortable quarterback with some things going well early in the second half to get him going. Yeah. And, you know, you got the running game going a little bit more. He got going a little bit more in the Florida game, the defense. So it was just it was a nice little snowball effect based on how he simply just they changed. Got it out a little bit quicker in the second half for him to get the ball out to take basically just to take the decision out of it. Right. They give him some easy throws. And so, you know, second half, you just saw a more confident quarterback. And hopefully that carries. So we just dug ourselves in a hole to get out of with that. I don't I've been hearing the rumors that he's, you know, this and that and all that. Listen, he has to get better in order for us to make the playoffs, because that's the goal. He has to consistently get better. He has to be able to hit those wide open guys when they run wide open. I mean, some of those throws that he missed were not hard at all. And so he has to clean those things up. But I still think he's a good quarterback. Yeah. You still have confidence that he can be the guy. I do. And that he is the guy for LSU. Oh, no, I do. I do. I do. I mean, listen, you don't just you know, you have games sometimes, right? I'm not making any excuses for the kid, so on and so forth. They pay you this money and you got to produce. Right. Period. Point blank. But one game after having a bad first half and then coming back in your second half and playing really good football in the second half of the game, you know, you guys just didn't make the plays down the stretch to walk away with that game. And you went up against a guy as the leading candidate for the highest. And he played fantastic like he always does. Right. And his counterparts play fantastic outside on the flank and they're tight ends like, you know, running backs like, you know, they play. Well, it's not like you lost to, you know, a rinky dinky team. Right. So but at the same time, like Coach Kiffin said, it was opportunities in the game once you fought back to win the football game. We just didn't make those plays. When you look at the offense in itself and the and the issues, where do you see the root of the struggles at? Because I think a lot of people are at quarterback and they're pointing at quarterback. I'm not saying that's wrong, but I do think that there it's very layered, especially on Saturday. It was because to me, kind of like you said early in that game, it was kind of a perfect storm for what would lead to a to Sam Levitt struggling. Yeah, it is. He's a jittery quarterback, right? He's jumpy. He's he's kind of impulsive. He's not super poised early in games. A crazy atmosphere and environment. Pressure up, up the middle in that game from the interior of the Ole Miss defensive line. And you weren't really emphasizing the run game. And so all of those things combined kind of led to him being unable to settle in early. But I thought he was for sure. To me, there are obviously so many different layers for why there are struggles. What to you is the root right now that if you see if they got this part short up, you would see maybe the biggest improvement offensively. Everything starts with the line. Yeah. Everything starts there. So you start there and then you go to the decision making by your quarterback, right? You know, I mean, so the early pressure contributed to it. The environment, I keep on all those things contributed to it. But I think if you don't get the early pressure and it's not to put the pressure on the line, but pressure is on the pressure. Right. I mean, it's a job that start there. Sure, that up. How do we have to do that? And and not to say because they play better in the second half as well. So, you know, I mean, like the same way it's the first time in that environment for Levis at the same time as Seton. Right. You know, all these guys, the first time for all of them, unless you can't, you was here last year and it's still different because of what was coming to town. So just show up the offensive line. Stick to that similar game plan that you had in the second half with Levitz until, you know, he settles in. And much time for that. Right. But same game plan you had in the second half. Better decision making by your quarterback. And I think you'd be fine. Yeah, I think you'd be fine. And if it's there's a way to incorporate the running backs a little bit more, whether it's in a passing game, a screen game, something of that sort to take some of that edge off of him as well. You know what I mean? I think he was just so wired up, man, because of the environment, because of the expectations, because of this, because of that. You know, we talked about it, you know, whether or not the environment was going to be too much, whether or not just the hype or everything. And trust me, you know, it you do feel that when you start a football game, you feel that, you know, I mean, you my first time here, I got to prove this. I got to do that. Right. So you feel that. So I understand that a little bit from his standpoint. But the same time, though, I'm right paying you. Right. Five M's. You got to go. You got to get one of the guys going to that back corner and they blew the coverage. That ball got to go to the back corner for easy touchdown. You know what I mean? Like when you guys cross in the field, he's wide open. You got to hit him. You got to hit him, man. And we just simply didn't do that. How how much do you learn about the Lane Kiffin LSU football program this week from this past Saturday to A&M this weekend? Well, you learn. First of all, how how much fixing it matters to the players? Yeah. All right. You know, it matters to the coaches. But you learn how much really fixing it matters. And now you see, you know, just like he pointed out, they watch film and everybody's like, oh, man, you know, point fingers at themselves. They won't write it at the team. It's like I could have did this better. They could have did this better. So on and so forth. So if that's true, then everybody's going to. It's similar. I look at it like when we when we play Tennessee, my senior year at a place and they beat us, but we should have won. Right. So it's like similar. You see you see Ole Miss again, like an SEC championship or something like that. It's like we played them, but they beat us. But we know we could have beat them. Right. So it's like the similar thing. So if they learn from that and come off of that and now look at a Texas A&M coming in as another opponent, you know, I mean, in the SEC, that's comparable. They have good players, similar quarterback, good guys out on the flank, good interior lineman and look at it as a challenge. And it's like, OK, so we have another week right here to get it right with these guys and go out and show that that wasn't us last week. And I think they try to show that in the second half, but it was just too late. Yeah. You know, it was just too late. So I think you learn a lot by what their mentalities are. You learn a lot about who you're going to like. Yeah, you're going to see guys possibly playing more than they have or going longer. You know, that lets you know that they watch the film and this guy never quit or this guy was beaten there. So we know whatever it may have been, the lineman, offensive lineman, whatever it is, that's going to show, too, what is going to show what what they've done offensively and defensively to correct the mistakes that they had. Yeah. What's the what is going to look like for Leavitt when he comes out in the first half against A&M? Right. You know what I mean? And I think you're going to see a little bit more focus on. Them being who they are. Yeah. You know, I mean, like the biggest thing that I think. Leavitt's and and I don't know if the offseason or the lack of being able to really work. Right. Is what's affecting them a little bit right now, because, you know, Lane Kiffin and Charlie Weiss Jr. is levels to their throes. Like they like to attack every level. Right. Of the defense. And I don't know if it's because of the accuracy. I don't know if it's because of lack of accuracy, lack of process. I don't know what it is, but we haven't seen that. We haven't seen the downfield throws that we're used to when it's an Ole Miss offense. Similarly, you see the champions. You don't see the levels to it. You see the crosses and the quick. But we haven't seen that that next level where we're throwing the ball down the field deep or going top down. So, you know. I don't know what's holding that part of it, but I don't know if it's because he hasn't been there for that length of time because of the injury. Yeah. But we don't we haven't seen the levels to this offense that I'm used to seeing when these guys is that Ole Miss. Yeah. And then I think like when you look at this this coming weekend and everything that is kind of in front of you, is it not kind of the you look at the positives from last game. It's the second half. Is it like your trust is in this coaching staff to take that second half of the football game and now apply it to the week, learn from it and have it ready for that to be who you are. You kind of learned what works for you in the second half and apply that early on this Saturday. Yeah, no doubt you want to continue that momentum from the second half of the game because you won the second half. Yeah. So you want to continue that momentum for the second half or whatever, whatever it is that you guys have watched on film that shows you, like I pointed out before, whether a player stepped up big time, whether a scheme worked big time, whether a stunt worked big time, whatever it was in the second half that got you guys going. Right. You want to build on that. And I mean, bring that through all the way to from the beginning because you just you lost the game in the beginning of the football game. No, for sure. Oh, and I think that's one of the biggest that's probably the biggest positive from that game is how effective you were in the second half and being able to take that to this week and apply it early. The biggest loss to me was number seven going down in the second half of that football game. How much does LSU lose with no tread trade as green on the field? I think Deshaun is a huge loss. It is for sure. I think he's a both of them. I think I, you know, trade there's a is a man. Listen, we already know what kind of player he is. Right. But you being able to have the shuffle that secondary with Deshaun and he him being out and bringing in a back. We saw it when he went out and full display. Yeah. And so, you know, I I'm not saying you can replace trade there because you can't. Right. But as far as getting a body in that position that's comparable that could run and catch, we can do that. Yeah. When you're talking about losing the safety on the other side and Deshaun that was coming on, coming into his own, getting ready to fill that void of, you know, the great safeties of LSU and getting ready to be in that mold. You know, I think however they reshuffle that, I think that's it. That's it. Both were huge losses, man. Yeah. So I look to the offense. I look for us to be in a little bit more wide receiver friendly packages. Yeah. And, you know, that's where you you want a little bit more now is like where you want a more accurate pass. Right. At the position. And you got to deal and roll with the five million dollar guy that you got. Yeah. But I think you're going to see a little bit more wide receiver friendly packages or you're going to see a little bit more emphasis on the run game. Yeah. However, they do, whether it's a screen game, whether it's a quick screen, whether it's a slip screen, whether it's the, you know, why running back screens and even probably possibly more design runs for that. They get that. There's so many ways that you get the running game going, especially when you have a quarterback like him. But it's a tremendous loss. Is it for me talking about a guy with a first round pick? Right. So it's a tremendous loss. And, you know, hopefully for him and I've talked to Trey, hopefully for him that they just, you know, get itself back healthy and, you know, get back to where you need to be. Yeah, it's a loss for LSU. And I look at the coaches and the players that they're going to lean on to try to replace that. Yeah. And you can, you know, like I say, no replacing it. But feel that void the best as you can. How long or short do you think the leash is on Sam Leavitt? Man, look, in today's football. I wouldn't be surprised if anything happened. Right. Honestly, because, you know, well, you hate to go back to the money, but the money is what it's about. Yeah. Once you kind of got that much money, you got to produce. Right. And you're paying guys underneath him. In the millions as well. So they have to they have to now you have to see, hey, do I need to? And it's not like he hasn't done it. You know what I mean? He swapped quarterbacks. He swapped running backs. He's, you know, coming into this offseason. We didn't know that Barry wasn't going to be our starting running back for opening day. So I think that in this league, especially, man, because it's like, how long do you how long truly do you go? Because your window of opportunity and you can't lose another one right now. You know what I mean? So I think that, you know, you don't want to ruin a kid's confidence. But at the same time, you got to produce. And they're trying to see, well, I'm paying this guy some money, too. Let me see what he can do. Right. You know what I mean? So I think that if these two weeks were flopped, I think you might have seen something go on. Like if McNeese was this week, is it McNeese next week? Yeah. Yeah. After A&M. Yeah. Yeah. So if McNeese was this week and A&M was next week, I think that it might be more interesting. Yeah, it'll be very interesting. But being that this is A&M and coming off of the Ole Miss, I think that you still see him get the nod. But if things go awry early or if it starts the same way it did in the first quarter, I would think that you would see. Just and not necessarily so much a change, but just let's see if we can get a little juice out of the position right now because there's nothing going on. You know what I mean? Something to that nature. But how much does the the. Kind of the courage and the leadership of like the way like you look at Leavitt in the way he plays and especially the second half, and he's I mean, he's legitimately leaving everything out there on the field, like I mean, one of the plays he makes to to Winnie, he rolls out right stops, rolls all the way left to the other sideline and makes a throw one third down one time. He you know, he runs for the first down and gets flipped onto his head and then gets right back up, takes a snap and runs in for the second touchdown of the game. Like how much does that play a factor of even though you're maybe missing some things from a execution standpoint that's still the team's guy because he's leaving it all out there? Well, this is the thing. Like, yeah, he's he's a tough quarterback. He does. He plays his heart out. Right. But the thing the thing is, like, and and you would only know this like if you're in there with him eternally, like your coaches and your players and stuff like that. So if that's something that you're seeing continuously. Right. Right. But at the beginning of the play, he's missing the play. Right. You understand, like it's the wrong read is the the guys open, but I didn't pull the trigger. Yeah. So now it leads to all of that. Yeah. And so in a coach's mind is. Eventually, you're going to take a hit that's going to ******* hurt. Yeah. You know what I mean? Or you're out because you missed a previous read. And so it's leading to these wonderful plays. And we know you got hurt and all that. But it's like when does it not work out? And what situation does it happen in that really hurts us where this doesn't work out? Yes, it works out. Seventy five percent of the time. But if I'm in a situation where I need this to be a touchdown and, you know, it's down to the wire and you miss whatever the read is supposed to be, but the guy is wide open, but we just didn't pull it or he's open, but you don't see the backside safety and they come over and pick it like that. Are you missing? So if I'm in a situation and you miss that, but at least are you running around making these great plays? Well, when will the time come when you don't make that great play and now you're trying to spin out or do something or the ball's low and now the ball comes out? Right. So it's it's it's good. But if you're doing it and it's improvisation because your reason they're perfect. Yeah. But if you're doing it because you've missed and you continue to miss, that's not good. Yeah. You know what I mean? I think it'll be very interesting to see what it looks like this weekend, because I think as much as there were so many differences in this past Saturday, you know, I thought the Ole Miss front seven improved much better than they've played all year in that football game. I thought the biggest difference between the two teams was the poise of the quarterback. I thought and I made the point earlier today. I said it yesterday that after the game, it felt like every Ole Miss third and twelve felt like third and four because Chambliss didn't flinch and every LSU third and four felt like third and twelve. Right. And so that it turns to this weekend. The pressure is going to be on the quarterbacks again. For from LSU standpoint, you need you need Leavitt and that offense to improve better. And from the LSU's defensive standpoint, you got to make sure you put a stop to Marcel Reed's legs. My last question to you. What do you see the game plan being defensively for Marcel Reed specifically that takes into account what you know about yourself after last week and that you are aggressive and fast and you kind of dictate the energy defensively and that's how you win. But in addition to that, you've also still have to be responsible and mature and keep Marcel Reed in front of you. But, you know, every time we've talked about the LSU defense with Blake, we've always talked about how aggressive they are. But most importantly, like if they get the hot reads out, they get guys on the ground. Yeah. So that means guys are in places to where they know they're deficient at. They know where the holes are based on where their blitz is from. Right. That's the same reason why two nine got the pick against Clemson, because we know we're a blitz and he was a fake bluff. And I'm going to throw. That's right. So my thing is, man, get back to that. Yeah. Leave Blake alone and let Blake do his thing, man. You know, let him get back. Let him get back to where he's been, where he's great at. And that's deciphering the offenses and then putting that defense together to bust a behind. Yeah. So I look at them to get back to that. And I think the plan for Marcel Reed, in my opinion, from seeing him over the last couple of years is the skies. The secondary. Rotate them. Keep them moving to keep his mind all over the place. And I will do the same aggressiveness that you've been doing with the front seven. Yeah. And whereas, excuse me, DB stay close and make him have to throw make him have to be accurate. Right. I mean, as you don't have to cover perfect against Marcel Reed. Just now he's still a dynamic playmaker, of course. But his accuracy is what he's always is always, to me, a question with him. So until he shows that he has fixed that, stay close to your receivers. Move to secondary. Yeah. Be aggressive like you've been. And play ball. Yeah. And offensively. Hey. I saw what you what I saw from A&M defensively is similar to Ole Miss to me, similar to Ole Miss to me. So it's almost like you play another. Not as far as like the front, but as far as like the players, there's no. They played good together in the second half of Texas A&M. First half was wasn't nothing that you want to see. So the second half of their game, their defensive line, their front seven, I think, played a little bit better over over, like you said, Ole Miss front seven played over their head, played a little bit more over their head. But I think that if Sam just sticks to the second half of what they did, getting the ball out quick, incorporate the running back, throw some screens and stuff like that. And they're like Texas A&M. We talked about Ole Miss defense that, you know, I didn't see anything great. They played above, you know, what we saw on film. Right. And I think A&M is like in that same mode. But we we did so many things offensively. Right. To make, you know, these guys look like they were world beaters. Yeah. And it's the same way we play our brand of football like we did in the second half. I think it's the same same way LSU is a good enough team that if they just do what they do right, they win football games. Yeah, no doubt about it. I mean, we, you know, I understand because, you know, we've been down in games before. We find it's so hard to fight back. It's so much energy, so much everything to fight back from 17 point, 21 point deficit, you know what I mean? So I get that. So we can't get in those kind of holes. But yeah, to your point, just play LSU football. Yeah. You know what you guys have shown. Let's not let's not reinvent the wheel. And I think Coach Kiffin may have tried to do that. Right. You know, a little bit by him. Whatever his decision was in the first half with Blake. I mean, you know, so if we just get back to us, we'll be fine. Yeah, we'll be fine. Changes and things, whatever they saw on film. And I mean, listen, the thing that I like going forward, if we want to get to where we want to be, the bottom line, honestly, bro, is Sam got to play better. Yeah, he got to play better. He got to play like he did in the second half. And his decision making at the beginning of the play has to get better. Yeah, that has to get better. But I think it gets better once he gets a little more confidence. Right. Line, which he showed that he doesn't have it. Yeah. With the happy feet. But just a little bit more confidence in that line. And when the run game is established. Yeah, I think that's the biggest difference in the first and second half. Yeah. Was they they they made it a message to run football in the second half. And I think you're going to see more of that. Yeah, you got to. Yeah, for sure. You got to. For sure. And they also because like it's like the throw, the touchdown throw to Winnie Watkins, like that is a hell of a throw. That's one of the best throws you'll ever see from a quarterback. Like it's as good as it gets. You're damn right. Like that, I mean, talking about a dot, you know what I'm saying? Confident. So when you see that, it's like, why the hell did we miss the crosser? Right. Why the hell did we miss the corner route for a touchdown that was three yards behind? It almost got peaked off. Right. You know what I mean? So it's like, you know, it's there, bro. You know, it's there. And that's why I'm I'm like, you know, he had a bad first half. Right. Like that's how I looked at. But it's all fixable. Oh, it's all fixable. Yeah. And when you see and to your point, when you see the heart, the courage and how he leaves it all out on the line, it's like, ----, I'm rooting for him. Right. You know what I'm saying? I'm rooting for him because I love that kind of passion. How he plays with it. It's easy to play with a guy like that. It's easy, but I'm telling you, it's easy. But when you see that, if it keeps happening, of course, it's going to get hard. Yeah. No, I mean, like as a wide receiver, I mean, you're when you when you're getting open and the ball's not there. One, if it's not getting thrown, it's hard to get open, bro. Yeah. Hard to get open as a wide receiver. You know, it's hard. So when you do get open, yes, you want that ball, bro. Right. And so I get it. I get it. And, you know, I give him a lot of great. It's something that we knew he wasn't the most accurate. But these wide open ones, we got to hit them. Yeah, we got to hit. We got to at least get him the ball. I don't even care if they don't handle run after catch. We got to get involved. Yeah. Got to take what's there. It'll be it'll be exciting to see. Like I said, I think this week is such a massive week for the Lane Kiffin era of LSU. Early on is just because this is your first opportunity to see a response to adversity, like to lose a game and see. Because like I said last year, there were four. No, they go into the Ole Miss game. They lose it. They only win three games from then on out. Like that is where you saw the spiral. And that's why you fire a guy. And this is why you hire a guy. It's to go in to make this happen. And I will tell you, you got to get it fixed because after this McNeese. Oh, baby. That's a gauntlet. Oh, baby. Yeah. No, I mean, it is. It is. I mean, because even the October month we thought was going to be easy. You're going to be going against quarterbacks like Mario Taylor in Mississippi State. That's what I'm telling you. You got quarterbacks now that are true do a three. You got guys now that you talk about Mississippi State, Arkansas. You talk about these guys that have these quarterbacks now that could make your life hell in some ways, man. So who you know what you thought was going to be. I mean, you got that middle section in October where you had McNeese, Mississippi State, Kentucky, Auburn, you thought was going to be your easiest slate. No. And as of right now, Kentucky and Mississippi State, where they're playing and even Auburn, like Auburn hadn't played particularly well. But their quarterback is still a problem because of the way he can play with his legs. So it's it is it's the SEC. Yes. What you signed up for. And it's going to be exciting to see. It's a huge weekend. We appreciate you making the way in. Glad we made it back from Oxford.