Tennessee football rumors: Volunteers not giving up on Sam Leavitt pursuit despite LSU commitment

Tennessee is coming off an 8-5 campaign, finishing with a loss to Illinois in the Music City Bowl. The team was in pursuit of former Arizona State quarterback Sam Leavitt in the transfer portal. Leavitt is now expected to sign with LSU, but this is not slowing down the Volunteer courting of the quarterback.

Tennessee is still pushing in its pursuit of Leavitt in hopes of remaining in consideration for his services, according to Matt Zenitz of CBSSports.

The Volunteers are likely going to be in need of a quarterback this upcoming season. Joey Aguilar, a transfer from Appalachian State and briefly at UCLA, was the starter for Tennessee this season. He passed for 3,565 yards and 24 touchdowns, with ten interceptions.

Aguilar spent two seasons with the City College of San Francisco, a JUCO. He redshirted the first year, and the second season was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He then transferred to Diablo Valley, another JUCO, starting 11 games over two years. Aguilar would then start 24 games over two seasons at Appalachian State before moving to Tennessee.

The quarterback has applied for another year of eligibility. Still, it is expected that Aguilar’s petition will be declined. This will lead to the Vols needing a new signal caller, and Leavitt would have been a perfect fit. He visited the Knoxville campus already and was the top quarterback in the portal. He had also passed for over 4,000 yards with 34 touchdowns and just nine interceptions in his two years at Arizona State.

The continued pursuit of Leavitt makes sense. Not only was he the top quarterback in the portal according to 247Sports, but many of the other top guys have also moved to new schools. Brendan Sorsby will be at Texas Tech, Drew Mestemaker at Oklahoma State, and DJ Lagway at Baylor.

This leaves the top remaining guy in the portal as Husan Longstreet from Southern California, who attempted just 15 passes in his freshman season, and is ranked seventh. Beyond him, Beau Pribula from Missouri is the next best, until going well down the list of available players. If Tennessee wants to compete in the SEC next year, it needs a solid quarterback, and with options waning, it needs to keep up its pursuit of Leavitt.

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