Take It or Leavitt. LSU’s New No. 10 Already Made the Choice Interesting.
Sam Leavitt brought a ready-made surname pun from Arizona State to Baton Rouge. Then his first LSU game produced 343 total yards, three touchdowns, an SEC weekly award and one of the most explosive quarterback debuts of college football’s opening weekend.
Sometimes a sports slogan needs months before the performance catches up. “Take It or Leavitt” had the opposite problem: the phrase already existed before Sam Leavitt ever wore LSU purple.
Arizona State used “Take it or Leavitt” as an official heading in its own football notes during his Sun Devil career. The pun is simple enough to survive a transfer — replace “leave it” with LEAVITT — but what happened on September 5 gave it an entirely new audience.
In his LSU debut against Clemson, Leavitt passed for 230 yards, rushed for a career-high 113 and accounted for three touchdowns. LSU won 51-10. Two days later, the SEC named him Offensive Player of the Week.
The pun followed the quarterback. The difference is that Baton Rouge now has 343 yards of evidence explaining why people should care about it.
Leavitt Arrived at LSU as Much More Than a Transfer Lottery Ticket
LSU lists Leavitt as a 6-foot-2, 207-pound redshirt junior from West Linn, Oregon. Before Baton Rouge, he started twenty games at Arizona State and went 16-4 in those starts.
His college résumé already included 4,652 passing yards, 36 passing touchdowns and another 816 yards on the ground before the 2026 season. In 2024, he helped Arizona State win the Big 12 and reach the College Football Playoff while earning Big 12 Freshman of the Year honors.
A foot injury disrupted his 2025 season, but the transfer market still treated him as one of the most important available quarterbacks. LSU describes Leavitt as the No. 1-rated quarterback in the January 2026 portal.
LSU’s official roster gives the surname as “LEV-it.” That pronunciation is exactly why “Take It or Leavitt” works when spoken as well as when printed.
The Clemson Game Showed Why Lane Kiffin Wanted His Legs Too
Leavitt’s stat line was not built exclusively from clean pocket throws. His two first-half rushing touchdowns — eight yards and thirteen yards — helped LSU create a 31-3 halftime lead after weather had delayed kickoff deep into the Baton Rouge night.
His 113 rushing yards were a career high. Combined with Dilin Jones’ 113 yards, LSU produced two 100-yard rushers in the same game for the first time since 2023.
That mobility matters within the story of Kiffin’s first offense. The new head coach arrived with a reputation for manipulating space and tempo. Leavitt gives the system another stress point because defenses must account for the quarterback after the pass structure breaks down.
The Design Understands That LEAVITT Is the Punchline
The supplied graphic does not need a quarterback photograph, football illustration or Clemson score. Its entire hierarchy is built around the surname.
TAKE IT OR appears first in gold. LEAVITT sits underneath in much larger white lettering. A compact LSU Tigers detail closes the composition. Purple creates the school connection before the viewer even finishes reading.
A deliberately minimal quarterback graphic where oversized LEAVITT typography carries both the player identity and the entire joke.
View the No. 10 design →Keeping the graphic free of scores and dates gives it more runway. Clemson provides the current cultural trigger, but the surname joke can survive every subsequent LSU game because the player — not a single result — remains the subject.
The Phrase Already Had a Football History Before LSU
That history is unusually useful. Arizona State’s athletics department used “Take it or Leavitt” repeatedly as a section heading in game notes during the quarterback’s Sun Devil career. It was already functioning as player-specific football language before he entered the portal.
Now the words have changed colors. Arizona State context becomes LSU purple and gold, while the player’s dual-threat identity remains recognizable.
The phrase has also already appeared in licensed LSU player merchandise following the Clemson game, another indication that the wordplay is spreading naturally around Leavitt’s new football chapter rather than existing only on one isolated graphic.
SEC Offensive Player of the Week Made the Debut Harder to Dismiss
Week 1 performances can create temporary hype, but conference recognition gives the result another layer of context. The SEC named Leavitt its Offensive Player of the Week on September 7.
Two other LSU newcomers were honored at the same time: Jordan Seaton as Offensive Lineman of the Week and Jordan Ross as Defensive Lineman of the Week. That matters because the Clemson victory did not look like one transfer quarterback carrying an unfinished roster. It looked like several major pieces of Kiffin’s rebuild arriving together.
Leavitt’s next game comes September 12 against Louisiana Tech. Then, on September 19, LSU heads to Ole Miss for Kiffin’s first return to Oxford. That game should place LSU’s new quarterback in one of the most closely watched environments of the young season.
The broader story continues in Ellie Shirt’s LSU Tigers collection and the NCAA collection. Readers looking specifically for the new quarterback can browse the Sam Leavitt product archive.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does “Take It or Leavitt” mean?
It replaces the words “leave it” in the familiar phrase “take it or leave it” with LSU quarterback Sam Leavitt’s surname.
Did the phrase begin after Leavitt transferred to LSU?
No. Arizona State had already used “Take it or Leavitt” in official football notes during his Sun Devil career.
How did Sam Leavitt perform in his LSU debut?
He passed for 230 yards, rushed for a career-high 113 and accounted for three touchdowns in LSU’s 51-10 win over Clemson.
Did Sam Leavitt win an SEC award after the game?
Yes. The SEC named him Offensive Player of the Week on September 7, 2026.
What number does Sam Leavitt wear for LSU?
Leavitt wears No. 10 for the Tigers.
The Take It or Leavitt design catches Sam Leavitt at the exact point when a long-running quarterback pun became part of LSU’s 2026 football vocabulary.
Take It or Leavitt Shirt turns Sam Leavitt’s surname into LSU quarterback culture after his 343-yard, three-touchdown Clemson debut and SEC Offensive Player of the Week honor, using clean purple, gold and white typography.