Sam Leavitt led an exceptional offensive attack for LSU football in its 38-17 win against Auburn on Saturday. The quarterback overcame a near interception in the second quarter and led the Tigers to three touchdowns in the frame.

"Really poor decision on the one that we got lucky to get back," head coach Lane Kiffin said. "I just told him, 'hey, you got lucky on that. We can't have another one of those.'"

A pass attempt for Winston Watkins looked to be picked off by Eric Winters but he failed to control the ball to the ground. Three plays later, Leavitt converted on a fourth down then completed the drive with a 15-yard strike to Trey'Dez Green. He found Jackson Harris for a 70-yard touchdown play on the following drive then used his legs to score at the end of the first half.

Leavitt threw for a career-high 387 yards. He completed 71% of his pass attempts and carried eight times for 54 yards. The redshirt junior buried a mistake quickly and completed one of his best performances while donning the purple and gold.

"When I feel a game early that, 'okay, we're gonna dominate this game if we don't screw up,' I say that a lot to the players, to the quarterback especially, about how this is a 'take care of the ball' game because if you don't play really well on the other side, you got a really good matchup," Kiffin said. "He did play really well outside of that play."

After an injury kept him out of spring workouts, Leavitt returned to put the plays he learned with offensive coordinator Charlie Weis on the field. Kiffin is satisfied with how the pair worked together to get Leavitt up to speed for SEC play and reflected on the passing game success he and Weis had at Ole Miss.

"[Sam] was really good today," Kiffin said. "Kind of where we have been for kind of years, actually, in our passing game, so it's great to have it going here."