Is Will Levis the best candidate to be the next starting quarterback

Will Levis (Penn State Athletics Photo)

So it looks like we’ve come to the end. Not “The End”, as in the apocalypse, but the end of my series on the UK Football quarterback battle that will take place this fall. If you missed the previous two articles about what UK offensive coordinator Liam Coen is looking for in a quarterback and how the incumbent quarterbacks — Joey Gatewood and Beau Allen — fit into the new offensive scheme, you can catch them here:

 https://www.yoursportsedge.com/2021/06/04/who-will-win-the-uk-quarterback-battle-in-the-fall/vaughts-views/kpeel/ 

https://www.yoursportsedge.com/2021/06/10/will-joey-gatewood-or-beau-allen-be-the-next-uk-quarterback-what-about-will-levis/vaughts-views/kpeel/

But for this last article, I thought I would look at the possibility of new Wildcat and former Penn State backup quarterback Will Levis winning the starting job at UK. Levis, known for being mostly a run-oriented quarterback at Penn State, entered the transfer portal and was immediately contacted by Liam Coen about transferring to UK.

Levis said this about his initial interaction with UK, “Kentucky being one of the first schools I talked to, I was really, really excited about that and kind of didn’t even look back from there,. I realized how incredible that opportunity was for me there and how much they wanted me and how much they believed in me.” 

Levis believes he can be the downfield passer that Coen is looking for in a quarterback. He said that his time at Penn State under coach James Franklin didn’t really showcase his ability as a passer.

Levis said, “I would have really liked to throw the ball more, because I know I can. I know I can make all the throws. And I just would have liked to be put in situations where the coaches could trust me to throw the ball downfield more often.”

His disappointment with his role at Penn State may have created an opportunity for Levis to move into a brighter future at UK. His father, Mike Levis, believes that is the case. He recently said about the possibility of Will playing for UK, “They were really looking for somebody with Will’s skill set to really kind of help them get to the next level,” Mike said. “And that’s an athlete, somebody who can throw the football, can move really, really well within the pocket, outside the pocket, who’s shown the toughness to go ahead and really be able to get things done both on the field and off the field.”

So it appears that Will Levis and his father, Mike, both believe that Will is coming into UK as a front runner for the starting quarterback job. But is that really the case?

After all, he would have to beat out both Joey Gatewood and Beau Allen, two quarterbacks that spent the entire Spring learning Liam Coen’s new offensive scheme. 

UK Head Coach Mark Stoops seemed pleased with what he saw from both incumbent quarterbacks in the spring. His evaluation during the 15 Spring practices seemed very upbeat concerning Joey Gatewood and Beau Allen.

Stoops said, “I think both quarterbacks have made big strides. I see the confidence in them. I see the awareness of where to go with the football. I think we all understand that we need to improve and play better at that position. But I do see the confidence in the quarterbacks growing and that’s rubbing off on the other guys. I think Beau and Joey are guys that I’m seeing make a lot of growth this spring, which is important. Both of them have done some really good things. You can see the confidence in both guys growing. They’ve really done a nice job.”

So from that perspective, it sounds like Stoops believes they can both be SEC-caliber quarterbacks. 

So what about Will Levis? Knowing that Levis has yet to take a snap, practice or otherwise, as a Kentucky Wildcat, what does Coen find so intriguing about the former Penn State signal-caller?

Here’s what Coen had to say about Levis earlier, “He’s a big, strong kid that can really throw the football,” said Coen. “It’s one of those things that he can throw the football and the one thing he can also do is run. You know, he’s had some ability to run the football at Penn State and it’s more so for him about putting it all together and becoming that true dynamic quarterback in all three phases for him – run the football, operationally and throwing it – so I think he’s going to come in and give it a go just like if he was at Penn State or anywhere else.” 

Now I know that most of the local media has already handed the keys of the new offense over to Levis but I’m not so sure it’s that simple. 

In watching film of Levis there is no doubt that he is an ultra-competitor and he runs the ball extremely well but his passing numbers were nothing to get excited about. He played in 15 games and started one for the Nittany Lions over a two-year period and averaged 60 percent pass completions.

Only four quarterbacks in the SEC averaged less than that completion percentage last season — Colin Hill at South Carolina, part-time starter Stetson Bennet at Georgia and T.J. Finley and Max Johnson at LSU. Just for comparison purposes, Terry Wilson averaged 62.5 percent completions last year and 65 percent completions for his career at UK. 

So is Will Levis really the hands-down front runner to take the UK quarterback job ? Here’s my take on Levis based on the film I saw. He is an excellent runner, moves around in the pocket well, and is super competitive. But his decision-making appears to be suspect at times and his accuracy also appears to be up and down. The thing about Levis that stood out to me during his Penn State stint as backup quarterback was his ability to rally his teammates to hang in and continue to perform through adversity. 

But let’s be realistic. James Franklin is an excellent offensive coach and Will Levis could not win the starting job on a PSU team that ultimately finished the season at 4-5 in 2020 even though the starter for Penn State, Sean Clifford, had a 61 percent completion percentage and threw for 16 touchdowns with nine interceptions. In comparison to Penn State starter Clifford, UK’s starter last season, Terry Wilson, completed 63 percent of his passes and threw for seven touchdowns and four interceptions. 

What that tells me is, although the media has already crowned Will Levis as the new starting quarterback for UK, I’m not so convinced. I believe that at this point in the race it is too close to call. All three potential quarterbacks have plenty of pluses and plenty of minuses and none seem to stand out so far as being head and shoulders above another candidate. 

I do believe that Will Levis will have the inside track because he has the most collegiate experience but I also believe that when the bullets start flying the player that can make the least mistakes and manage the offense will be the one that trots out onto the field in September. 

I would have to say that if this quarterback battle were a horse race I would call it a dead heat coming down the stretch between Gatewood and Levis with Allen trailing by a nose. That means anyone could win the race — no matter what it looks like at the 3/4 pole. 

(This is the last in a three-part series about the UK Football quarterback battle.)

— Keith Peel, Contributing Writer