Will Levis is a beast who has put team on his back

Vicky Graff Photo

Kentucky coach Mark Stoops has never been once to mince words and he certainly didn’t when it came to quarterback Will Levis after Saturday night’s 31-23 win over Northern Illinois.

Levis completed 18 of 26 passes for 303 yards and four touchdowns in the win.

Levis now ranks fourth in school history in passing touchdowns (34), fourth in 300-yard passing games (6), fifth in total touchdowns by a quarterback (47) and 11th in passing yards (4,012) — and he has played in only 17 games.

He also joins Tim Couch (1998) and Dusty Bonner (1999) as the only UK quarterbacks to have at least 1,100 passing yards and 10 passing touchdowns with a completion percentage of at least 66.7 percent through the first four games of a season (thanks to Corey Price of UK Sports for the statistics).

“That dude, he is a beast,” Stoops said. “He is just a terrific football player. He does so much it is hard to describe. He has that team on his back right now.”

Northern Illinois coach Thomas Hammock was impressed by what he saw from Levis, who is now No. 4 on ESPN analyst Mel Kiper’s 2023 NFL draft board.

“He’s definitely a really good quarterback. We were trying to get him off the spot and make him feel uncomfortable. He made two or three big plays off of our all-out blitz,” Hammock said. “We have got to have guys closer to the line of scrimmage to affect him and we didn’t. He’s a good quarterback and they’ve got great wide receivers.”

Great receivers? Indeed he does. UK receivers had 209 yards after catch (Tayvion Robinson 107, Barion Brown 76, LaVell Wright 10, Dane Key 10, Jordan Dingle 4 and JuTahn McClain 10) against Northern Illinois. The speed UK now has at receiver is a huge boost for Levis this season.

Levis always goes out of his way to make his offensive linemen feel appreciated. He includes them in his NIL deals and always praises them after games — even when he has been sacked 16 times already this season.

“I had time and I had time to move (in the pocket),” Levis said after Saturday’s win. “It was cool to see everything come together.”

Kentucky offensive coordinator Rich Scangarello liked the way Levis didn’t let the all-out blitzes from Northern Illinois throw him off his game.

“That’s what really good quarterbacks do,” Scangarello, who was with the San Francisco 49ers last season, said. “I will never draft or recruit a quarterback that doesn’t have grit, toughness and a mind-set to stamina. That’s why I love coaching him.”

UK Radio Network analyst Jeff Piecoro, a former UK football player, has seen a huge change in Levis’ mindset this season.

“Last year he would almost always run it if the pocket broke down. If he did not see his primary guy, he would just take off (running),” Piecoro said. “This year he is more cognizant of what he means to the team and he is looking to throw and find other receivers.”

Kentucky is up to No. 7 in the Associated Press rankings and Levis and the Cats can add to their resume with a win at Ole Miss Saturday. However, he’s already put a lot on that resume.

—  He is the first Kentucky quarterback with at least three passing touchdowns of 40 or more yards in the same game since Drew Barker against Southern Mississippi in 2016.

—  After throwing for 377 yards last week, he is the first UK quarterback with back-to-back 300-yard passing games since Patrick Towles against Eastern Kentucky and Auburn in 2015.

— He is the third quarterback in Kentucky history to have at least two 300-yard passing games that featured fewer than 20 completions along with Bill Ransdell and Stephen Johnson.

— Levis has thrown for four touchdowns in a game three times.The previous two were against Louisiana-Monroe  and New Mexico State.