Will Levis appreciates UK fans and teammates but regrets that this season was not better

Will Levis with his family on Senior Day. (Vicky Graff Photo)

Quarterback Will Levis won’t take long to decide if he will or will not play in Kentucky’s bowl game.

“I’m going to talk to (coach Mark) Stoops on Monday and then probably my family, too. I don’t have a timeline,” said Levis after Kentucky’s 26-13 win over Louisville Saturday when he was 11 of 19 passing for 188 yards and two scores.

Levis transferred from Penn State to Kentucky last year and led UK to a 10-3 record. He’s 7-4 as a starter this year and his 17 wins tie Terry Wilson for the second most wins by a UK quarterback since 1993. He also joins Tim Couch and Mike Hartline and Tim Couch as the only UK quarterbacks to beat Louisville in consecutive games.

Levis has 5,233 passing yards at Kentucky, sixth best at UK, and is 331 yards short of being fifth. He has 43 passing touchdowns, fifth best at Kentucky.

Stoops said he is not sure what Levis might do about a bowl game but appreciates all he’s already done for the program.

“You know, hard to put in the words what he’s meant to us, just his, again, toughness, leadership, battling through adversity, having — coming here and having a great year and going through an offensive coordinator change and getting beat up and having a year where he wasn’t at a 100 percent,” Stoops said after Saturday’s game.

“He fought through it. He’s a true professional. He set the tone for us here. We absolutely love him, whether it’s his last game or plays one more. I think the world of him, and love what he’s done for us and don’t want anything but the best for him and his future.

Levis is projected to be a NFL first-round draft pick. He was 185 of 283 passing for 2,406 yards and 19 touchdowns — with 10 interceptions—this season. He was injured for a big part of the season and had limited mobility at best the final seven games.

Levis went through Senior Day ceremonies before the game and was thankful to get another win over Louisville.

“It was a great way to have the last home game here. We talked all week about how much this game means to us, to all our fans, the whole state really. Obviously the season didn’t go how we planned it but we knew that we’d feel a heck of a lot better about it if we win,” he said. “We needed it, we got ready for it and we got it.”

Levis said he considered his teammates his “brothers and friends” for life that he will “forever trust and love.” He also thanked fans for embracing him as the starting quarterback after he transferred.

“It’s a huge position to assume, being the quarterback for an SEC team, and I didn’t know too much about the fan base when I first got here but I quickly realized how special and supportive our fans are,” Levis said.

“I think I’ll always kind of look back on this last season and have a little bit of regret or just feeling like we didn’t quite get to where we wanted to but I’ll sure as heck think about this game to feel a lot better about it.”

Levis said he never worried about playing injured, possibly hurting his draft status.

“I’m a competitor. I’ll always play if I can,” Levis said. “I’ll listen to the trainers and they know, they’re the professionals, they know what’s in my best interest whether it’s to play or not and I’ve just listened to them all season.”