LEXINGTON, Ky. — Less than two years before he would become one of the most talked about players in the 2023 NFL draft class, Will Levis found himself in a surprising spot during his first Kentucky football training camp.
The third-team offense.
“We had two guys for six days of practice taking reps that they had no business taking,” Kentucky offensive coordinator Liam Coen said in a one-on-one interview with the Lexington Herald-Leader about the early days of the Levis era. “What was really cool was the guys around, both offense and defense, they were the ones that started to say, ‘Hey Coach, when are you guys going to do this? When are we going to make the move?’ That’s how you wanted it to happen, for everybody else to see it.”
Kentucky coaches do not pretend they were certain Levis was about to blossom into a possible top-10 draft pick, but even then it was clear he was the best quarterback on campus.
Levis had committed to Kentucky as a transfer from Penn State in February 2021 but remained in State College through the end of the spring semester to finish his undergraduate degree. Meanwhile, Coen, who had recently been hired from the Los Angeles Rams, was trying to rebuild a Kentucky offense that had become too run-heavy over the previous five years.
Former four-star quarterback recruits Joey Gatewood and Beau Allen were on campus for spring practice, but neither boasted the type of NFL-level physical tools Coen was used to working with. A year later, Gatewood would be a backup wide receiver at UCF and Allen would be the starting quarterback for FCS Tarleton State.
But Kentucky coaches knew if they simply handed Levis the starting job as soon as he arrived on campus it might lead to issues in a locker room where he had not yet proven himself to new teammates. After all, Levis boasted prolific arm strength but was transferring because he was stuck behind Penn State quarterback Sean Clifford, a quarterback hardly known for his big-play ability.
“It wasn’t like he came in here, walked in the door and he’s our starting quarterback,” Coen said. “Could we have done that? Yeah, it would have been warranted, but he handled that with such grace and such understanding of that’s how Coach (Mark) Stoops wants to run a program. You’re not just given it in this program. He bought into that, he handled it and then two days later after he wins the job he’s named captain.”
A week into preseason camp in 2021, Kentucky coaches had seen enough to be comfortable naming Levis the starter. He would go on to lead the Wildcats to just the program’s second 10-win season since 1977, scoring upset wins over Florida, LSU, Louisville and Iowa along the way.
As the Kentucky offense improved, Levis’ NFL draft stock soared. He returned to Lexington for his senior season hyped as a possible first-round pick, and while the 2022 season was a disappointment for Kentucky, Levis continued to be mentioned as one of the top quarterback prospects in the class.
Now, when Levis turns on ESPN he often sees his own face on the screen as pundits debate the merits of a team selecting him with a top-10 pick. Levis’ college career does not resemble the typical first-round quarterback pick, but his Kentucky coaches have little doubt that he can be the face of a franchise in the NFL.
That opinion has been met with skepticism by others, though.
“How can you draft a quarterback in the top 10 who could not beat Sean Clifford for the starting job at Penn State?” the popular argument goes.
Of course, Levis is not the same quarterback now that he was at Penn State. A closer look at the progress he made in two years at Kentucky reveals why NFL teams are considering drafting him in the top 10 despite inconsistent college results.
How Kentucky landed Levis in the transfer portal
After being hired by Kentucky, Coen, who had not coached in college football since a stint as FCS Maine’s offensive coordinator from 2016 to 2017, began to do his homework on potential quarterback additions.
Of the handful of quarterbacks Kentucky coaches had heard were likely to enter the transfer portal, Levis immediately stood out on film.
Penn State had used Levis primarily as a run-first backup to Clifford. He threw just three touchdown passes in 14 games across two seasons. There was at least one game that offered a glimpse of his arm talent, though.
In a November 2020 loss to Nebraska, Penn State coaches benched Clifford with the Nittany Lions trailing 24-3. Levis came off the bench to complete 14 of 31 passes for 219 yards. Penn State never pulled closer than nine points, but Levis made things interesting with several head-turning throws.
“You saw flashes of big-time ability,” Coen said. “Nobody else flashed any big-time ability. They flashed game manager, we could win some games with, we could operate with, but are we really going to be as good as you need to be?
“He flashed those moments in the Nebraska game where he kind of brought them back. … The throws that he made, some of the plays that he made under duress in stressful situations, this is the kind of potential we’d like to work with. I just came from working with Jared Goff. I didn’t want to go and work with somebody who was maybe not going to be truly talented.”
A week after the Nebraska game, Levis made his only start for Penn State, but he was benched in the third quarter with the Nittany Lions trailing 31-7 to Iowa. It was then Levis began to question his future in State College.
Was he truly going to ever get a chance to prove he was more than a run-first quarterback?
When Levis entered the transfer portal, he was searching for a coaching staff that believed in his ability as a passer. Kentucky was meanwhile unlikely to land any surefire starting quarterback since there was not yet any proof Coen’s offense could end the era of anemic passing attacks.
It did not hurt that Coen had a previous connection to Levis, having briefly recruited him as a Connecticut high school star to Maine before it became apparent Levis was destined for a Power Five program.
“I wanted to be a first-round quarterback, I wanted to be an NFL quarterback,” Levis said. “I knew I always had what it took, but I wasn’t going to be able to truly realize what my ceiling was until I got those playing opportunities. That was always obviously the goal, but the real confidence and the clarity that could be a potential outcome didn’t come until I really got some starts under my belt.”
A breakout 2021 season
There was no single moment where Coen realized Southeastern Conference starting quarterback might not be the ceiling for Levis, but a throw early in training camp stood out as a sign of what was to come.
On a play-action play where Levis was forced to roll to his left after facing pressure, Levis was able hit wide receiver Josh Ali with a bullet pass at face level on a 20-yard dig route. Coen looked up to find Stoops clapping with a smile on his face, clearly impressed by the type of throw that had been missing from his previous Kentucky quarterbacks.
“There’s not a lot of kids that can turn their backs to the defense on play-action, one hitch and let that ball go right on a kid’s face,” Coen said.
Levis threw for 367 yards and four touchdowns in his Kentucky debut, a win over Louisiana Monroe. The performances were not quite as impressive over the next month, but he started wins over Missouri, Chattanooga, South Carolina and Florida to help Kentucky to a 5-0 record.
In week six against LSU, Levis found another gear. He completed 14 of 17 passes for 145 yards and three touchdowns while gaining 75 yards and two more touchdowns on 11 carries.
The national spotlight was pointed at Levis and Kentucky for the first time in advance of a “College GameDay” matchup at No. 1 Georgia. The Wildcats would actually lose their next three games, but Levis’ ability to move the ball for a late touchdown against Georgia’s historic defense drew notice. In an early-November loss to Tennessee, further progress was evident with 372 passing yards and five total touchdowns.
“He was no longer a runner, athlete playing quarterback,” Coen said. “He had to play quarterback (against Tennessee), and you saw some really good things in terms of how do you handle negative, bad plays? How do you handle good, bring your team down and put them in a position to try to go win the game? I mean, he threw a pick-six in that game and came back on the very next drive and threw a touchdown pass.
“So, you saw the mental fortitude and things that you need to be able to bounce back from.”
Kentucky rallied to win its final four games in 2021.
Levis threw for 419 yards and four touchdowns against New Mexico State. He tied a school record with four rushing touchdowns in a rivalry victory over Louisville. Against Iowa in the Citrus Bowl, Levis led Kentucky on a game-winning drive with just more than three minutes left, completing four of six passes for 86 yards.
A disappointing Year 2
In the immediate aftermath of the Citrus Bowl win over Iowa, Coen was asked what the next step was for Levis, who had already announced plans to return to Kentucky for his senior season.
Improving his accuracy on short and intermediate routes would be key, Coen said.
“To me, the step he’ll take is spring ball, training camp, just hearing this whole offense again, again and again,” Coen said after the bowl game. “I told him you should be running this offense without thinking in the fall. I think that will help him from a decision-making standpoint as it probably has this last half of the season with him getting more and more comfortable with the calls, the defenses, where to go with the football versus different looks.”
That opportunity never came, though.
Coen was lured back to the Super Bowl champion Rams when Sean McVay offered him the offensive coordinator position in Los Angeles. Stoops replaced Coen with San Francisco 49ers quarterbacks coach Rich Scangarello, in part to maintain some continuity in scheme as Scangarello came from the same offensive coaching tree created by McVay and Kyle Shanahan, but Levis was forced to learn another offense, playing for his fourth offensive coordinator in four years.
Kentucky also lost two NFL draft picks on the offensive line, including center Luke Fortner, who started every game for the Jacksonville Jaguars as a rookie. Levis’ top three receiving targets from 2021 were gone, led by New York Giants wide receiver Wan’Dale Robinson, who broke Kentucky’s single-season records for catches and receiving yards with Levis at quarterback. Star running back Chris Rodriguez was suspended for the first four games of the 2022 season.
The Wildcats’ rebuilt offensive line struggled mightily, ranking 126th of 131 teams nationally in sacks allowed. While showing big-play promise, freshmen Barion Brown and Dane Key experienced their share of growing pains as the top two wide receivers.
Four games into Kentucky’s 2022 season, Levis dislocated the middle finger on his non-throwing hand in a game at Ole Miss. He continued to play after the finger was popped back into place, but he suffered turf toe on the same play that would plague him for the rest of the season.
Levis missed just one game due to the turf toe, electing to play through the pain afterward, but in his first game back, he injured his non-throwing shoulder when he was hit by a pass rusher just after releasing a throw.
“He’s 10 out of 10 in toughness,” Scangarello said after the regular-season finale. “He’s a 10. I don’t think people realize how injured he was this year. He played for five or six weeks where literally he would sprint out in practice and fall down. Like, his toe would give out on him. Bad habits can come from that with not transitioning your weight and your shoulder.”
There were a few high points in Levis’ senior year, like the 55-yard touchdown pass to Key in the win at Florida, three touchdown passes in a victory on a windy day at Missouri and another strong showing in a second consecutive rivalry win over Louisville, but Kentucky’s offense rarely looked like one being quarterbacked by a future NFL star.
Levis fumbled twice in the red zone with a chance to take a late fourth-quarter lead at Ole Miss. He threw for just 98 yards and three interceptions in an embarrassing blowout loss at Tennessee. Vanderbilt snapped a 26-game SEC losing streak on Kentucky’s home field in a game which Levis was limited to 109 passing yards, no touchdowns and one interception.
Scangarello had elected to deemphasize the quarterback run game early in the season, in part to protect Levis from hits that might jeopardize his NFL future, and the turf toe essentially eliminated any remaining threat of Levis making plays with his legs.
“I think I’ll always kind of look back on this last season and have a little bit of kind of regret or just feeling like we didn’t quite get to where we wanted to,” Levis said after what ended up being his final game as a Wildcat.
Still, Kentucky players and coaches praised Levis for playing through pain, especially after the team’s preseason goal of contending for the SEC East title proved out of reach. Levis did opt out of the Music City Bowl in order to obtain some much needed rest before starting pre-draft workouts, but that game, a 21-0 loss to Iowa, only pounded home how little Levis had to work with around him.
It was not until a few weeks before the NFL combine in February that Levis returned to near 100% health.
“He’s got the mind, he’s got the toughness, he’s got the arm talent,” said Scangarello, who was fired after the regular-season finale. “People are going to judge some of his games. I hope they fully understand what he’s been dealing with. When they do and you look beyond that, I think they’re going to realize he’s going to be one of the better ones in the league.”
Nothing to hide
When Rodriguez, who left Kentucky ranked third on the program’s career rushing list and is projected as a mid-to-late-round pick in the 2023 draft, saw Levis’ fastest throw was clocked at 59 mph at the NFL combine, he had to laugh.
“That’s fake,” Rodriguez told reporters a few weeks later after catching passes from Levis at Kentucky’s pro day. “He probably throws like 130, feels like it.”
The physical tools that first impressed Coen when evaluating potential transfer quarterbacks were fully on display at the combine and Kentucky’s pro day. Levis’ ability to make plays with his legs as well as any throw on the field has drawn comparisons to Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen, who also entered his draft off a lackluster college season but has worked to be one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL.
Levis is pitching himself to teams as ready to start from day one thanks to his experience in a pro-style offense at Kentucky and the lessons he learned while battling through adversity as a senior, but he is not a finished product. Any team that drafts him will need a plan for addressing his 23 interceptions in 24 games at Kentucky.
While Levis takes issue with the common criticism that he is not an accurate enough passer to thrive in the NFL, even he acknowledges more work to do in refining his footwork, something Coen helped unlock during their season together in Lexington.
“Will has nothing to hide,” Stoops said during Kentucky’s pro day. “He has the ability, he has the leadership, he’s done the right things away from the field for a long time.”
Levis has seemingly slid behind Florida’s Richardson in most recent mock drafts to fourth among the 2023 draft-eligible quarterbacks. Richardson has even less college success to point to as proof of future NFL stardom than Levis but might boast even more impressive physical tools.
Alabama’s Bryce Young and Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud are the consensus top two quarterbacks in the draft class. Young and Stroud have much better college résumés than Levis and Richardson, having played for playoff contenders, but might not boast quite the same level of physical tools.
“I’ve talked to many different people in the NFL,” Stoops said. “That adversity and the adversity we’ve gone through is not always a bad thing for them in their evaluation. They’re able to dig deep and evaluate into that.
“We all know when it’s a clean pocket, when it’s beautiful and there’s 10 five-stars to throw to, how pretty that looks. We’re not blessed with that opportunity.”
A handful of anonymous reports from NFL draft pundits in recent weeks suggest that Levis might not be shining in interviews. This close to the draft almost all rumors have to be viewed with skepticism as some teams will have a vested interest in creating smokescreens about their draft plans or trying to influence others in hopes of having a player fall to their selection, but Levis does have an intense personality that can come across as overconfidence at times.
“Every practice is like a game for him,” said Coen, who returned to Lexington as Kentucky’s offensive coordinator this winter. “Every walkthrough is like a game. So that can sometimes get taken as too tight or intense. But don’t you want your franchise quarterback to expect his teammates and expect of himself to be game-like in everything that you do? That’s what I liked about him. I knew that he was going to hold everybody else accountable, that he himself practiced and studied and worked the hardest.”
As for the tendency of Levis’ most vocal doubters to point to his inability to beat Clifford for the starting job at Penn State as proof he is not worthy of a top-10 selection, Coen dismisses that theory quickly.
He talked to Penn State staffers during the process of evaluating Levis in the transfer portal in hopes of gaining more insight into the dynamic there. He came away from those conversations with the conclusion that Clifford was an entrenched veteran starter who had mastered the offense, did not make many mistakes and had the respect of his teammates.
“It’s hard to overcome that, especially with Will’s skill set,” Coen said. “He was still so raw. It’s difficult to overcome an incumbent that’s not really making a lot of poor decisions and choices and turning the ball over. You don’t really beat those guys out.”
That doesn’t mean Coen thinks Penn State made the right decision.
The story of what turned into a successful marriage between Kentucky and Levis starts with Coen’s desire to swing for the fences with the first quarterback he brought into the program. Kentucky could have taken a safer route and pursued a Clifford-style game manager.
Stoops could have fallen back into his comfort zone by building around a power run game with a quarterback who would make the fewest mistakes.
“I personally looked at that (Penn State) situation as, well, they chose the sure thing over the more talented thing,” Coen said. “To me, I go the other way. You put it on you as a coach to coach them to get them to reach their max performance.”
In two years at Kentucky, Levis improved dramatically, but whether he has already reached his max performance will determine whether he is capable of becoming the face of an NFL franchise.
No Kentucky player has been drafted as a quarterback since Andre Woodson was selected in the sixth round in 2008. Only two Kentucky quarterbacks have ever been picked in the first round of the NFL draft and none since the Browns drafted Tim Couch with the first pick in 1999. Couch is also the last Kentucky quarterback to throw a touchdown in an NFL regular-season game on Dec. 14, 2003.
Levis leaves Kentucky with a 16-7 record as the Wildcats’ starting quarterback. That experience could prove useful if he is selected in the top 10, likely by a franchise still years away from Super Bowl contention, but it is no guarantee of future success.
When Coen speaks with NFL teams about Levis he leaves them with one promise, though. It is one that might offer the best hope yet for Levis outperforming his college stats at the next level.
“There’s not going to be one single day that you work with Will Levis that you’re ever going to have to ask him for more,” Coen said. “You’re never going to have to put a stipulation in his contract, you’re never going to have to ask him to be louder or communicate better or work harder or do extra work.
“All the things that do happen to guys that get drafted early that maybe don’t have the foundation quite yet or the understanding of what it truly takes to be a pro, he has all of that. That’s a given. That’s just God given. That’s how he operates. That’s how he works.”
