2023 NFL Draft: No Limit To The Ascension of Will Levis
Will Levis was in a dark place when he was benched against Iowa during the 2020 season, a turning point that ultimately led to his departure from Happy Valley.
However, circumstances could not be trending more upward for him now, as he’s considered to be a top-five quarterback prospect amongst the scouting community and projects as a potential first-round pick in the 2023 NFL Draft. The situation came full circle for him in a way when he led the Kentucky Wildcats to a 20-17 Citrus Bowl victory over none other than those same Hawkeyes.
“That game for me just meant a lot personally. Playing against an Iowa team that I had been benched against,” Levis told NFL Draft Bible.
“Being in the same bowl game I lost my freshman year that had beat us was really cool. Just to cap off the year and get that 10th win of the season was really special. It was representative of how hard everyone from the head coach to the janitorial staff here has worked the entire year.”
The win marked Kentucky’s fourth consecutive bowl victory and the Wildcats are now tied with Alabama for the longest such streak among ‘Power 5’ programs. It also ended a year in which Levis garnered attention for playing a pure quarterback role, as opposed to the jack-of-all-trades manner that he was used in with the Nittany Lions.
“I knew myself and brought up myself as a quarterback but the coaches are going to put me in a role to succeed and to help the team win,” Levis explained. “That’s what I did at Penn State, it was my role and I played it to the best of my ability.”
“At the end of the day, I did want to be more of a traditional quarterback. That’s what I was looking for and I knew I had the tools to do it pretty well, too. To have the opportunity and to have the faith in me to play that role for Kentucky was awesome.”
Moving into the 2022 season, Levis seeks to build upon what he put out on film last year.
There was skepticism surrounding Levis when it was announced he was headed to Kentucky, transitioning from the Taysom Hill-type of "Lion" role at Penn State to that of a traditional quarterback. It wasn't totally unfounded, either. Former Nittany Lions quarterback Tommy Stevens did the exact same thing, transferring out of Penn State after playing the same role and going to the SEC.
While Stevens enjoyed some high points, he struggled with injuries and ultimately had a low overall success rate at Mississippi State. He was eventually benched by the Bulldogs and was switched to tight end during his brief NFL stint.
When examining Levis, he has made significant strides mechanically and has continued to grow as a pure passer. When combined with his physical traits and athleticism, his trajectory has him on path to be a star in the NFL, should he stay on track.
“I think I have the capability to be a really good quarterback with my ability to make all the throws, to be decisive and be able to make plays with my legs as well,” Levis stated.
There are some aspects of his game that Levis said he would like to clean up, such as his touchdown-to-interception ratio (24-13), something he was quick to point out.
“I think for me, the biggest thing is just decision-making and making sure when I’m on the field that there is the utmost confidence in me,” he said. “That I’m going to be taking the shots when they need to be taken but not necessarily forcing the ball.”
“One thing on the stat sheet that is glaring that I want to address this year is the interceptions. I want to lower the interceptions by not taking the shots every time, taking my medicine and checking it down when need be.”
With a full season under his belt, Levis has a higher level of comfort as the starting quarterback, setting him up for what could be a sensational second season in Lexington.
“I think it’s just my confidence. Having more reps, having more opportunities to be the starter, to grow into myself as a quarterback and as a passer throughout my games last year,” the 6-foot-5 signal-caller said. “I didn’t really feel that comfort until mid-year last season. So, to keep developing on that and keep on that upward trend. I’m only going to get better with experience and I didn’t really feel like I had that comfortability until halfway through last year.”
On top of this, Levis is more familiar with his surroundings and teammates now, which was just as much of a transition to make as playing in a different offensive scheme.
“That was probably the hardest thing,” he admitted. “Learning a brand new group of 100-plus people that I had to understand and learn how to lead. Coming in and not even being the starter, feeling out how I was going to operate as a leader and a new person in this facility was a learning curve. It helped me a lot, I definitely bought right into it and I feel at home here.”
There are some changes at Kentucky with the departure of offensive coordinator Liam Coen, who now serves as the Los Angeles Rams' offensive coordinator. The Wildcats announced the hiring of new offensive coordinator Rich Scangarello, the former quarterbacks' coach of the San Francisco 49ers, back in February.
Levis says that a lot of the elements on offense this year will be pretty similar to those of the previous season. With the strides Levis has made at quarterback, it’s reasonable to expect he’ll have more responsibility at the line of scrimmage.
A proposition that gets Levis’ attention like mayonnaise in his coffee.
“I think being more comfortable, I have more capabilities as a leader and as a decision-maker,” Levis said. “There’s going to be a little bit more asked of me pre-snap in terms of what changes I have, the power of making the call and how much leeway is given to me as a field general, which is going to be cool and interesting.”
Levis has clearly put in the work on the practice field and in the film room, studying up on quarterbacks who have played in a similar system while noting the intricacies of the playbook.
“Last year, we watched a lot of Los Angeles Rams tape. So I’ve seen a lot of [Matthew] Stafford and [Jared] Goff. This year, it has been a lot of [San Francisco] 49ers, what they have been running, which few teams in the past have run before. So to watch Jimmy Garoppolo, to watch the other quarterbacks with the 49ers and to watch Matt Ryan with the Falcons when they ran it.”
The goal of the film sessions isn’t so much for Levis to try to recreate precisely what these quarterbacks do from a mechanical perspective or to copy any one aspect of their game but rather, to study the way they go through the play from the mental side of it.
“It’s more so like watching the quarterback’s film to understand their process,” according to Levis. “Their operation of the play and of the concept, rather than me actually watching guys for their mechanics and trying to build my mechanics around theirs.”
With a bright future on the horizon, Levis has a great deal of confidence in himself and believes that playing in Kentucky’s offense will serve him well in the pros.
“It (translates to the NFL) as well as anywhere else in the country. I think it’s truly unique and kind of mind-boggling,” Levis said. “But it’s an advantage that we can use as a recruiting tactic for sure. Just talking to guys that are on squads right now, their interview process and how they’ve been doing so far with their teams has been that much easier because of the experience they had with our offense last year.”
All eyes are on Levis this fall, with some NFL Draft analysts predicting that he could leap-frog Bryce Young of Alabama or CJ Stroud of Ohio State as the number one quarterback prospect in the nation and possibly become the top overall pick.
Now all that’s left to do is to go out and rise to the occasion in what could be a magical season for Kentucky.
“I think I showed a lot of what I’ve got last season,” Levis declared. “I might have wanted to air it out a little deeper, a little more last year. But how we ran our offense last year and what we had, it wasn’t something we could do maybe as much as we would have wanted. Maybe we’ll get more of that this season but we’ll have to wait and see.”
We’ll be watching.
*Keep it locked at NFL Draft Bible for more in-depth coverage on the premier quarterbacks in the land with insider Crissy Froyd and be sure to follow her @Crissy_Froyd
