Offseason Spotlight: No. 7 Will Levis

Cats Illustrated's offseason series spotlighting each player on the roster marches on with a look at Will Levis, No. 7 on the offensive side of the ball.

There's a strong case to be made for Levis as Kentucky's most important player. He's a quarterback, after all. But it's also true that he's a more proven returning quarterback than Kentucky has had since 2007, when Andre Woodson returned for a senior season one year after lighting up the SEC for the first time.

That's to Levis' credit with an assist to former offensive coordinator Liam Coen, who brought No. 7 to Lexington and then firmly placed him on the national radar.

Levis checks a lot of the boxes that NFL front offices are going to look for in any quarterback draft prospect. He's a fiery competitor, will make the aggressive, tough throw and often with accuracy, can run over a safety, and has a cannon for an arm.

He was not perfect at all last season. Levis threw too many interceptions, even if a few of them (three come to mind) weren't entirely or even mostly his fault as the product of bobbles. There were too many turnovers, not only for Levis but for the team as a whole. Kentucky won 10 games in part because of Levis. But it was probably still fortunate to win 10 games given the team's awful turnover margin, and Levis played a part in that.

It's hard to imagine someone watching Kentucky over the last year and coming away feeling bad about the quarterback position in 2022, however. Year over year quarterback success is not at all guaranteed in the SEC but Levis, again, does check all the boxes. And he was UK's best quarterback in a long time, probably by a wide margin at times.

Going into next season it would not be a surprise to see Levis' name to pop up on some All-SEC teams. Maybe not first or second team, but third or honorable mention seems possible because many in the football world do buy into his ability.

Levis' first year as Kentucky's starting quarterback can be summarized as such: He started out electric, torching lesser foes. Then when defenses took away the long ball he struggled a bit to find his footing in picking a defense apart or methodically taking a team down the field. But over time he matured, Coen rolled out more of the offense including the QB run game.

He took a step forward against Georgia, completing 32/42 passes Between the Hedges. Most of those throws were screens and short passes but Levis was smart with the football and avoided the kinds of mistakes that sometimes caused UGA to blow out other opponents.

Twice Levis was named Manning Quarterback of the Week, twice FBS National Offensive Player of the Week. He had 3,202 yards of total offense including 2,827 yards through the air with 24 touchdown passes.

We should note that Levis is not going to have Wan'Dale Robinson this year. He will have Chris Rodriguez demanding respect and making balance easier to achieve, but we should not underestimate the impact that Robinson made in making Levis' life a lot easier last year.

It's also very significant that Kentucky will be breaking in two new starting tackles, who will be tasked in protecting Levis in the passing game. He was fortunate to have Dare Rosenthal and Darian Kinnard last year, even if Rosenthal wasn't perfect at times, but there's a very different outlook at tackle looking ahead to next year.

Kentucky fans should be brimming with confidence when it comes to who they have at quarterback. But there are legitimate reasons to believe Levis will have to take a lot more onto himself as Kentucky replaces Robinson and its tackles.

How Levis takes on those extra responsibilities will be key to Kentucky's whole season. You want your senior quarterback to step up, take responsibility, and be accountable for the team's performance. If Levis handles all of that well it will elevate the supporting cast and Kentucky could have a special season. If he takes on too much or is errant - and we have seen the turnovers in the past - then you could see things going in the other direction a bit.

This spring will be important for Levis because he is learning and growing in a new offense. He obviously worked well with Coen and Rich Scangarello is also a professional who knows well the process that Levis is going through as a rising senior. As someone who routinely studied the film of quarterback draft prospects Scangarello should be a veritable treasure trove of coaching wisdom for UK's quarterback.