Kentucky might have the best quarterback in the SEC. But who will be his backup?
That the University of Kentucky has a rising star at quarterback shouldn’t be news to anyone who has followed the program over the last 12 months. Will Levis possesses the physical gifts, leadership acumen and on-field experience that could combine to make him the best quarterback in the Southeastern Conference next season.
No. 1 on the depth chart is where the clarity ends, though, when it comes to the Wildcats’ signal-callers. Following the Blue-White game, first-year offensive coordinator Rich Scangarello reiterated a point he made following a practice earlier this spring: the competition to be Levis’ immediate backup is wide-open.
None of the three seemed to separate themselves from the others on Saturday. Beau Allen, the second guy to see the field, was the least efficient (4-for-11), took the only official sack of the game but threw for more yards than anyone after Levis. Walk-on Deuce Hogan, at UK after two years at Iowa, stepped between the lines after Allen and was more efficient (7-for-11 for 51 yards and a touchdown), but his misses were much wider. Sophomore Kaiya Sheron accumulated 58 yards on a 4-for-9 clip and was the first of the three to orchestrate a scoring drive.
To a layman, none appeared significantly better than the other. But all, at this juncture, are a drastic step down from Levis, who finished with 98 yards and two touchdowns on 7-for-8 passing. As crucial as it is for Levis to make minor improvements to take his game to another plane, it’s just as important for a guy behind him to establish a level of play that, in case disaster strikes, UK’s staff can feel comfortable putting the ball in his hands.
“No one has really asserted themselves,” Scangarello said. “It’s been day to day. One guy takes a step forward, the next guy takes a step forward or back.”
During Saturday’s scrimmage — which for the duration pitted UK’s offense against its defense, rather than splitting the teams into full Blue and White teams — Levis quarterbacked for two drives before ceding the remainder of snaps. Scangarello rotated the three reserves, sometimes within a single drive, to get a better sense of how they’d respond to different situations and the pressure of coming in at a moment’s notice. All of the three got action with the first-, second- and third-string units.
“I made some play calls I would never make in a game but wanted to see, ‘What do you do, first down from the 4-yard line, when I call a dropback pass?’” Scangarello said. “’Can you avoid a sack? Can you make a play?’”
Few college football programs are fortunate enough to have two quarterbacks with all-conference potential on their roster at the same time; this season will be the first in Mark Stoops’ 10-year tenure in which Kentucky will have one guy who could realistically compete for that distinction. The collective dynamic behind Levis isn’t necessarily an indictment of their own abilities — none of them looked bad on Saturday— but the drop-off is noticeable, especially in light of UK’s increased emphasis on balance in the offense.
Kentucky under Stoops has often managed to deliver positive results despite unfortunate developments at the quarterback position. The best-case scenario, of course, is for no such occurrences to happen. The next-best-case scenario is to have someone who can rise to the occasion if called upon. Who that would be, with a week of spring reps left, is anyone’s guess.
“It’s a constant evaluation,” Scangarello said. “… (We’ll) look at is as a whole, the entire spring, how they trend and who finishes the right way and take that into the summer. But it’s a battle.”
This story was originally published April 9, 2022 at 7:53 PM.
