Former No. 1 pick Tim Couch on UK’s Will Levis: ‘He’s got everything that you want’
“When you look at the young quarterbacks out there, whether they’ve done anything yet or not in college football, I think he has the most potential. I don’t care what he did last year. Based on coming out of high school, and his tools, I think he’s phenomenal when you look at his potential.”
Draft guru Mel Kiper wrote that in 1997 of quarterback Tim Couch, before his sophomore year at the University of Kentucky. Couch lived up to the hype over the next two seasons before declaring as an early entrant for the 1999 NFL Draft. It worked out for the former Leslie County High School star; he was drafted No. 1 overall.
More than 20 years later, Kentucky for the first time since then has a quarterback for whom major draft buzz is building. The hype train trumpeting Will Levis as a first-round pick is new to the tracks — before April, his name was uttered as a potential draft selection, but not a first-rounder — but has a loud horn. Multiple “way-too-early” mock drafts have Levis firmly among the top 10 selections in next year’s draft, and at least one projects him as the best candidate for the No. 1 pick.
How he performs this fall, and in the pre-draft combine if he elects to forego a third year of eligibility at UK, will determine his final landing spot. Several “way-too-early” 2022 first-rounders found themselves drafted way later than projected in 2021. A lot can change. How Levis handles the hype certainly could matter. In recent interviews, he has mostly dismissed the projections while acknowledging that it’s nice to be recognized.
UK head coach Mark Stoops recently endorsed the idea that Levis could be the guy those projections say he’ll be.
“I know how motivated he is,” Stoops said during a radio interview. “It’ll drive him to see any quarterback taken in front of him because I believe he believes he can be the No. 1 quarterback taken. He has that kind of ability and I think he’s gonna have that kind of year.”
Couch shouldered high expectations from a young age. He played varsity basketball and football as a middle-school student, and was on the Heisman Trophy stage by the end of his college career, but he played before cell-phone cameras could capture his every throw and disseminate them to millions of people at the click of a button. He participated in newspaper, magazine and TV interviews, but it was easier to avoid that stuff, if one wanted, in the 1990s.
“It’s certainly tougher on these guys now,” Couch said in a phone interview with the Herald-Leader. “Every time you pick your phone up and get on social media, you’re gonna see stuff like that. We didn’t have to deal with that back in the day.”
Now 15 years removed from his playing career — and nearly three decades since he was one of the most-hyped recruits in UK sports history — Couch’s advice to Levis isn’t much different than what others told him.
“It’s about blocking things out and focusing on what’s important,” Couch said. “And not giving too much of your time away. You can say ‘yes’ to everything and be doing a million interviews and be all over the place.”
Another element unique to Levis’ experience versus that of Couch? The ability to capitalize on name, image and likeness opportunities. Levis, in part because of his personality, has become one of the most forward-facing UK athletes in that space. (Couch said “it would take a lot” for him to eat an unpeeled banana, as Levis did in a video that went viral last fall. “It’s fun to watch, he’s entertaining.”)
The only No. 1 pick in UK football history encourages Levis to maximize his earning potential but to be cautious; one can quickly spread themselves thin without realizing it. The same philosophy applies to press, good and bad.
“Some people are just not going to believe in you the way others do,” Couch said. “I just never got into it either way, to be honest with you. I knew who I was as a player and I knew my teammates and coaches believed in me. As long as those guys knew who I was and trusted me, and thought I was the player that I thought I was, that’s what really mattered.”
Couch said he’s only met Levis once in person but that the two have texted some. He hopes to interact with him more in the coming months, over which Levis will be more closely watched than ever before.
Levis is still raw and needs to demonstrate growth from last year to this season, Couch said, but based on what he saw from him over the course of UK’s final five games in 2021, he thinks Levis has what it takes to be a first-rounder come April.
“You look at the physical traits, his size, the arm strength obviously, his ability to run and make plays with his legs, his leadership, his toughness, he has all the qualities that you look for in a guy that’s gonna be a high pick in the draft. He’s got everything that you want.
“You just want to see him this year take it to another level with his accuracy and decision-making, some things that every quarterback can improve on as they mature in the system and more opportunities to play. He’s got all the potential in the world. He just has to go out and take advantage of it.”
This story was originally published May 23, 2022 at 6:00 AM.
