Kentucky’s Will Levis leaves Mississippi State game with injury, returns for next drive
READ MORE
Game day: No. 22 Kentucky 27, No. 16 Mississippi State 17
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday’s Kentucky-Mississippi State football game at Kroger Field in Lexington.
Expand All
The injury woes have returned for star Kentucky football quarterback Will Levis.
In the third quarter of Saturday night’s home UK football game against Mississippi State, Levis took a significant hit and fell on his left shoulder after delivering a 33-yard pass completion to wide receiver Barion Brown.
Levis got up following the hit initially, then returned to a position where he laid on the Kroger Field turf.
Levis then sprinted directly through UK’s Kroger Field tunnel and back to the Kentucky locker room for further evaluation.
Levis is a projected first-round NFL Draft pick, and a bevy of NFL scouts are on hand to watch Saturday night’s game between UK and Mississippi State.
Saturday marked Levis’ return to the field for Kentucky after missing last week’s loss to South Carolina with a foot injury.
Kentucky redshirt freshman backup quarterback Kaiya Sheron — who started and played in the loss to South Carolina — checked into the game for the injured Levis against Mississippi State.
After Levis left with his injury, Kentucky completed two passes with Sheron before kicking a field goal to take a 6-3 lead.
Mississippi State responded with the first touchdown-scoring drive of the game to take a 10-6 lead with 8:28 left in the third quarter.
Levis was able to return to the game for Kentucky after only missing four offensive plays.
Since returning to the game, Levis has only thrown one pass, although it was an important one.
Kentucky ran the ball seven straight plays with Chris Rodriguez Jr., setting up a Fourth and Goal play from the Mississippi State 3-yard line.
Levis lined up in the shotgun and delivered a touchdown pass to Rahsaan Lewis to put Kentucky back in the lead.
Any ill-effects from an apparent injury didn’t deter Levis from leading Kentucky to a win, though.
Levis was a perfect 8 for 8 on third-down passes and totaled 230 passing yards — along with a pick-six — as No. 22 UK defeated No. 16 Mississippi State, 27-17.
After the game, UK head coach Mark Stoops said he didn’t know if Levis would return to the game or not when he initially went to the Kentucky locker room for the further medical evaluation.
Stoops said x-rays taken of Levis’ left shoulder came back negative.
“He is a tough player. And he’s a great leader. He has that belief about him,” Stoops said of Levis.
This story was originally published October 15, 2022 at 9:44 PM.
