I like to win and wish I could have seen Levis and CRod and Valentine one last time, but I think the experience could have been very instrumental for Wade’s development. I don’t think most posters know much about talent evaluation, so I will trust Stoops’ assessment and hope that in a couple of years, we are raving about Wade as QB in Coen’s system. Woody is good friends with Coen. Woody evidently played an important role in picking Wade as The QB1 for the bowl. Wade and Kai now both have first hand experience as young starters. Hopefully, it helps their development.
Will Levis & Chris Rodriguez quit on their teammates
- Thread starter TopCatCal
- Start date
I'm sorry...I don't get this at all. Like RexShepcat said, we were 7-6. Lost to Vandy at home.
If we had gone 12-0 and in the playoffs I may agree....but this year was not 'the highest level' in 40 years.
Get real. I seriously doubt 10 punts and 2 pick-6’s will be instrumental in his development.
If a team is participating in the CFP and players choose to opt out I agree, but for a non-CFP bowl I have no problem with guys opting out. While everyone, players, coaches, and fans, want to win their bowl game, no matter the bowl, the reality is any bowl not part of the CFP is just a glorified early spring game that also allows teams to get in some early spring practices. If starters opt out it allows as many young players to get not just extra practices, but some meaningful live fire game experience which can be huge in aiding their development. IMO, rather than be upset with those who want to get ready for the combines, fans should be happy for those players benefitting from the extra playingbtime.
Already there, bro. Again, I don’t know your ability to evaluate talent and coach players to their potential. So, I will trust Stoops.
CRod has taken a TON of hits for this team. Levis is just now getting healthy after playing hurt for most of the season. Fans sacrificed for the Music City bowl. I will not complain.
Have you watched Bama this year? Their OL play is garbage and Young runs for his life nearly every play.
I’m not suggesting Wade shouldn’t have started. But he shouldn’t have been put in that position by Levis.
I suspect Wade thanked Will after the game and Will encouraged DW. I bet they are just fine.
What was our record last season?????
Were those 2 not a BIG part of that 10 win team????
This whole thread is just a "What have you done for me lately".
Interesting take. Wade played to win. You may not be a UK fan if you think otherwise. I support Wade. Levis made a reasonable decision, given the injuries he has had all year. I don’t have a say, but understand his decision.
Levis had a very good Citrus Bowl year, this year was very mediocre before he decided to quit. A lot of players play hurt, it’s not like he’s some kind of hero because he did before he quit on the team.
I wonder if you think Leary comes to UK had Levis not.
Exactly right. Fans too can exercise the opt out option. Why risk our futures by sacrificing time and $$$$, and exposure to travel dangers, traffic frustrations, heat, cold, rain, snow, Covid, flu, and the mental and emotional stress of caring, all in support of some glorified pro wannabe's who have decided to play in Lexington this year? Make all the money you can, guys; just not on our dime. Let the elites who get to drink beer at games fund you. Seems like a pretty reasonable response....
Please, go back from where you came from. Ridiculous post. You obviously don’t live in a world that most of us do.
Are you a season ticket holder and contribute to the K fund?
Do you give to ANY NIL fund?
Did you travel to Nashville and attend the bowl game?
Did you buy anything that gave Will or Chris money?
Even if the answer to EVERYONE of those is yes, you are more than welcome to CEASE giving anymore if you are this outraged over them not playing in the Music City Bowl, which apparently is the end-all-be-all for UK Football players!!!!
By this logic, Levis and CRod should’ve opted out all games after the South Carolina game and started their NFL prep.
Would you nut jobs calm down. It was a 7-5 team at a music city bowl. Nobody gives a flyin **** about a music city bowl. This was all about getting young guys some looks and experience
I think its hard to paint all of the opt-out decisions with the same brush. However, for the most part, I agree with the fantastic Dale Earnhardt quote near the top of this thread (and i was not a D.E. fan). If anyone is worried about getting hurt, they should not play because football is a game of aggression. If you play while trying to not get hurt, you are probably much more likely to get hurt.
I don't know these young men or their personal circumstances. But, as a fan I get to have an opinion, and this is it:
Levis - Probable top 10 draft pick who is probably still nursing injuries and needs to be in his best possible physical shape for the combines. I understand and agree with his decision.
C-Rod - Appears to have a shaky draft status, as most RBs do. Whether it was fair or not, he cost his team on the field results by missing 4 games for off the field behavior. If I were in that position, i truly believe I would relish every last opportunity to play for my team. I find his decision disappointing, and fair or not, it will shade my memory of his time in blue.
Valentine - I feel sorry for the young man; I assume he is listening to some poor advice. It happens. Good luck to him, I'm afraid he'll need it.
GBB!
I don't know these young men or their personal circumstances. But, as a fan I get to have an opinion, and this is it:
Levis - Probable top 10 draft pick who is probably still nursing injuries and needs to be in his best possible physical shape for the combines. I understand and agree with his decision.
C-Rod - Appears to have a shaky draft status, as most RBs do. Whether it was fair or not, he cost his team on the field results by missing 4 games for off the field behavior. If I were in that position, i truly believe I would relish every last opportunity to play for my team. I find his decision disappointing, and fair or not, it will shade my memory of his time in blue.
Valentine - I feel sorry for the young man; I assume he is listening to some poor advice. It happens. Good luck to him, I'm afraid he'll need it.
GBB!
The absolute ineptness of UK athletics oversight and a scared athletic director took four games away from Chris Rodriguez and probably curtailed the season before it began, so I don’t blame him. He probably made more money at Kentucky than he will in the nfl though, if he transferred to a high division one team for one season may make more than his entire nfl career, but we will see.
Will is set to become a millionaire in a few months and had been sacked a million times this year and injured a lot, so I don’t blame him.
However as another fan pointed out, in my eyes they will never be revered as high as other UK legends like Benny, josh Allen, etc.
Grateful for everything they did for the program, and will go down as greats, but will be at the bottom of my list as far as favorites. Also, like everyone else here, my opinion makes absolutely no difference to these players.
Will is set to become a millionaire in a few months and had been sacked a million times this year and injured a lot, so I don’t blame him.
However as another fan pointed out, in my eyes they will never be revered as high as other UK legends like Benny, josh Allen, etc.
Grateful for everything they did for the program, and will go down as greats, but will be at the bottom of my list as far as favorites. Also, like everyone else here, my opinion makes absolutely no difference to these players.
I understand that letting our young QB and a few others get some experience was all this particular MCB was about . . . which is why given that our star players decided not to play, leaving us playing one of the nations best defenses with one hand behind my back, I decided to opt out of going to the bowl this season. And sounds like the vast majority of our fans did as well.
I have attended probably half of the UK bowls since 1976, but won't go back to see a team missing a lot of players who have opted out. I will watch on TV, like I did yesterday, but just not interested in investing the time and money to travel to a game that the key players don't care to play in.
I will also add that until 2021, Will Levis was a backup run first QB at Penn State, who almost no one had heard of, so I certainly think that by giving him a chance to play and develop, Univ of Ky has done more for Levis, than he has for UK. Hope he remembers that when the Alum Association comes knocking on his door (and believe me, they will)
Ridiculous line of thought. Geez.
Stoops thinks Levis is some sort of god. Very strange.
Yeah man. Shaedon Sharpe did soooo much for the basketball program.
******* trash opinion. Speaking Levis or crod in the same breath as sharpe is ********.
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If you accept a scholarship the expectation is that short of a season-ending injury, you play through the regular season. Bowls are simply post-season rewards so if a player prefers to prepare for the draft rather than accept the reward, that should be up to them.
So you think players should be forced to play in a bowl they don't want to play in? What would prevent them from tanking every play?
Just curious if you would have been fine with them sitting out the UofL game too. That game was just as meaningless as the bowl game other than being a rivalry (more for us than then however). For all of CROD’s accolades at UK he is still maybe a 5th round pick. If a top 3 pick Josh Allen can play in a meaningless bowl game so can 5th rounder CROD. Same for Levi’s, I’m sure both had policies in place in case of injury.
Playing your MOST heated rival in the LAST home game of their careers is NO COMPARISON to playing Iowa again in a virtually meaningless game!!
The Citrus Bowl in 2018 was WAAAAAAAAYYYYYY more important to the UK Football program and our players than this Music City Bowl.
To compare the 2 in EITHER CASE is again BEYOND RIDICULOUS!!!!
Wandale Robinson also helped himself in the Citrus Bowl last season, IMO
Sounds like you would not be happy if they sat out that game. It’s way more of a heated rivalry for you than it is to them, I mean Levi’s isn’t from here and played in 2 games against them. Purely from a draft status standpoint the UofL game was ever but as meaningless as our bowl game. We had nothing to play for in either and both games counted in our overall win loss record so agree to disagree on your take but glad to know you would not had been pleased had they chosen to sit out that game.
OK...so why play the UGA game week before UL? It was meaningless.
Listen, you have your opinion on this and I have mine.
Comparing playing the #1 team in the country at home to playing Iowa in a bowl game that was nothing but an exhibition that would NOT have changed our program had we even BLOWN the Hawkeyes out.
Now had we beaten the #1 team in the country, what would that have done for the program? A heck of a lot MORE than beating Iowa in the MCB!!!
OK...lets keep moving the chairs on this logic.
Why play the Vandy or Mizzou games? We had no shot at playoffs and neither were a rival or top ranked win tha twould have mattered?
(i.e....this slippery slope never stops is what I am trying to paint. Levis was a hum ho backup QB at Penn St in a run/read option offense...UK did a ton for Levis as much as Levis did for UK. People arguing we are lucky to have Levis wear Blue and White are seeing a different perspective from others is all I am saying)
And there is the goofball that has to bring politics into a post that has ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with politics.