Mark Stoops says Will Levis did practice some on Monday
The talk around Lexington the last week or so has been about the availability of Will Levis. After suffering an injury against Ole Miss a week ago, he was unable to play this weekend during Kentucky’s loss against South Carolina. With Mississippi State coming to Kroger Field this weekend, the Wildcats want to know whether or not their star quarterback will be back in time.
During his radio show on Monday night, Mark Stoops provided a positive update. While Levis remains day-to-day, he did partially practice with the team on Monday.
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Levis is the catalyst for Kentucky with 1,405 passing yards and 14 total touchdowns. With Kaiya Sheron in against the Gamecocks this weekend, the Kentucky offense looked lost throughout the loss. They can’t afford the same offensive output this weekend against the Bulldogs, which makes this an important, early-week update on Levis.
Mark Stoops says Will Levis is day-to-day ahead of Mississippi State game
Kentucky football put on a putrid display of offensive football Saturday night against one of the worst defenses in the SEC. Obviously, a big reason why was the absence of potential top NFL Draft pick and star quarterback Will Levis, who missed the game with a lower leg injury.
Kentucky need Levis back and in a hurry to avoid losing their third straight game this coming weekend. So at Monday’s press conference, everyone awaited Mark Stoops’ update on No. 7. Here was what he said of the Levis injury, noting he is day-to-day:
“I’m not sure. You know, I really don’t. It’s — it’s been day-to-day and it’s day-to-day. So I can’t tell you how that’s going to respond.”
Levis himself was shown before the game vs. South Carolina and insisted on the field during warmups he would return the following week. That remains to be seen.
Stoops also added that missing Levis was no excuse for the team’s poor performance in every phase of the game, despite his stature as one of the top QBs in the country.
“Obviously, when you lose one of the top players in college football, it doesn’t help your football team. But it’s still no excuse for the way we played.”
Mark Stoops then went on to admit that injuries are a fact of football, especially in a league as physical as the SEC. He stressed that he and the staff have to roll with the punches, because everybody in the league is dealing with crucial injuries at this point in the year.
“You saw other quarterbacks in the SEC that were not able to play. Will went through all of last year (healthy), and we were fortunate in that regard. This year, unable to do that in this case,” said Stoops. “Injuries are a part of it. Every team has them. You go through some ups and downs. Not sure we’ve gone through seven straight (games) since I’ve been here. We’ve got to heal up. Fight hard this week. And we got to get back to work and work exceptionally hard to prepare for this game. There is a bye coming up after that and the guys will definitely need some some time to rest.”