Will Levis takes responsibility for crushing loss at Ole Miss

On3 imageby:Jack Pilgrim10/01/22

There’s plenty of blame to go around in Kentucky’s disappointing 22-19 loss at Ole Miss. The kicking game was a mess, turnovers were an issue, penalties set the team back on drives, defensive play was poor in the first half and the offensive line was inconsistent.

It was a sloppy all-around effort that resulted in a loss in a very winnable game for the Wildcats.

Rather than deflecting or pointing fingers elsewhere, though, quarterback Will Levis is taking the blame for the loss.

“I’m going to put it on me,” he said after the game.

Levis finished the day with 220 yards and two touchdowns on 18-24 passing, but fumbled twice inside the red zone in the final three minutes of the game. Two chances to win the game, two costly turnovers.

“We got beat because we didn’t execute when it mattered most, turned the ball over twice,” offensive coordinator Rich Scangarello said. ”And we have to own that.”

The first came with Levis diving for the first down marker, with the ball knocked loose when battling for the extra yard to move the chains.

“First one, he just made a good play,” Levis said. “I could’ve done better securing the ball.”

The second came on a strip-sack with pressure coming from his blindside on the right, just one play after an illegal formation penalty wiped out a game-winning touchdown catch for Dane Key.

In simply a brutal sequence of events, Levis says he needs to be quicker getting rid of the ball.

“I was trying to hit a double move, was throwing it as he was coming out of his break,” he said. ”He just came off the blindside. I’ve got to get the ball out earlier.”

“I’m not sure what happened on the very last fumble what happened on the protection there,” Mark Stoops added.

Kentucky had its chances and Levis’ turnovers were unfortunate, but Stoops understands the story was an illegal formation away from being completely different. If the ball is snapped a half-second later than it was, Key’s touchdown counts and the Wildcats would be celebrating. All in all, Levis still put the team in position to win, something Stoops doesn’t want to be overlooked.

“I think at times, he played extremely well,” Kentucky’s head coach said. ”Protection was pretty good. With this structure, there were times he was holding onto the ball a little bit too long. We’ll watch tape, and it’ll be easy to say, ‘Hey, you could’ve thrown the ball here or there.’ For him, there are a lot of moving pieces, a lot going on.

“He’s playing very good football. If we get our guys set, he throws a dime and we win the game, and everyone is saying, ‘Wow, he’s pretty impressive,’ to lead us back on two drives late in the game there.”

Levis sees it as a learning opportunity. Kentucky has a good football team and outplayed Ole Miss late, he just has to lead the Wildcats across the finish line.

“They’re a really good football team and they played really well, but I felt like we were the better team towards the end there,” Levis said. ”But we shot ourselves in the foot when it mattered. I need to be a better game manager at the end there, especially on that touchdown pass. We were obviously trying to catch them off guard with that call. But I gotta make sure everyone’s set. That’s my job.”

And don’t blame it on his dislocated finger, either. That didn’t impact his play, he says.

“It wasn’t too bad, just popped it back in place,” Levis said. “Lucky it was my left and not my right.”

“(It didn’t impact his play) that I could see,” Stoops added. “That’s Will, he’s amped up, playing hard. I’m sure it could be sore right now, but he’s gonna leave it all out there, that’s for sure.”

Through the good and bad, one thing remains clear: there isn’t another quarterback the Kentucky coaching staff would take over Levis.

“All you dudes taking shots (at Will Levis) don’t have a clue what (the) heck y’all (are) talking (about),” Vince Marrow tweeted after the game. ”Will is a great leader and puts his body on the line every game.

“We wouldn’t trade him for any QB in (the) country. The hype is real.”

Learning experience.

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2024-03-28