Will Levis updates condition following Kentucky's win vs. Missouri

Heading into the final stretch of the season, Will Levis is not 100%. Even though Kentucky’s senior quarterback was able to rest and recover from his myriad of injuries during the bye week, he was thrown to the turf four times vs. Tennessee and got his fingernail pulled out. After the 44-6 loss to the Vols, Levis wore a sling on his injured shoulder. After Kentucky’s 21-17 win over Missouri, he was back in a walking boot to help with his turf toe. Levis was sacked six times for 39 yards this afternoon in Columbia.

“I’d say like 75%,” Levis said of how healthy he is on a scale of 1-100 right now. “We’ll see how I feel tomorrow after today. I think my mobility mostly, that’s the one thing that I feel like has been affected. And, it’s hard for me too — you have to, even if you’re hurt, have the same mindset that you’re going to play the same way as if you’re not hurt and it’s hard to kind of block that out and act that way but I think I’ve handled myself well and I’ve trusted the trainers and we’ve just got to keep stacking wins.”

“The guy’s banged up, man,” Offensive coordinator Rich Scangarello said after the game. “I’m just proud of him. It’s just not easy. He’s probably got more going on than people realize. He’s tough as shit. Sorry for my language, but that’s the reality of it. He’s tough and he is fighting through some serious stuff and I’m proud of him, I appreciate him and I value that because honestly, it’s like Coach said, it’s like playing in the NFL. It’s the same type of speed in the pocket so you’ve got to be ready to stand in there. I’m proud of him.”

Kentucky has surrendered 36 sacks for 244 yards this season. When asked about Missouri’s six sacks today, Scangarello said there was blame to hand around.

“It was a combination of things. I’m not going to pin it on anyone at this point. We’ve got to watch the film but I will say this of the sacks, I think a couple were on Will and a couple were on the O-Line. Maybe a couple were on the play calls…There are no excuses. We’ve got to do a better job.”

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Levis, Rodriguez proud of the first start

After the defense forced a three-and-out to start the game, Kentucky’s offense got the Cats on the board with a beautiful 8-play, 71-yard drive capped off by a 9-yard touchdown throw from Levis to Dane Key. Both Levis and Chris Rodriguez said getting off to a fast start was a major focus in practice this week.

“It was huge to start fast and that was one of the bigger points of emphasis this week is starting fast and bringing our own energy,” Levis said. “I thought we obviously started fast and I thought we did a great job of bringing our own energy all day today and just feeding off of each other in an early away game, an environment like this.”

“It was big,” Rodriguez added. “We’ve been harping on that all week. Me and Will said it all week: we’re tired of starting slow. We watched them against Georgia obviously and they came out and had a fast start. They were up on Georgia 14-0 so we knew we had to come out fast.”

As for Levis’ health, he said it won’t be an issue as Kentucky prepares for next weekend’s game vs. Vanderbilt.

“Not much,” Levis said of how his injuries are impacting him in practice. “I’m practicing just as if I was practicing before just a little dialed back. But I’m still making all the reads, I’m still getting all the reps so not too much. Definitely some third downs today that I wish I could have back and if I could have just trusted what I saw and progressed and made the throw. I was getting a little antsy there on some third downs and that’s one thing I need to get better at.”