Levis will make UK history in NFL Draft, but what happens next is more important for Cats

Will Levis is almost certain to make Kentucky football history Thursday in Kansas City.

With the betting odds for Levis to be selected with one of the first two picks in the 2023 NFL Draft soaring, it seems certain the Wildcats’ quarterback will not have to wait long to hear his name called. Then he will become just the third Kentucky quarterback ever and first since Tim Couch in 1999 to be selected in the first round.

What happens next could be even more important for Kentucky’s program though.

Only one Kentucky quarterback has been drafted since Couch, but 2008 sixth-round pick Andre Woodson never played in an NFL game. Kentucky is the only SEC program without a single alumnus to start an NFL game at quarterback since Couch last played in the 2003 season. The only former Wildcat to throw a touchdown in an NFL game since Couch’s last touchdown pass on Dec. 14, 2003, is punter Tim Masthay.

Levis simply being drafted in the first round will not be enough to shift the narrative about Kentucky quarterbacks in the NFL, but if he can turn a top-10 selection into a productive NFL career, the ramifications are likely to be felt in Lexington.

Excluding Randall Cobb and Lynn Bowden, who played some quarterback at Kentucky but were drafted as receivers, the extent of Kentucky quarterback game action in the NFL over the last 19 seasons came with four brief cameos off the bench from Jared Lorenzen in 2006 and 2007. Lorenzen completed four of eight passes for 28 yards in his NFL career.

Meanwhile, most of the SEC programs that have historically found themselves in the bottom half of the league have had at least one quarterback turn into a productive NFL player.

Vanderbilt had Jay Cutler (153 career starts). Mississippi State had Dak Prescott (97 career starts). Missouri had Drew Lock and Blaine Gabbert (69 combined starts). The gap has been even more pronounced between Kentucky and archrival Louisville, which saw former Cardinals quarterbacks Teddy Bridgewater and Lamar Jackson reach at least one Pro Bowl.

The only SEC program that shares Kentucky’s recent quarterback futility is South Carolina, which has not had a quarterback drafted since 1990 but did at least account for eight starts between former Gamecocks quarterbacks Connor Shaw and Anthony Wright since Couch’s last NFL game.

Before ever playing an NFL game, Levis’ draft projections have already helped Kentucky land his replacement.

“I’m not sure we’d be having this discussion if Will Levis wasn’t our starting quarterback the last few years,” offensive coordinator Liam Coen said after Kentucky signed North Carolina State transfer Devin Leary, the top-ranked quarterback available in the transfer portal in December.

Leary is not considered the same level of NFL prospect as Levis, but if he can put the torn pectoral muscle that ended his 2022 season early at N.C. State behind him, he has shown the type of accuracy that is likely to get him drafted in 2024. During his last healthy season, Leary threw 35 touchdowns and just five interceptions in 2021 to be named one of five finalists for the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award, which goes to college football’s best quarterback.

Kentucky looks likely to turn to the transfer portal again next winter. Leary proving himself as a viable NFL Draft pick would only build on the impact of Levis in selling Kentucky as a program that can develop top-level quarterbacks.

“If it’s a guy who’s already got their degree or is in their kind of last year or two of college football, kind of like me it becomes a business decision,” Levis said in December. “It becomes what situation is going to be most beneficial to them to reach their goals, which for all of them at least should be to go play at the next level. And I don’t think there’s a better spot than here.”

Becoming a go-to destination for top transfer quarterbacks would be a significant upgrade for a Kentucky program that has generally won in spite of its quarterback play rather than because of it during the run of seven consecutive bowl berths, but the next step is attracting top-level high school quarterbacks too.

The work Coen did with Levis is surely a primary selling point as Kentucky pursues Lexington Christian Academy quarterback Cutter Boley, a four-star prospect in the class of 2025.

“I think eventually you’d like to be able to get somebody that you can start for a few years, but with the way this thing is going with the portal, especially at the quarterback position, how many Mac Joneses are there anymore?” Coen said. “How many times is that really going to happen with a guy that’s just going to bide his time, sit behind some guys? Might not win it the first time around, but then the second and third time around he ends up winning the job. He’s a two-year starter or something like that. I don’t know how realistic that is in the landscape of college football anymore.”

It is unclear if Coen realized the example in that scenario might still strike a nerve for some Kentucky fans.

Jones first committed to Kentucky in high school before flipping his commitment to Alabama, where he sat for most of his first three seasons on campus before taking over the starting job after an injury to Tua Tagovailoa. Jones was the starting quarterback for Alabama’s 2020 national championship team. He won the Johnny Unitas, Davey O’Brien and Manning awards that season as college football’s best quarterback then was drafted in the first round by the New England Patriots.

When Jones flipped his commitment from Kentucky to Alabama, the justification was obvious. At the time, Kentucky was not a program that competed for national championships or sent quarterbacks to the NFL.

If Levis can back up his draft night hype by becoming the face of an NFL franchise, maybe the next Mac Jones actually sees Kentucky as a program that can help him reach that same goal.

2023 NFL Draft

At Kansas City, Mo.

Thursday: Round 1 (8 p.m.)

Friday: Rounds 2-3 (7 p.m.)

Saturday: Rounds 4-7 (Noon)

TV: NFL Network, ABC, ESPN, ESPN Deportes

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