LaRosa's Kentucky Football Preseason Position Previews: Quarterback

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For Kentucky football heading into 2021, it’s hard to have any conversation without first starting with the quarterbacks. Under new offensive coordinator Liam Coen, the Wildcats are currently having a wide-open competition as the program looks for the next leader of the offense.

Who starts?

That’s the million-dollar question everyone wants to know, isn’t it?

The Wildcats enter the season with five scholarship quarterbacks on the roster, but by all accounts, this seems like a three-man race. However, all signs point to a pair of Power Five transfers battling it out to determine who comes out with the ones in the opener against ULM on Sept. 4.

Joey Gatewood left the spring as the No. 1 quarterback for the offense. The former top-50 recruit has great positional size standing at 6-foot-5 and 221 pounds but has just not seen much playing time through three years in college football. Gatewood’s big arm allowed him to take a major step forward in the spring, but the redshirt junior must improve the decision-making and processing part of being a quarterback.

“He did a great job pushing the ball down the field in the spring,” Coen told reporters about Gatewood on Friday. “His accuracy over 20 yards was pretty nice to see in terms of the down the field accuracy, getting the ball out on time. We were in plenty of blitz and third-down situations that we need to continue to get better at. Progression reads and moving past your first and second progression. What are you doing when you don’t have a clean pocket? Free blitzer in your face, what do you do? There’s a lot of those scenarios that probably have not come up yet throughout 15 spring practices that’ll be nice to see how we react as a quarterback position to more game-like situations this fall.”

In Saturday’s open practice, the inefficiency in making quick decisions through progressions was on full display. Gatewood will need to improve on that quickly so the former high four-star prospect can make plays like this when the time comes for a shot play.

Will Levis was added to the program in February and since then there has been much anticipation for the redshirt junior with three years of eligibility remaining. The New England native played in 15 games at Penn State compiling 644 passing yards and 473 rushing yards. Although given a limited amount of snaps to play quarterback, the advanced numbers posted by Levis in State College paint a promising picture.

At 6-foot-3 and 232 pounds, Levis can be an effective runner to go along with his passing ability. The transfer has a rocket arm that can threaten the defense in all areas of the football field. With the ability to make plays off-platform and hit a variety of passes with his talented arm, Levis brings some tantalizing potential to the new offense.

Who’s next?

Beau Allen: A top-500 prospect in the class of 2020, Kentucky was successful in landing the top quarterback on their recruiting board. The Lexington (Ky.) Catholic product was a star for the Knights who threw for 11,439 yards and 127 touchdowns during his prep career. Entering year two, Allen needs to continue to physically develop to factor into Kentucky’s quarterback competition down the road.

Nik Scalzo: After entering the transfer portal following the season, the South Florida product decided to return to Lexington for year three. The class of 2019 member has had a pair of knee injuries since his senior year of high school and is just now getting to full health as a redshirt sophomore.

Kaiya Sheron: Another in-state quarterback, former co-offensive coordinator Darin Hinshaw recruited Sheron out of Somerset (Ky.) High. The 6-foot-3 passer led his team to a state championship in 2019 but begins his college career with some low expectations.

“Right now, I’m a freshman,” Sheron told the media on Friday about expectations for the year. “There’s no reason to be — I’m not the big guy on campus right now, so I got no reason to get hyped or nothing. I haven’t done anything on the field, nobody knows — maybe in practice — but I haven’t proven anything yet.”

Move the launch point

The term “marriage of run and pass” was what Liam Coen has been selling regarding the offense the former NFL assistant is bringing to Lexington. Essentially, Kentucky’s offense starts with the outside zone attack, but everything will be built off of that. Off of that run action, the play-action game will be a big part of the offense and the quarterbacks will be put on the move. Expect a variety of motions and using the quarterback on bootlegs to help create throwing lanes and negate opposing pass rushes in the SEC.

“I believe that this system is extremely friendly to this style of play that the SEC is,” Coen said during his introductory press conference in December. “Run the football, play-action, move the quarterback spot — move the launch spot because the defensive line is so dynamic at that level as it is here. I believe so much that this game here at the NFL carries over to the SEC.”

Something You Didn’t Know

It took Will Levis just three years at Penn State to earn a degree in finance. The grad transfer is now working towards a master’s degree in finance at Kentucky. Meanwhile, Nik Scalzo had legit Ivy League offers out of high school and has made a Dean’s List appearance since arriving in Lexington. Meanwhile, Beau Allen is a pre-finance major.

There are some legit brains in this quarterback position room.

Biggest Question Mark

There is no hiding from the elephant in the room. Outside of a small run for Stephen Johnson from 2016-17, Kentucky has had below-average QB play in the SEC. Under Mark Stoops, Kentucky has started a plethora of different quarterbacks and the most successful one was when Lynn Bowden Jr. turned into Superman in Kentucky’s run at all costs attack in 2019. This is the program’s biggest wart at the moment.

Can Kentucky have plus QB play under Mark Stoops? That’s the question we’re all wanting to be answered. Time will tell if the fourth offensive coordinator since 2013 can make that happen in Lexington.

One Bold Prediction

“Will Levis wins the job and gives hope for the future.”

If you’re thinking Kentucky finds a quarterback that can be an All-SEC performer and get some Heisman buzz you’re living in an alternate world in 2021. The realistic goal for this fall should be for Kentucky’s passing offense to go from the basement in the SEC to about 9th or 10th in the 14-team league. Levis could make that a possibility.

The Penn State transfer averaged 7.65 yards per attempt and posted a success rate of 49.09 percent on 55 pass attempts in 2020. These numbers were much higher than the 5.93 yards per attempt and the 40.60 percent success on 200 pass attempts we saw from Terry Wilson last year. Levis might not break the ceiling he set for himself in the Big Ten, but the transfer should raise Kentucky’s passing floor significantly.

The grad transfer wins the job and gives Kentucky reasons for optimism while going through some expected growing pains this fall.