Rich Scangarello believes Will Levis has 'qualities' that could elevate Kentucky

Mark Stoops has named Rich Scangarello his fifth offensive coordinator in a decade at Kentucky, and the head coach is excited about adding the NFL staffer to the program. On Tuesday, the head coach met with the media to talk about the new additions to the staff.

The relation to the Sean McVay/Kyle Shanahan coaching tree was the obvious connection as the Wildcats look to keep a very similar scheme after Liam Coen left for the NFL. However, one big selling point for Scangarello was the chance to coach Will Levis.

Stoops confirmed that Levis played a role in the search process. When asked about his next quarterback, Scangarello recalled a moment during last season when the former Penn State transfer caught the veteran quarterback coach’s eye.

“It’s random, but I caught — I want to say it was the LSU game last year — but there was a game where we were sitting having a Saturday night dinner in the NFL before our team meetings, and Kentucky was on. Quarterbacks catch my eye — it’s kind of what I do — and I was like ‘man, this guy’s pretty good’,” said Scangarello. “It’s just something that I remembered. Then when this all happened — pretty fast — I went back and I watched Kentucky’s tape and the qualities that I would look for in a quarterback he possesses a lot of them. It’s fun to work with guys like that and help them kind of bring out their best game.

During that LSU game, Will Levis threw for 145 yards and averaged 8.5 yards per attempt but did most of his damage on the ground. The big quarterback rumbled for 75 yards and ended the night accounting for five total touchdowns. After rough outings against South Carolina and Florida, Levis broke his slump, and that performance would set the table as the offense would take off a few weeks later.

Will Levis running through the LSU defense 😳 pic.twitter.com/BstpvZLf6Z

— SEC Network (@SECNetwork) October 10, 2021

When the opportunity to become Kentucky’s offensive coordinator presented itself, Rich Scangarello dove into the film and liked what he saw from the offense and QB1. Levis has the traits needed to play the position at a high level, and that has the new play-caller in Lexington excited.

“To play quarterback at the highest level, to me, is the toughest thing in sports to do. And that requires toughness, it requires an intellect, a football intellect, processing ability, and then the physical ability to pull it off” said Scangarello. “That can look a lot of different ways.”

Levis has already graduated in three years at Penn State with a degree in finance and is currently working on a master’s degree at Kentucky. The quarterback flashed some football IQ and processing ability last season in his first chance to be a full-time starter. Meanwhile, the physical traits — arm strength, velocity, accuracy, movement skills — are all there to succeed at the position.

All of this adds up to be a great potential partnership as Scangarello will look to help develop Levis and guide Kentucky to that next level as a program.

“I think the pieces are there, and it’s our job to bring it together,” Scangarello told reporters.