Will Levis is aware of Louisville's talent in run-up to rivalry game

Will Levis had arguably his best performance in his short tenure as a Wildcat yesterday after embarrassing New Mexico State. Unfortunately for him though, nobody was interested in talking about a 400 yard, four touchdown outbreak that they just witnessed. Nope, It’s Louisville week now.

Will Levis giving credit where its due

Since Louisville had their game on Thursday this past week, Levis was open to admit that he caught some of the game and threw compliments toward the Cardinal team.

“I watched the first half. Malik is an awesome player he is really fun to watch.” Levis said postgame. “They’re a good team and I’m excited to play them.”

It’s a bare bones, cookie cutter type of answer but it’s what he needed to do. Will’s a newcomer here and obviously doesn’t want to add any unnecessary fuel to motivate Louisville. It could just be mind games to try and trick everyone into thinking that Malik Cunningham is good at football. I unfortunately think he’s being serious when he’s sending praises.

Putting aside bias and complete hatred of the Louisville program, Malik Cunningham has been pretty decent this season after being inserted late into October. In five games, Cunningham has over 2,500 yards with 18 touchdowns compared to only five interceptions. He exploded on Thursday for 300 yards and five touchdowns against Duke, the dude is good. Levis understands that this Louisville team shouldn’t be looked over as Kentucky comes off a cakewalk of a game. Now he just has to understand how the rivalry plays into the game.

707 yards total offense yesterday, second-most in Kentucky Football history.#ForTheTeam 😼🏈 pic.twitter.com/fckxzpG3os

— Kentucky Football (@UKFootball) November 21, 2021

It’s not his first rivalry

Anyone who has played any organized competitive sports before understands what comes with a rivalry game. People of Kentucky like to stake the claim that their in-state feud is in the same tier as the biggest in the college landscape. They’re probably right, but Will Levis came from a place that was used to the same intensity, arguably even worse. He’s been in Penn St. and Ohio St. matchups, he knows what to expect coming in.

“Nothing specific, just that it is a rivalry and there’s always a little chippiness here and there each year with them,” Levis said when asked about his knowledge of the rivalry. “In the end of the day it’s just football. It’s just another game, I’m not going to prepare for it as if it’s more important than any other game but hopefully we can get the win because I know how much it means for this school and this team.”

You get the feeling that this team just wants to see Louisville as a roadblock that they have to deal with. The aspirations and goals of this Kentucky team go way past what happens this upcoming weekend. It’ll be fun to gain bragging rights in the state once again sure, but Stoops and the rest of the program couldn’t care less about Louisville right now. They’re focused on a chance to get to 10 wins on the season and build the program up even more. The rivalry does add a little juice to the game, but it’s business as usual for Kentucky this week.