Will Levis, Chris Rodriguez Uncertain On Playing Bowl Game For Kentucky

Kentucky's star quarterback and running back may have dawned blue and white on the field for the final time on Saturday evening.

Will Levis' Kentucky career possibly came to an end on Saturday night in the Wildcats' Governor's Cup win over Louisville. 

The future NFL Draftee earned his second win over the Cardinals in as many tries, throwing for 188 yards and two touchdowns. In his pair of games against UofL, he found the end zone through the air or with his legs a grand total of six times. 

Kentucky now awaits its destination for the postseason bowl game, but the question remains if Levis will be under center when that game rolls around in late December. He didn't commit to a decision when asked about his future post-game:

“I’m going to talk to Stoops on Monday, probably my family too. I don’t have a timeline, probably within a week I’d say. I don’t really know.”

In 24 games as a Wildcat across two seasons, Levis' totaled a 17-7 record, throwing for 5,233 yards and 43 touchdowns while also rushing for 11 scores. In the process, he also became one of the more popular players to dawn blue and white in recent memory, captivating Big Blue Nation and his team with his leadership and ability on and off the field. 

His second season in Lexington wasn't as successful as the first, though injury issues hampered his skillset for a majority of the 2022 campaign. 

"Hard to put in the words what he's meant to us, just his, again, toughness, leadership, you know, battling through adversity, having -- coming here and having a great year and going through an offensive coordinator change and getting beat up and having a year where he wasn't at a 100%. He fought through it. He's a true professional," head coach Mark Stoops said of his QB. "He set the tone for us here. We absolutely love him, whether it's his last game or plays one more. I think the world of him, and love what he's done for us and don't want anything but the best for him and his future."

"Love him to death. 10/10 toughness, I don't think people realized how injured he was this year, he played for five or six weeks where he literally he would sprint out in practice and fall down, his toe would give out on him," offensive coordinator Rich Scangarello added. "The grit to fight through that, the last two weeks he's felt the best he's felt in probably a month."

Levis is still projected to be a First Round NFL Draft selection come April. He reflected on his short career at Kentucky following the win over Louisville on Saturday: 

“First of all I’ve got to think about all of my brothers, I’ve got brothers for life and friends for life and just a lot of people that I’ll forever be in touch with and forever trust and love a lot. Other than that, the fans thank you for welcoming me with open arms and completely embracing me being the starting quarter back of the team. It’s a huge position to assume, being the quarter back for an SEC team, and I didn’t know too much about the fan base when I first got here but I quickly realized how special and supportive our fans are. I think I’ll always kind of look back on this last season and have a little bit of kind of regret or just feeling like we didn’t quite get to where we wanted to but I’ll sure as heck think about this game to feel a lot better about it!”

It's still undecided, but all signs point towards Levis' career as a Wildcat being over. Additionally, running back Chris Rodriguez is unsure on whether or not he'll participate in the postseason matchup. 

“I haven’t really thought about it yet,” he said. “But I’m here with my brothers. I’m gonna ride with ’em.”

Rodriguez Jr. led the team with 24 carries for 120 yards in the Governor's Cup win. It marked the 20th 100-plus yard rushing game of his career, breaking the school record set by Benny Snell Jr. He also became the first UK player to have three 100-yard rushing games vs. Louisville.

He now has 3,644 career rushing yards, remaining in third place on UK’s all-time career rushing list, needing just 191 more rushing yards to tie for second and 230 to catch Snell's record.

"If it comes to me, it comes to me. It is what it is,” Rodriguez said. 

If he were to play in the bowl game, a 230-yard performance is most certainly not out of the cards. As of now, it remains to be seen if he and Levis will give it one last go in a Kentucky uniform. 

Game recap of Kentucky's win over Louisville can be found here.

More on Matt Ruffolo's historic night here.

Watch: Stoops, Levis and more talk Governor's Cup win over Cardinals

Game Notes from the victory can be found here.