Will Levis is going to be Kentucky’s starting quarterback. Joey Gatewood is putting his name in the transfer portal and will be gone now that has lost the quarterback competition. Kentucky coach Mark Stoops explained both decisions Sunday. But where does that leave redshirt freshman quarterback Beau Allen of Lexington Catholic? That’s the question I asked Stoops during his Zoom conference Sunday night.
“Beau’s reaction is just like he always is. He’s kind of just very steadfast in everything he does, and that’s one of the great qualities that Beau has,” Stoops said. “He’s very steady, does not ever get too high, does not ever get too low.
“For him, it was very business-like, just like always. He’s worked hard and that was part of it as well with reps.”
Stoops had told the quarterbacks Allen would be No. 2 on the depth chart over Gatewood — who then told the coach he was going to transfer, a decision Stoops understood since Gatewood came to UK after losing a quarterback battle at Auburn.
“Beau has done a very good job and just because he handles things maybe one way or another, he’s very strong. Each young man still deserves the proper opportunity and he’s earned that right to get a lot of reps with the twos,” Stoops said.
Allen was a top 20 quarterback nationally in his recruiting class after passing for 3,680 yards and 38 scores his senior season at Lexington Catholic. He had almost 11,500 passing yards and 127 touchdown passes in his prep career.
Allen got to play in two games last season. Against Vanderbilt and Alabama, he completed three of seven passes for 40 yards.
9 Responses
This will continue the fact that Stoops has never started a quarterback he has recruited straight out of high school.
I had not thought about that Tom
UK will be well served with Levis and Allen 1-2 at QB this season.
I remember saying on here a few weeks ago that Levis will start because using transfers to start is Stoops tendency. And Tom is right, Stoops has never started a QB that he recruited from high school. Always a transfer from another school. Sooner or later (and I think sooner) this will hurt UK recruiting at the QB position. It tells the high school QB that the Stoops program cannot develop a QB to start. Stoops "system" is to recruit depth but rely on a transfer to start.
Taking nothing away from Levis. I’m sure he is a talented QB. And yes, if Levis can win games, this will be all but forgotten by fans, except for high QB’s waiting to be recruited. If it’s a flip of the coin of going to another school or UK, the scales are leaning to another school. Does anyone remember Mack Jones?
I think the QB,s Stoops has gotten via transfer has worked out pretty good. There have been chances for other QB,s but they didn’t shine with the opportunity. With the new offense I think more and better QB,s will be attracted to the Cats. If you can get transfers like Levis, Robinson, Jones, and Rosenthal, why wouldn’t you?
Stoops started Max Smith, Jalen Whitlow and Patrick Towles none of whom were recruited by Stoops but all came to UK from high school. Stoops then recruited Drew Barker and started him only to lose him to a career ending injury. Highly sought after high school QB’s were not banging down the door in those early years. Mac Jones would’ve certainly started had he not flipped to Bama. Bazelek decommitted and went to Missouri. Jarren Williams decomitted twice. I wouldn’t say Stoops has an MO starting transfers. They just haven’t had much success closing the deal with upper echelon QB recruits out of high school… or luck.. Barker could’ve been a four year starter.
good analysis Middy
I’m a Beau Allen fan, but Coen, no doubt, had a lot to say about who his QB would be. If you listened to some of Coen’s statements of the past, this is no surprise. These coaches see these young men everyday. Coen recruited this young man, Levis, in the past. If Levis is the best chance at winning for UK, then I have no problem with this decision. Also, Beau is a mere play away should Levis go down to an injury. Who knows what will happen. I still say Beau Allen’s future at UK is bright. If Levis leads this team to a lot of wins, it will make us all very happy. As for developing QB’s, Stoops did his job and made some tough choices in shaking up his staff to shore that up.
Winning is what it is all about Pup