Mark Stoops ended the competition on Sunday: Kentucky’s starting QB is official and it’s Penn State transfer Will Levis.

In the fashion of the modern QB competition, Stoops also indicated that presumed backup Joey Gatewood has entered the transfer portal, having finished 2nd in a QB competition yet again. Second-year freshman Beau Allen will back up Levis, but Sunday’s announcement made official what had been expected since Levis joined the program: It’s his team this fall. What does all that mean?

Well, Kentucky hasn’t had a 3,000-yard passer since Mike Hartline … in 2010. Some of that slump has been due to injuries, some to drastic midseason shifts in offensive philosophy, but Mark Stoops would probably like to see that no-pass-zone era made a thing of the past in 2021. Liam Coen was brought in to put some sizzle in Kentucky’s passing game.

Some UK fans thought maybe Gatewood would provide that spark, but he was brought in as a fit for Eddie Gran’s RPO-heavy attack last fall. He sat behind Terry Wilson and generally did little to distinguish himself in his few snaps of Wildcat action (17-for-35, 109 yards, 1 interception). Allen showed some promise, but saw little of the field. When Stoops hired Coen, the immediate question was which quarterback would be charged with revamping the Kentucky passing attack.

Enter Will.

Levis’ situation last year at Penn State wasn’t unlike Gatewood’s in Lexington. He battled for the QB1 job, but then sat behind Sean Clifford for most of the season. Like Gatewood, he got 1 start and didn’t do much with it. But Levis’ rocket arm is made for big-time college football. Clifford wasn’t going anywhere, and Levis did. PSU liked Levis as a dual-threat player, funny enough, as proven by his 82 rushing attempts and 55 passes last season. But don’t be fooled.

That won’t be the game plan for Kentucky. Coen might run a little RPO or bootleg action with Levis to keep defenses honest. But the days of QB draws and clouds of dust may be on the rear-facing horizon. Kentucky will still feature battering-ram running back Chris Rodriguez, but whenever safeties start crowding the box, Levis will try to be the big-play threat Kentucky has lacked at quarterback since Andre Woodson in the late 2000s.

It’s a great plan, but by showing his cards fairly early in fall camp, Stoops has subjected himself and his team to a certain amount of danger. Gatewood is all but certainly gone, and the QB depth behind him is minimal. Allen threw 7 passes last fall, which is 7 more than the other UK QBs (Nik Scalzo, Kaiya Sheron) have thrown in a college game. The old-time model of college coaching would have taken this decision down to the week of Kentucky’s opener against Louisiana Monroe, and maybe down to opening kickoff. After all, twice in the past 5 seasons, Kentucky suffered horrific QB injuries by Week 2 and had to rescale its offense entirely on the spot. Basically opening the door for Gatewood to leave was fairly unusual in college football circles.

Stoops is traditional about some things — defense, not turning the ball over, controlling time of possession. He seemed unconcerned with tradition on this particular front.

Kentucky is courting transfers in a serious way — look around UK’s sideline at imports like Wan’Dale Robinson (Nebraska), Jacquez Jones (Ole Miss), Dare Rosenthal (LSU), Luke Fulton (Michigan State) and Justice Dingle (Georgia Tech). Part of maintaining relationships that make UK a viable second option for established players is being honest with the players already on board.

Sure, Stoops could have slow-rolled Gatewood and made it harder and less advantageous for him to transfer. But in the big picture, Kentucky wants to be known for honest and open communication. Any potential risk with the early announcement is offset by a desire to keep future transfer pipelines open.

In any case, it’s August. The worries of backups and depth charts are for another day. Passing is back at UK, and Will Levis is the leading man the way this fall.