National Football League

Will Levis elevated the standard at Kentucky. Can he do the same for the Titans?

Published Nov. 9, 2023 6:47 p.m. ET

When Kenneth Horsey thinks of Will Levis' leadership style, his mind lands on "fiery."

Why? Levis leads with energy, explained the Kentucky offensive lineman. He puts maximum effort into everything he does. He expects everybody around him to have the same passion and attention to detail that he does.

Horsey remembers times when the Wildcats would be talking in the huddle. As soon as Levis arrived, he'd shut that down.

"He's so amped up. He's almost shaking reading his wristband in the huddle," Horsey told FOX Sports. "It's just those kinds of things that make you realize, ‘OK, this guy's the truth.'

"If everybody is as locked in as Will on every single play, I mean, any team could go far."

The Titans are about to find out how far Levis can take them.

The Levis Era has officially begun in Nashville. Coach Mike Vrabel announced Tuesday that the second-round rookie will be the Titans' starting quarterback for the rest of the season, relegating veteran Ryan Tannehill — who's still working his way back from a right ankle sprain — to a backup role.

This became inevitable after Levis, inactive the first six weeks of the season, impressed in his first two starts. In his terrific debut against the Falcons on Oct. 29, he became just the third NFL player with four passing touchdowns in his first career game. Then last week, he showed poise and toughness in the pocket against a stout Steelers' defensive front on a short week in Tennessee's Thursday Night Football road loss at Pittsburgh.

Entering Sunday's road game against the Buccaneers, Levis has completed 60.3% of his passes for 500 yards and four touchdowns with one interception and a 96.4 passer rating. A win this week would make him just the third rookie quarterback in Titans/Oilers franchise history to win two of his first three starts.

"I think that there's clearly something there," Vrabel said. "We want to be able to continue to work with him and progress and develop and win, and that's how you get better, and you only get better by going out there and playing, especially at that position."

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In a couple of months, Levis has risen from QB3 to QB1. But he didn't change who he was at practice and he seemed comfortable in the transition.

The biggest thing, Levis said, is the leadership expectation as the starting quarterback.

"It's tough because I've been in the position where you want to be a leader in your own regard, but when you're not the starter, you might just be a little more standoffish with how active you are in your leadership role," Levis said Tuesday. "I'm always going to be a guy who leads by example and shows the standard through my actions. But I think when you do kind of transition into that starting role, there becomes some more freedom with how you interact with the guys and coaching the guys and being more direct with it."

Levis will have to prove his worth as a starter and leader, just like he did at Kentucky.

"He changed the whole mindset of everything"

Levis was named a captain at Kentucky shortly after arriving as a Penn State transfer in 2021. Days after arriving in Lexington, he set up throwing sessions with the receivers, tight ends and running backs. On off days, Levis orchestrated 7-on-7s against the defense.

He was the first one in the building — getting treatment, watching film, going over the install. He approached every meeting, walk-thru and practice like a game.

"He changed the whole mindset of everything," former Kentucky running back Chris Rodriguez Jr., a rookie for the Commanders, told FOX Sports. "We already had a standard established, but when somebody comes in, especially at the quarterback position, and kind of leads you all past your own standard, it's like, ‘Alright, we got a team. We got all the pieces.'"

The toughness Levis showed last week against the Steelers, who hit him 10 times, was evident at Kentucky. Liam Coen, the Wildcats' offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, pointed to Levis' second game with the Wildcats. He scrambled for a third down early in the contest, got to the second level and trucked a Missouri linebacker.

He got up and pointed for a first down. The Kentucky sideline erupted.

"When you play the game the way he does, you're going to get nicked up and he never missed time and never didn't practice," Coen told FOX Sports in the spring. "He just came to work every day and practiced at a high level, and that's not easy to find."

As Levis steps into the QB1 role, the Titans will get a feel for his personality more than ever.

According to his former Kentucky teammates, Levis is a completely different person on and off the field. He's all business between the lines. He's talkative about the task at hand. He's focused. He embraces the role of a leader. Off the field, he "kind of comes back to earth," according to Horsey. He's just one of the guys. He'll laugh and joke around. He plays video games. He loves golf.

If he had plans to go out, he'd invite the whole team.

"When you get to college, you got your team, but there are different groups within the team. He was a part of every group," Rodriguez explained. "He wasn't just hanging out with quarterbacks or just hanging out with the offense. He was hanging out with the defense sometimes."

Eli Cox, Levis' center in 2022, said the quarterback worked to get to know all of his teammates individually, to find out what makes each one tick.

"Some people need you to get up in their face when things are going wrong and motivate them. Some people don't respond to that and shut down," Cox said. "I think he did a really good job of discerning who is who and how to relate to different people and going about it that way.

"I think that can really bring a team together and help motivate," he added. "Leadership is all about relationships."

On the inside of his right arm, Levis has a tattoo with a Bible verse: second Chronicles 15:7. It reads, "But as for you, stay strong and do not give up, for your effort will be rewarded."

That has been Levis' mantra for as long as he can remember. It stems from his late grandfather, who ended every conversation he had with Will with that message.

"It's just an easy thing for me to look to and remind myself just to never give up and to know that nothing in this life is ever going to come easy," Levis said. "And when you hit that bump in the road, that's an opportunity to get better. Just keeping a positive outlook about things. Sometimes when I get down, it's a good way to bring me back to base."

For Levis, that's leading by example.

Cox sees him as a "real face-of-the-franchise-type guy."

"[The Titans are] getting a complete dog," Horsey said. "They're getting somebody who's going to give 1,000 percent of their energy, their time, their focus, to making sure that that program and the people who are playing in that stadium are operating at the highest level that they can.

"If anybody is the guy to help turn around an organization like Tennessee, it's Will Levis."

Ben Arthur is the AFC South reporter for FOX Sports. He previously worked for The Tennessean/USA TODAY Network, where he was the Titans beat writer for a year and a half. He covered the Seattle Seahawks for SeattlePI.com for three seasons (2018-20) prior to moving to Tennessee. You can follow Ben on Twitter at @benyarthur.