Valentino able to give insight on Kentucky quarterback
The video needed a parental advisory warning.
Kentucky transfer quarterback Will Levis released a shirtless Tik Tok eating a banana with the peel on. He would go on to do national media shows, continuing to eat bananas this way.
“All right, so look, I never saw that," Levis' former teammate at Penn State, Antonio Valentino said. "So, like, I knew Levis was a freak for real because, one winter, we lifted together. Like, he was my lift partner, but, like, I didn’t know he was eating bananas like that. When I saw it on Twitter, I was like, ‘Bro, what are you doing man?
Levis has started the season well for the Wildcats. He's completed 65.3% (66-101) of his pass attempts for 902 yards and seven touchdowns. He has, however, had a tendency to turn the ball over with five interceptions and is coming off of a season-worst passing performance against South Carolina, throwing for just 102 yards, no touchdowns, and an interception against a South Carolina team that was coming off of a drubbing to Georgia.
Levis will be playing the Gators for the first time, so having a former teammate on the Gators can help when it comes to scouting him and Valentino aimed to provide what he could on Monday.
"I told the D-Line in meetings today, just a little bit about what I know about him, and my biggest thing was Will’s mentality. He’s not very easily shaken. He’s very strong-willed, very strong in his mind," Valentino said Monday night after practice. "He’s very physical as a quarterback. If he’s running the ball – at least from what I remember – he’s running the ball and he has a choice of going around you or going through you, he’s going to try to go through you. He’s very good with his legs. Anybody’s who’s been watching SEC football clearly sees that he can air it out when he needs to. I think he’s playing in an offense that he’s very comfortable in, and he has the tools around him to really show what he can do, and that’s really what I was just telling the guys today in meetings.”
Kentucky comes into the game 4-0 and a lot can and should be said about the kind of program that Mark Stoops has built. Dan Mullen was complimentary of Stoops and the program at large. Kentucky has built and embraced an identity as a team that will be big and physical up front and aims to run the ball, using play-action to stretch the field after establishing the run.
"I know a lot about how he plays ball just from, obviously, being his teammate and going against him every day in practice. I’ve seen him play in games. Play-action and all of that really only works if you can establish the run," Valentino said. "So, obviously, first with football, playing defensive line is stop the run. You’ve got to earn the right to rush the passer on first down. So, we’ve just got to be in our gaps, do our job, play sound defense and make our plays when they come to us, and I think we’ll be fine.”