Dom Amore: Banana peels, mayo in coffee, 2,500 yards passing and New Year’s Bowl game — some year for Xavier’s Will Levis at Kentucky

Nutritionists will tell you Will Levis is on to something. Banana peels, high in fiber, potassium and essential amino acids might be worth a try.

But mayonnaise in coffee? Hard pass.

“Hey, I’m just having fun,” Levis says, “I’m a college kid. It isn’t hurting anybody, and through my social media I like to show that personal side of me the average fan doesn’t get to see on game day or in press conferences.”

The first of the viral posts came in August. Levis, who is from Madison and Xavier High, having transferred from Penn State, was fighting for the starting quarterback job at Kentucky. He posted a 56-second video on TikTok where he chomps down on a very ripe banana, skin and all. “I don’t fear the brown spots, they fear me,” was its caption. More than 50,000 views later, Levis was a TikTok star, pouring blue Powerade on his Honey Nut Cheerios for an encore.

In yet another video, his girlfriend, Gia Duddy, offers him creamers for his morning coffee and he declines. “So you drink it black?” she asks. “Not quite,” he answers, then picks up a container of mayonnaise, squirts some in and drinks up.

At last count, that one had 932,000 views.

“Kind of like a spur of the moment thing,” Levis says. “It really took off, came at a time when fans were able to share it. It might have turned out a little different if we didn’t have the season that we did. I was kind of playing with fire a little bit.”

Levis is enjoying his first, perhaps only, season at Kentucky immensely, you’ve surely guessed by now, but most of the fun times have come on the field. Week after week in the most powerful of the Power Five conferences, he’s kept pace, completing 66.5 percent of his passes for 2,593 yards and 23 TDs with 12 interceptions, and he’s rushed for 387 yards and nine TDs. The Wildcats are 9-3, expected to play in either the Citrus or Outback Bowl on Jan. 1, creating buzz on a campus that usually waits for basketball season to go bananas.

“Obviously, when everyone thinks of Kentucky, the first thing they think of is basketball,” Levis says, “but our fans here are as good as any other fans in the country, and the hype around here, especially when things are going well, is very, very, very real.”

Levis grew up in Madison, in a house his grandfather, David Kelley, built. Kelley, Carm Cozza’s longtime defensive assistant at Yale, was Will’s “biggest fan and most important mentor,” says Levis’ mother, Beth. Kelley died in July 2020, but the words he used to end nearly every conversation, “never give up,” still ring with his grandson.

“It’s pretty simple, and you hear it all the time,” Levis says, “but it’s something very near and dear to me and keep in mind the rest of my life, whatever I do.”

At Xavier High, he broke all the school’s major passing records as a senior. In his most memorable game, he led the Falcons back from a 27-0 deficit before losing to North Haven 50-49 on Oct. 29, 2017.

“I realized how I’d developed so much as a quarterback, as a passer and a leader in that game,” Levis says. “[Xavier] is where I made those relationships with friends I have to this day and will have the rest of my life.”

Penn State grabbed him from under UConn’s nose, the very kind of thing new Huskies coach Jim Mora wants to end. After redshirting in 2018, Levis played in a handful of games in 2019 and 2020, getting a start against Iowa last season that didn’t go well.

But Levis earned his degree in finance from Penn State in three years, and with three year’s eligibility went looking for a new school. He vibed with head coach Mark Stoops and offensive coordinator Liam Coen, and found his football happy place in Kentucky.

“It just felt right,” Levis says. “I really liked [Coen’s] philosophy and the offense he was going to be running. I thought it fit for my skill set. It’s time and place, and I just find myself at a place where everything is just kind of coming together for me. I’m a much better quarterback now than I was then.”

Levis threw for 367 yards and four TDs in his first game, a win over Louisiana-Monroe. After knocking off Missouri, Chattanooga, Florida, South Carolina and LSU, Kentucky was 6-0 for the first time since 1950, when Bear Bryant coached the ‘Cats.

“Probably the most complete game as a quarterback was against LSU,” says Levis, who completed 14 of 17, for a 212.2 rating in that game, with three TDs passing and two running. “It was the first time we had beaten them in a really long time, and I was able to really be dialed in with my footwork, accuracy and decision making and I was able to do things with my feet.”

Kentucky was ranked 11th for a showdown with No.1 Georgia on Oct. 16. The game doesn’t get any faster than it does against the Bulldogs defense. Levis completed 32 of 42 for 192 yards and two TDs in a 30-13 loss, the first of three in a row. But Levis and the Wildcats won their last three, beating Louisville 52-21 last week, to put themselves in “New Year’s Six” bowl territory.

After the bowl game, Levis will have a new round of choices. Try the NFL now? Extended his college career one or two more years? Certainly some will depend on Stoops and/or Coen staying in Lexington.

“I think my progression this whole year has proved I have that ability to play at the next level, and I’m excited to go through the process of figuring out what I want to do.”

Levis, pursuing a master’s in finance, is finishing up his semester. His class manages a $5 million portfolio, and he just finished a major project, making his case for what stocks to buy or sell. Meanwhile, he’s selling branded merchandise on www.levis7.com.

With all that’s going right for him, it seems certain the world will one day be Will Levis’ oyster — as long as he doesn’t try to eat the shell.

Dom Amore can be reached at damore@courant.com.