Cutter Boley shines as Kentucky football blows out Murray State to snap losing streak
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Game day: Kentucky 48, Murray State 6
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday’s Kentucky-Murray State football game at Kroger Field.
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Kentucky football took care of business in its annual game against an FCS opponent with a 48-6 blowout of Murray State Saturday.
The win snapped a four-game losing streak for UK and built some positive momentum in advance of must-win games against No. 3 Texas and No. 22 Louisville if Kentucky is to extend its eight-year bowl streak, but the game was hard to watch for long stretches with backups playing for most of the second half and the starting offense featuring its normal inconsistency early. The game featured 24 penalties between the two teams.
Kentucky, which was playing without seven normal starters, overcame two badly underthrown deep passes by starting quarterback Brock Vandagriff on its first two drives — one bounced off a Murray State defender’s hands for a touchdown and the other was intercepted — to jump out to a 14-0 lead at the end of the first quarter. Still, the offensive performance was sluggish with runs of 73 yards and 43 yards from Jamarion Wilcox and Hardley Gilmore negated by holding penalties in the first half.
Vandagriff led the Wildcats on an effective two-minute drill just before halftime to find wide receiver Ja’Mori Maclin through tight coverage in the end zone for a 19-yard touchdown and 24-0 lead with 11 seconds left before intermission.
Murray State reached Kentucky territory just twice in the first half, and both drives ended with Jordan Lovett interceptions.
Vandagriff completed 12 of 19 passes for two touchdowns and one interception in the first half before freshman quarterback Cutter Boley replaced him on the opening drive of the second half. Boley, the former four-star recruit from Lexington Christian Academy, who had played only once previously this season completed both passes on his first drive, which ended in a 4-yard Jamarion Wilcox touchdown run.
Boley’s second drive stalled at the 7-yard line but resulted in Alex Raynor’s second field goal of the game to move him to 15-for-15 on field goal attempts this season.
Murray State finally got on the board late in the third quarter with a 32-yard field goal at the end of a drive where UK’s defense was littered with normal scout team and special teams players. The Racers added another field goal after recovering a fumble on a UK kickoff return.
On his third drive, Boley threw his first career touchdown on a 22-yard pass to a wide-open Anthony Brown Stephens on fourth-and-2. Boley found Brown-Stephens again for another touchdown, this one from 14 yards out, on UK’s next drive.
He finished the game having completed 10 of 14 passes for 130 yards and two touchdowns.
TURNING POINT
While Kentucky has never lost a game to an FCS opponent since they became a permanent fixture on the schedule in 2002, the Wildcats have not been immune from slow starts against them in the Stoops era. Any Murray State hope for a similar sluggish performance essentially ended when Vandagriff badly underthrew a deep ball on UK’s opening drive only to see it bounce off the hands of a Murray State defender and into the arms of freshman wide receiver Hardley Gilmore as he ran into the end zone for the first touchdown.
MVP
Wilcox topped the 100-yard rushing plateau for the second consecutive game with 13 carries for 123 yards and one touchdown. His stellar performance came despite not starting and having the 73-yard run called back in the first half.
KEY STAT
While the performance of Boley and other young Wildcats was encouraging, the level of competition has to be acknowledged. Murray State fell to 1-10 on the season with the defeat and has now been outscored 99-6 in its two games against FBS opponents this season.
This story was originally published November 16, 2024 at 5:09 PM.
