Freshman QB Cutter Boley will make his first Kentucky football start against Louisville
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Preview: Louisville at Kentucky football
Click below to read more of the Herald-Leader and Kentucky.com’s preview coverage ahead of Saturday’s Kentucky-Louisville Governor’s Cup football rivalry game at Kroger Field.
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The Cutter Boley era for Kentucky football is here.
After starring off the bench in the second half of UK’s last two games — a win over FCS Murray State and a loss at No. 3 Texas — Boley will make his first career start in the regular season finale against archrival Louisville, UK coach Mark Stoops announced Monday. Boley, a freshman former four-star recruit from Lexington Christian Academy, will replace Brock Vandagriff as starter.
Boley has completed 20 of 32 passes for 290 yards, two touchdowns and one interception in the last two games while Vandagriff has completed 15 of 26 passes for 234 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions in that span.
“I thought he just handled himself very well,” Stoops said. “I thought he had a lot of poise in the pocket. He distributed the football well, had the vision to hit open receivers.
“... I thought he did some really good things and deserves the opportunity to get to start here this week.”
It was easier to dismiss Boley’s success against Murray State (10 for 18 for 130 yards and two touchdowns) because of the quality of competition, but the fact that Boley made several highlight reel worthy plays against Texas, the No. 2-ranked defense in the country, made a quarterback switch for the Governor’s Cup rivalry look more likely. The loss to Texas eliminated any chance of UK reaching a bowl game this season, and Boley can play in one more game without losing his redshirt.
Kentucky did not score any points on Boley’s five drives at Texas (though one of those drives ended with Alex Raynor’s first missed field goal of the season), but with offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan left no choice but to use a more aggressive plan due to the score, Boley immediately offered a more explosive passing attack.
“When I was able to go out there, I wasn’t worried about anything,” Boley said after the game. “I was just worried about playing ball, and I knew what was going on, on everything. And I just feel like I exhausted my preparation, so I was ready to go out there and be confident and play.”
He completed 10 of 18 passes for 160 yards and one interception against Texas. Boley completed five passes of at least 16 yards.
“It’s been the second week for him of making plays off schedule, if you will, when certain things weren’t there,” Hamdan said after the game. “It’s good to see him in that environment and not be too frazzled and go out there and just play the way he did.”
After Boley shined against Murray State there were still questions about how he would perform against an SEC foe considering his only previous appearance of the season was an 0-for-6 showing with a pick six late in the loss at Florida. After impressing against Texas, Boley should have plenty of confidence to face an ACC opponent this week.
“I’m excited about the kid,” junior tight end Josh Kattus said after the loss at Texas. “The kid has definitely proved himself the past two games, and he continues to work hard, and it’s paying off for him. So, I’m excited about the future with Cutter.”
Starting Boley in the regular season finale appears to be an acknowledgment that recruiting Vandagriff as a transfer from Georgia to be the starter this season did not work.
A former five-star high school recruit, Vandagriff had barely played in three seasons at Georgia as a backup to Stetson Bennett and Carson Beck, but there was hope his high school hype could still prove justified due to the quality of quarterback he was behind in Athens. Instead for much of the season, Vandagriff looked like a quarterback who had not played significant snaps in three years.
It would be unfair to blame all of Kentucky’s offensive issues on Vandagriff — the Wildcats failed to score more than 20 points in an SEC game this season — and the mounting toll of hits taken behind a porous offensive line appears to have had an effect in recent weeks. Still, UK coaches first signaled they were not convinced Vandagriff was the quarterback to lead the team anymore when they benched him in the second half of a one-possession game against Auburn for run-first backup Gavin Wimsatt in October.
The offense looked even worse with Wimsatt at the helm, so Vandagriff retained his starting job the next week at Tennessee. The offense made progress in the first half in Knoxville, but Vandagriff was sidelined by a head injury early in the second half. With Boley needing to stay under the four-game threshold to redshirt, the staff turned to Wimsatt again.
The bye week that followed was enough time to get Vandagriff back on the field, but the staff began preparing Boley to play significant snaps for the first time. That prep paid off with the breakout showing in the second half against Murray State.
“I always have to defend and stand up for Brock, because I think the absolute world of him,” Stoops said. “He’s given us everything he has, and we know we have some areas that need to be improved. And that falls on me. I know Bush gets a lot of heat and the offense and the quarterback and everybody. I understand that, and it’s not just coach speak. I’ll take that and I’ll also work to get it fixed. We’re very excited to get it fixed and move forward.”
While the move to Boley does offer some excitement for the present and future, his inexperience could lead to more errors given the poor pass protection. He was charged with minus-57 rushing yards at Texas due to four sacks and a botched snap. One of those sacks came near the goal line on a play where he should have thrown the ball away for a closer field goal attempt.
Still, the potential he has displayed is enough to generate some excitement for a program in desperate need of positive buzz. Boley will face a new challenge this week in handling the emotions of his first start and the rivalry game, but if he can lead UK to a win the size of the offseason rebuild facing Stoops and his staff might not look quite as daunting.
“He wants to be great and is committed with his time and all that, but I think maybe a little light switch went off that like there’s a lot of little details that I talk about all the time with all players, and I feel like he’s really tuned in,” Stoops said of the change in Boley since his first appearance at Florida. “I think part of that is opportunity for this, right? It’s hard to get QB one reps. It’s really important for that starting quarterback to get reps and to get enough reps, and that’s the problem with when you go to quarterback two, three or four.
“So, we’ve made a conscious effort to get Cutter some reps the past couple weeks and give him time and practice during that bye week to get him prepped and ready for it. And ever since the bye week, I think you’ve seen him go out there and execute a higher level.”
Next game
Louisville at Kentucky
When: Noon Saturday
TV: SEC Network
Records: Kentucky 4-7 (1-7 SEC); Louisville 7-4 (5-3 ACC)
Radio: WLAP-AM 630, WBUL-FM 98.1
Series: Kentucky leads 20-15
Last meeting: Kentucky won 38-31 on Nov. 25, 2023, in Louisville
This story was originally published November 25, 2024 at 12:30 PM.
