Kentucky football lands former Texas A&M, Incarnate Word QB Zach Calzada as transfer
Kentucky football’s search for a veteran quarterback to pair with redshirt freshman Cutter Boley next season has landed on one of the most experienced players in college football.
Former Texas A&M, Auburn and Incarnate Word quarterback Zach Calzada committed to UK Thursday after a visit to Lexington. Thanks to a medical hardship waiver granting him an additional year of eligibility, Calzada will spend his seventh and final season on a college roster at UK in 2025.
Calzada’s visit started just after UK finished hosting former Texas and Duke quarterback Maalik Murphy. While Murphy threw a school-record 26 touchdowns passes for the Blue Devils last season and was ranked as one of the top five quarterbacks in the portal by multiple national sites, he did not present the type of dual-threat option that UK offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan has favored. It is also likely landing Murphy would have taken a larger portion of UK’s NIL budget amid significant need for transfers at most positions on the roster.
Calzada rushed for 332 yards and five touchdowns for FCS Incarnate Word last season while passing for 3,791 yards, 35 touchdowns and nine interceptions. The 6-foot-4, 200-pound Georgia native will now return to the SEC, where he spent the first four years of his college career.
Hamdan and UK coach Mark Stoops were open about the plan to build around Boley down the stretch of the 2024 season, but Stoops later acknowledged the staff needed to pursue a veteran transfer at the position to avoid a scenario where Boley was forced into a starting role before he was ready with only two freshmen as scholarship depth behind him. Expect UK coaches to continue to give Boley the chance to win the starting job next season, but Calzada immediately becomes the favorite to start UK’s 2025 opener.
Here is what you need to know about the Wildcats’ newest quarterback.
Zach Calzada has already helped his team to one marquee SEC win
Calzada first arrived in college in 2019 when he appeared in three games during a redshirt season at Texas A&M. He did not play in any games in 2020 but started 10 of 12 games for the Aggies as a third-year sophomore in 2021 after Texas A&M lost starter Haynes King to an injury.
That season he posted one of his best performances in Texas A&M’s upset of No. 1 Alabama, completing 21 of 31 passes for 285 yards, three touchdowns and one interception. After completing 55.7% of his passes for 2,318 yards, 19 touchdowns and 10 interceptions, Calzada entered the transfer portal since King was set to return from injury to likely regain his starting job the next season.
Calzada landed at Auburn but missed all of spring practice with an injury to his non-throwing shoulder. He opened the season third on the depth chart at quarterback before eventually deciding to undergo season-ending surgery on the shoulder.
After one season at Auburn, Calzada entered the transfer portal again. This time he transferred down to the FCS level, signing with offensive juggernaut Incarnate Word, which also produced current Miami star quarterback Cam Ward. In two seasons there, Calzada threw for 6,144 yards and 53 touchdowns while completing 66% of his passes.
Calzada gave an emotional goodbye to Incarnate Word after its playoff loss last week
Following Incarnate Word’s FCS playoff loss at South Dakota State on Saturday, Calzada grew emotional in his postgame media session. As the news conference moderator dismissed the Incarnate Word representatives at the podium, Calzada asked if he could make one last comment.
After acknowledging he initially scoffed at the idea of playing for the FCS program, Calzada thanked Incarnate Word coach Clint Killough and offensive coordinator Conner McQueen for giving him a chance when he feared his football career might be finished.
“I was working in a warehouse,” Calzada said. “Coach Killough believed in me when nobody else did.”
Calzada went on to call Killough, “the best head coach in the country.”
“I wouldn’t want to play for anybody else, “Calzada said. “He’ll go down as the best coach I’ve ever had.”
Since Calzada’s medical waiver had not been confirmed publicly, those comments were interpreted by many as his goodbye to college football, but now it appears he might have simply been emotional knowing he would be transferring back to an FBS program for his last opportunity to prove himself against top competition. Considering he will turn 25 during the 2025 season, Calzada is unlikely to rocket up NFL draft boards regardless of his performance at Kentucky, but he at least has a chance to prove his early Texas A&M success was no fluke.
Why Zach Calzada is called the ‘Cuban Missile’
As a middle schooler, Calzada was dubbed the “Cuban Missile” by friends due to his playing style and family heritage.
Calzada’s paternal grandparents, Hector and Maria, fled Cuba in 1960. After six months in Panama, they moved to the United States, eventually settling in St. Louis.
Hector Calzada Jr., Zach’s father, was a star swimmer at Tulane. Zach’s younger sister, Carolyn, recently transferred to Notre Dame for her final season of college soccer after starting 54 games at Texas A&M.
“I always wanted to give them responsibility so they know it doesn’t matter the type of work you do,” Hector Sr. told OurEsquina.com in 2021. “We taught them that no matter what work they did, they should do the best they could and put the best effort in anything they want to do.
“That has been a great success.”