Does Kentucky have a QB competition? What to know about preseason battles
There has never been a season in Kentucky football history where the Wildcats entered the fall with as many new faces on the roster as Mark Stoops will coach in 2025.
But despite a roster where more than half the scholarship players will be wearing a UK jersey for the first time when the Wildcats open the season against Toledo on Aug. 30, there actually appears to be relatively little drama on the depth chart as preseason practice begins this week. Still, there are position battles to watch in the coming weeks that could prove vital to Kentucky’s ability to bounce back from a tough 2025 season.
“Everybody can move,” Stoops said Monday in his pre-camp news conference. “It’s all open to move by the first game. We have a lot of practices to go through.”
Even the positions where there does appear to be competition for snaps mostly consist of battles where all the participants can expect to play as part of a rotation. The most high profile position battle might be one in name only.
Still, the performances from players in those battles during preseason practice will say much about the outlook for a season where Stoops faces no shortage of pressure. Here is what you need to know about three of those competitions.
Quarterback
The favorite: Zach Calzada (6-4, 230, Sr.).
The competition: Cutter Boley (6-5, 220, RFr.).
What to know: It would be a shock if Calzada, who has previously made stops at Texas A&M, Auburn and Incarnate Word, is not the starter for the Toledo game. Even Stoops acknowledged Monday that if the season started tomorrow, Calzada would be the starter.
But Stoops continues to insist former Lexington Christian star Cutter Boley, who coaches have long described as the quarterback of the future, will have a chance to win the job.
“When that time is, I’m not sure,” Stoops said of Boley’s future when discussing the quarterbacks at SEC Media Days earlier this month. “Whether it’s next week, two weeks, three weeks, next season, next year, I’m not sure.”
Whether this is a true competition or not, Kentucky needs Boley ready to play. He showed enough promise in his four-game cameo last season to add to his massive recruiting hype, but Kentucky did not score on any of his 10 drives against Power Four conference competition. That uncertainty made it essential for Stoops and offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan to add a veteran quarterback from the transfer portal.
“Cutter Boley is a guy I think we all know is as talented as a player as we’ve been around,” Hamdan said at Monday’s kickoff luncheon for donors. “For us in this day and age of college football, we’re as focused as getting him as many reps as just about anybody.”
Calzada has SEC experience — he started Texas A&M’s 2021 upset of No. 1 Alabama — but it would be silly to expect him to duplicate his video game-like numbers the last two seasons at Incarnate Word after making the jump from FCS football to the SEC and moving from a spread offense to a pro style attack. If he can pair his impressive arm strength with enough accuracy to provide some offensive balance for Kentucky, that might be enough, though.
And if Calzada struggles or is injured, Kentucky will need Boley to take a major step forward. Senior Beau Allen provides a steadying presence as the third-string quarterback, which should allow freshmen Brennen Ward and Stone Saunders to redshirt.
Running back
The favorite: Seth McGowan (6-1, 215, Sr.).
The competition: Dante Dowdell (6-2, 227, Jr.), Jason Patterson (5-10, 209, RFr.), Jamarion Wilcox (5-10, 191, So.).
Given the physical toll on running backs in the SEC, Kentucky will surely need all four of its top running backs — and maybe even redshirt freshman backup Tovani Mizell — at some point this season, but it would be unrealistic to expect the Wildcats to open the season by splitting carries between four players. During spring practice it looked certain to be a committee approach between Dowdell, Patterson and Wilcox, but the addition of McGowan in the spring transfer window has increased the chances the offense has a true featured running back.
McGowan, a former four-star recruit, was a standout as a runner and receiver for New Mexico State last season in his return to major college football after a three-year hiatus after he pled guilty to a felony as a freshman at Oklahoma. Buzz has been growing for McGowan throughout the summer, and Stoops did little to slow down that hype Monday.
“He is a big-time player,” Stoops said. “He’s good in a lot of areas. He’s explosive, he’s got a lot of experience. He’s dynamic.”
Even if McGowan wins the featured role, Dowdell, who totaled 614 yards and 12 touchdowns for Nebraska last season, should serve an important role as the type of physical runner that has thrived during Stoops’ tenure at UK. Patterson’s promising start to his freshman season was derailed by an injury, but he was a consistent target of praise again during spring practice.
Wilcox is the wildcard after showing big play ability last season while struggling to master the playbook in a way that led to more snaps.
“I think we all understand competition and depth drives a lot of things,” Stoops said. “And so he hasn’t flinched. He’s kind of just gone through the process. And that’s all you can ask of any young man. I really appreciate him embracing the competition, not running from it, and putting his head down and just getting himself better.”
Jack linebacker
The favorite: Kam Olds (6-4, 252, Sr.).
The competition: Sam Greene (6-2, 248, So.), Steven Soles (6-2, 235, So.).
Like running back, all the players listed here are almost certain to play a part in the rotation at some point this season, but the outlook of the defense would improve if there was a surefire ace pass rusher coordinator Brad White could count on.
“That may be the biggest question mark of them all, those edges,” White said during spring practice, acknowledging the turnover at the position.
Olds, who totaled seven tackles for loss and six sacks at Kent State last season, was signed as the top portal option, but it was Greene who Stoops mentioned first on Monday.
“Since he’s been here, just physically, just his body (has improved),” Stoops said. “The suddenness and what he plays, he’s one of those guys that just has a lot of pop to him.”
The fact that Greene, a transfer from Southern Cal, has three more years of eligibility remaining makes it easy to get excited for his future. Olds is a plug-and-play option with just one season of eligibility left. Soles is another intriguing prospect after showing flashes as a pass rushing specialist as a freshman.
While former Wildcat J.J. Weaver did not quite match his recruiting hype in a career that was affected by injuries, he was a constant presence at the position for Kentucky over the last six years. First, the new edge rushers need to prove capable of replacing Weaver’s production. If they can exceed it, the path to a special defense is clearer.