Zach Calzada’s Kentucky football debut was a dud, but he gets vote of confidence
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Zach Calzada struggles after being named Kentucky football’s starting quarterback Monday.
- Calzada posts 10-of-23 passing, 85 yards, and one interception in win vs. Toledo.
- Coaches cite rhythm issues and expect offensive improvement in week two.
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Gameday: Kentucky 24, Toledo 16
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday’s Kentucky-Toledo football game at Kroger Field in Lexington.
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Mark Stoops went out of his way to remind reporters and fans late in preseason camp Kentucky had a preseason quarterback battle even when most observers had long assumed transfer Zach Calzada was the starter.
That competition ended as expected, with Calzada officially named the starter Monday, but UK’s season-opening 24-16 win over Toledo only added more questions about the position.
“It’s not even kind of all on him,” UK offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan said of Calzada. “… Do I think Zach looked in rhythm today? No. Did I feel in rhythm? No.
“I feel just like you guys. The one thing we got going is we’re 1-0, and that’s that. And we got to make a big jump from week one to week two.”
Calzada started the game with multiple impressive throws, but the passing attack appeared to stall after what was initially ruled a 27-yard completion to wide receiver J.J. Hester on an acrobatic catch. That play was overturned on replay review. After going 3-for-4 through the air on UK’s first drive, Calzada completed just 7 of 19 passes the rest of the game.
His final line: 10-for-23 for 85 yards and one interception.
“I think that JJ getting called out of bounds was big,” Calzada said. “I think we felt really good after that, but we just got to be able to bounce back from any adversity. We got to be able to bounce back and play the next play.”
A year after Kentucky failed to score more than 20 points against any Power Four conference opponent, the Wildcat offense in the 2025 opener looked largely the same even with a cast of new faces from an offseason roster overhaul.
The 85 passing yards were fewer than Kentucky totaled in all but one game during the 4-8 2024 season. The 10 completions mirrored the number from the embarrassing 41-14 loss to archrival Louisville in the 2024 finale.
Kentucky played four wide receivers it signed in the transfer portal over the offseason Saturday, but none recorded a catch. Calzada, who spent the past two seasons at FCS Incarnate Word after previous stops at Texas A&M and Auburn, was advertised as a quarterback with elite arm strength but badly missed on multiple deep balls. His longest completion of the day was a 23-yard catch-and-run from tight end Willie Rodriguez that ended with a lost fumble.
“We were hitting (deep balls) really well in camp,” Calzada said. “I think we just missed a couple of those by fractions. I got to give them better passes, give them a chance to go make a play.”
While Stoops and Hamdan spent the final week of camp praising the progress from redshirt freshman backup quarterback Cutter Boley — the former Lexington Christian Academy four-star recruit the staff has pegged as the program’s quarterback of the future — neither coach hinted at any consideration of a quarterback change after the game.
The reality of the situation is Calzada took the vast majority of the first-team snaps in preseason camp for a reason.
“I think he was probably pressing,” Stoops said. “I mean, he seemed fine to me leading into the game and warming up and all that. But he cares, he wants to play well, cares about his teammates. I think he’ll look at this film, and there’s things he could do better.
“But that’ll be the same with everybody that played. Everybody can improve, and hopefully he’ll make a big jump. Just settle in and play some ball.”
The good news is Calzada should not be spooked by one poor performance.
This is his seventh college season. He has SEC experience. He has started an upset of the No. 1 team in the country.
In his significant snaps for Texas A&M in 2021, Calzada completed just 47.4% of his passes in relief of injured starter Haynes King in a 10-7 win over Colorado. A week later, he completed 19 of 33 passes for 275 yards and three touchdowns in his first career start, a 34-0 blowout of New Mexico State.
After sitting out the 2022 season at Auburn due to a shoulder injury, he began his Incarnate Word career by completing just 18 of 31 passes in a loss at UTEP. A week later, he completed 72.5% of his passes for 382 yards and three touchdowns in a win at Northern Colorado.
There will not be much time for him to build momentum at Kentucky though. Toledo may have been a popular upset pick in week one, but the challenge increases exponentially when No. 21 Ole Miss travels to Kroger Field in a week.
“I believe in him,” tight end Josh Kattus said of Calzada. “I’ve seen him make some of those throws in practice. I trust him. The whole team trusts him. He’s a really good ball player, and he throws some really good passes.
“I didn’t think twice of what happened today, and I know week two he’s going to be ready to go.”
This story was originally published August 30, 2025 at 6:36 PM.
