UK coaches hyped Cutter Boley in camp, so is he an option to boost offense?

There were no surprises on the pre-Ole Miss depth chart released by Mark Stoops on Monday.

Zach Calzada remains Kentucky football’s starting quarterback after a disappointing debut for the Wildcats. Much-hyped redshirt freshman Cutter Boley remains the backup.

“It’s something we evaluate all the time, but we still have a lot of confidence in Zach and we have confidence in Cutter in there,” Stoops said Monday. “It would have been premature to pull the plug right there. I mean, I really believe Zach’s going to do very well.”

No SEC quarterback with at least 10 passing attempts in the opener threw for fewer yards than Calzada did (85) in a 24-16 win over Toledo. His 65.83 quarterback rating was worse than any other SEC starter by at least 40 points.

There were mistakes in key moments too.

With Kentucky leading 7-0 in the first quarter, Calzada rushed a throw over the middle as he was hit. The ball did not even reach the intended receiver, instead floating into the arms of Toledo defensive back Nasir Bowers.

Kentucky’s defense overcame the mistake, mounting a goal-line stop on the ensuing Toledo possession, but Calzada was tackled for a safety on the next play when he elected to keep the ball instead of handing it off as instructed.

The next Kentucky possession ended with another turnover when tight end Willie Rodriguez lost a fumble after a 23-yard catch-and-run.

“Even on our sideline, I’ll be honest with you, like it was deflating, those possessions, and we can’t afford to do that,” Stoops said. “And that kind of took some of the air out of the stadium. So we apologize to our fans for that, because we felt like (fans) were there and teed up and ready to go and supporting us.”

While Stoops and offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan stressed after the win that the struggles in the passing game were not Calzada’s fault alone, film review of the performance does not appear to have changed the perception that Calzada struggled.

“I think Zach was really pressing,” Stoops said. “You watch the film, and he did some good things. He put the ball in some places that we need to convert. And then there were some that he missed and some decisions that I’m sure he’s going to look at this tape and want to do over.

“There’s a lot that he can improve on, but a lot around him as well. We’ll get it fixed.”

But how long is the leash for Calzada as Kentucky’s starter?

He took the vast majority of the first-team snaps in spring practice and preseason camp, but Stoops went out of his way to praise Boley’s progress after the final preseason scrimmage, reminding fans and reporters he had not actually named Calzada the starter yet. Kentucky coaches continue to describe Boley as the program’s quarterback of the future, while leaving open the possibility that the future could arrive more quickly than anticipated.

“Cutter is doing a lot of really good things,” Hamdan said during the last week of preseason camp. “...To see where he’s come from last year to this year, just his mental approach, how calm he is out there, he is pushing the needle on this thing in a big way.”

It was easy to dismiss some of the coaches’ public praise for Boley throughout the offseason as a strategy to convince him to not consider transferring to a program that could guarantee him a starting job, but Boley told the Herald-Leader at UK’s preseason media day he never considered transferring, even after UK signed Calzada as its presumptive starter.

“I’m really comfortable with Coach Hamdan and how he runs his offense and how he coaches,” Boley said. “...This is where I want to be. My heart’s in Kentucky. … I mean, I want to be here, and I’m excited to be here, but I want to play.”

Boley arrived at Kentucky as arguably the program’s most-hyped quarterback signee since Tim Couch, but the initial plan was for him to spend two years developing behind Brock Vandagriff. When Vandagriff struggled and Boley impressed in second-half cameos against Murray State and Texas during his redshirt season last fall, it looked like the timeline might have been accelerated.

Vandagriff’s decision to retire from football rather than use his final season of college eligibility made it even more likely that Boley’s time as Kentucky’s starter was nearing. But Kentucky did not score on any of Boley’s 10 drives against Power Four competition in 2024. His lone start, the season finale against Louisville, failed to match the soaring hype created by his performance at Texas and ended early due to a head injury.

With Vandagriff retiring and 2024 backup Gavin Wimsatt transferring to find a starting opportunity at a smaller program, Kentucky had little choice but to add a veteran to at least compete with Boley. Calzada, who began his career at Texas A&M, fit that mold as a seventh-year senior, but considering he had spent the past two seasons at the FCS level was not a sure bet to succeed in his return to the SEC.

“There’s a number of different areas I needed to improve in coming off last year, so I knew I just keep my head down, work in those areas, be the best I can be, and then not be too focused on the future and just kind of go at that opportunity when it comes,” Boley said at the beginning of camp.

One bad game is not enough to assume Calzada will not succeed at Kentucky. If the Wildcats can carry the week one rushing success over to SEC games, the pressure on Calzada will be decreased.

But that style of offense requires him to make better decisions and make the most of the deep shots Hamdan does call. Two pass interference penalties were the only positives from those shots against Toledo.

“We told him, it’s week one,” Hamdan said after the game. “You’re going to get faced with adversity. I’ve asked those guys from a game day management standpoint to 100% focus on whatever it takes to win the game. And I feel like, from that whole group … There were 50 guys focused on whatever it took to win. That’s a big step in the right direction.”

For a Kentucky team that currently looks like an underdog in all eight of its SEC games and the finale against Louisville, Stoops and Hamdan cannot afford to stick with Calzada too long, though. If Boley truly was pushing for the starting job late in camp, another dud from Calzada might be enough to consider a change.

Stoops pointed to Ole Miss quarterback Austin Simmons, whom Kentucky will face Saturday, as a possible blueprint for Boley’s development. Simmons did not play while redshirting in 2023. He appeared in nine games as the backup to Jaxson Dart in 2024. Simmons attempted just 32 passes last season, but he did lead Ole Miss on a first-half scoring drive against Georgia when Dart was temporarily sidelined.

Now in his third year in the program, Simmons has taken over as the Ole Miss starter. He opened the season by completing 20 of 31 passes for 341 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions in a 63-7 win over Georgia State.

That comparison does not exactly suggest Boley’s time as starter is imminent, but of course, the difference between 2024 Ole Miss and 2025 Kentucky is that Calzada and Dart appear to be two different caliber of starters ahead of the talented youngster. It was easy to justify keeping Simmons on the bench last season when Ole Miss was starting a future first-round NFL Draft pick. The calculus will be different for Stoops if Calzada continues to struggle.

“We’ll evaluate those things,” Stoops said. “Both guys are going to get better. I will say, after watching the tape several times, I felt better about it because there are things that that we know we can get fixed.”

This story was originally published September 2, 2025 at 6:00 AM.

Jon Hale

Lexington Herald-Leader

(859) 414-6776

Jon Hale is the University of Kentucky football beat writer for the Lexington Herald-Leader. He joined the Herald-Leader in 2022 but has covered UK athletics for more than 10 years. Hale was named the 2021 Kentucky Sportswriter of the Year. Support my work with a digital subscription