‘You have to learn from that.’ Cutter Boley resilient in the face of adversity
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Cutter Boley completed 10 of 19 passes with 2 interceptions in SEC debut loss.
- Kentucky surrendered 6 sacks and 4 turnovers in 35-13 defeat to South Carolina.
- Coaches cite Boley's resilience and long-term potential amid offensive struggles.
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In his two seasons in the Southeastern Conference, Bush Hamdan has learned that “You can’t ride the roller coaster.”
Kentucky’s offensive coordinator sat down with Cutter Boley at 10 p.m. on Saturday after the Wildcats’ 35-13 loss at South Carolina — a frustrating night for the offense and a disappointing loss in what was perceived as a winnable game to begin a cutthroat SEC stretch.
In his road debut as a starter, Boley completed 10 of his 19 pass attempts for 124 yards, zero touchdowns and two interceptions.
It marked the third start of Boley’s career — after the 2024 finale against Louisville (which he exited early due to a concussion) and this season’s Week 3 victory against Eastern Michigan — and dropped UK to 2-2 (0-2 SEC) on the year.
To not “ride the roller coaster,” means to not allow a game like Saturday’s against the Gamecocks to take you away from the game plan.
“He’s a good player,” Hamdan said. “And he’s a resilient kid. He’s never too high or too low.”
Ahead of Boley’s first SEC start, Hamdan spoke to him about the league’s quarterback landscape.
“Across the league,” Hamdan said. “How many teams are playing with their second guy? How many injuries there are…’Hey, man, it wasn’t perfect.’ But I’ll tell you what, I thought he competed, he showed toughness. He missed a couple of throws, and you make those throws and everything’s going in a different direction.”
Kentucky is one of three SEC teams to have made a quarterback switch at some point during the 2025 campaign, with Trinidad Chambliss taking over for an injured Austin Simmons at Ole Miss and Michael Hawkins Jr. preparing to lead Oklahoma this weekend in the wake of Heisman hopeful John Mateer’s recent minor hand surgery.
Saturday was a brutal night for the Wildcats, giving up six sacks — twice the season total through the first three games — and failing to score a touchdown after the first drive of the game while the South Carolina defense held Kentucky to just 232 offensive yards, 5-of-13 third-down conversions and 0-for-2 fourth down conversions.
The Wildcat offense gave up a pair of interceptions, including one pick-six, and two fumbles.
Head coach Mark Stoops stressed the importance of learning from each game and that the difficulties in losses like the one to the Gamecocks will only serve as a measure against which the young quarterback can improve.
“With every opportunity,” Stoops said. “You have to learn from that. Whether it’s success or failure or anywhere in between, you just have to get better and use that experience. And we have to play better around him, too. Give him that time…So Cutter will get better. The nice thing about him, he’s very resilient. He has a strong belief in himself, and the players believe in him as well.”
When asked more about Boley’s resilience, Stoops reaffirmed that Boley’s best is still ahead of him, and said that “He’s just getting started.”
“He’s very young in this process,” Stoops said. “For young players that are very talented, they feel like, ‘OK, wait a minute. I just sat one whole year. I’m ready to go.’ And, you know, that’s pretty hard. It’s pretty difficult for anybody. But he is very resilient. He has a strong belief in himself. The players believe in him. He has the talent, and he’ll continue to work and get better.”
Stoops went on to say that he doesn’t “anticipate (Boley’s) the type of player that’ll get affected by that.”
“It’s very early in this process right now,” Stoops said, adding that he spoke with Boley after the game “and he had a good attitude and said he’d be fine.”
For years now, Boley has been dubbed UK’s “quarterback of the future,” but tall tasks have often deterred, or distracted, young signal callers, regardless of hype.
Take Texas’ Arch Manning, who has so far failed to meet the sky-high expectations that come with his family name. Boley, though not hailing from football royalty, does take inspiration and lessons from his athletic family when it comes to dealing with the pressure of expectation.
Boley’s older sister, Erin, was the No. 5 overall girls basketball prospect in the class of 2016. Her now-husband, Zeke Pinkham, played baseball at Louisville. Boley’s older brother, Jaxon, played tight end at Wyoming, and their father, Scott, played basketball at Western Kentucky.
“I definitely had great role models in my life,” Boley said. “Like my sister, and my brother and my brother-in-law. Definitely all three great examples. Even my dad and my mother led me along the way. But I grew up in a very athletic childhood. There wasn’t a moment in my life where I wasn’t around some kind of sport. So I just had good role models in front of me that kind of taught me that (resilience).”
This season, Boley has completed 23 of 43 passing attempts (53.5%) for 402 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions. He’s been sacked seven times, all of which occurred against SEC competition.
Boley replaced seventh-year senior transfer Zach Calzada in the fourth quarter of UK’s Sept. 6 loss to Ole Miss after the veteran sustained a shoulder injuyr. Boley was elevated to the top of the depth chart ahead of the Wildcats’ game against South Carolina.
He will remain the starter for UK’s next matchup, Saturday at No. 12 Georgia. Following a Week 7 bye, Kentucky will play No. 9 Texas, No. 15 Tennessee, Auburn, Florida, undefeated FCS program Tennessee Tech, No. 16 Vanderbilt and Louisville.
Boley said he remains confident that “every guy’s coming out here, striving to get better every day,” and that he, along with “all these guys on this team,” truly believe that the Wildcats are close to finding the answer.
“We gotta keep going,” Boley said. “When we start out hot, we gotta keep that going. We gotta keep our head on straight, and we just gotta keep taking that next step, next step, next step. Thinking about the next play. Not thinking about the bigger picture, but just thinking about next play. Getting first downs, and keeping the ball moving.”
This story was originally published October 2, 2025 at 6:00 AM.
