The switch to Cutter Boley has long-range ramifications for Kentucky football
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The announcement by Mark Stoops on Monday that true freshman Cutter Boley will be the Kentucky starting quarterback when the Wildcats end the 2024 season Saturday against Louisville assures that this season’s battle for the Governor’s Cup will carry historical import.
When Boley, the former Lexington Christian Academy star, takes the opening snap for UK on Saturday, he will become the first product of Lexington high school football to start at QB for Kentucky since Henry Clay’s Shane Boyd did so on Nov. 27, 2004, in a 37-31 loss at No. 15 Tennessee.
Boley’s start will be only the second of Kentucky’s last 111 games in which a quarterback from the commonwealth has started for the Wildcats. Ex-Somerset High School star Kaiya Sheron started for UK in place of an injured Will Levis on Oct. 8, 2022, in what became a 24-14 loss to South Carolina.
Other than that one-off for Sheron, you have to go back to the first three games of the 2016 season — which were started by former Conner High School star Drew Barker prior to his suffering a season-ending back injury — to find a Kentuckian starting at QB for UK.
At his final weekly news conference of what has been a slog of a Kentucky season (4-7, 1-7 SEC), Stoops expressed confidence in Boley. “This is his first start and I feel like he is ready for that,” Stoops said. “I’m excited for him and I’m excited for our team.”
Given chances to play the entire second halves of UK’s past two games vs. Murray State and at No. 3 Texas respectively, the 6-foot-5, 214-pound Boley looked good against both an overmatched, FCS defense in MSU and versus one of the elite defenses in FBS football last Saturday in Austin.
Even as the Wildcats fell 31-14 at Texas, Boley completed 10 of 18 passes for 160 yards with a late-game interception. That production came against a Longhorns defense that entered the contest No. 1 in the FBS in fewest yards allowed per game.
“I thought he handled himself very well,” Stoops said of Boley. “I thought he had a lot of poise in the pocket. I thought he distributed the football, had the vision to hit open receivers. ... You saw a lot of good things.”
For Stoops and UK, the decision to install Boley as the starting quarterback against Louisville (7-4, 5-3 ACC) carries implications far beyond whatever impact it will have on the Wildcats’ bid to retain the Governor’s Cup trophy for a sixth straight time.
Tabbing Boley to start the 2024 season finale certainly suggests that Stoops, offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan and the remainder of the UK offensive brain trust have decided the ex-LCA star is the quarterback around whom Kentucky will build in 2025.
If so, there obviously could be implications from that decision for the Kentucky roster.
After Brock Vandagriff started the first 11 games of the 2024 UK season, it’s hard to see how Kentucky could go back to the Georgia transfer as the Wildcats starter in 2025 after benching him for a true freshman to end this year.
Gavin Wimsatt, who Kentucky used as a change-of-pace QB for most of this season, previously made 19 career starts at quarterback for Rutgers. Having not turned 21 until Oct. 29, the former Owensboro High School star would seem to have more possibility for development than do most redshirt juniors.
One should not be shocked if both of the UK veteran QBs re-enter the transfer portal seeking a clearer path to a starting job in 2025.
In the Wildcats’ ideal scenario, Vandagriff would have held the Kentucky starting job in both 2024 and 2025. Then Boley and well-regarded class of 2025 Kentucky QB commit Stone Saunders could have battled it out for the starting job in spring practice 2026.
It will be interesting to see if Boley’s ascension to starter for the final game of 2024 affects the commitment of Saunders, a 6-1, 215-pound senior at Bishop McDevitt High School in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to UK.
That Kentucky is willing to assume so much potential quarterback uncertainty to elevate Boley is a testament to both:
1.) How little offensive punch the Cats have shown against high-level opposition this season while failing to ever score more than 20 points in eight SEC games;
2.) How good Boley has looked in the past two games.
Particularly impressive has been the freshman’s poise under duress and seeming ability to work through pass progressions and find receivers even while playing behind a UK offensive line that stands 115th out of 133 FBS teams in sacks allowed (33).
Louisville coach Jeff Brohm — who knows a thing or two about quarterback play — was asked at his own news conference Monday about the QB situation at Kentucky.
“I think they possibly found their quarterback of the future this past week who’s a true freshman,” Brohm said, referencing Boley.
In a decision that carries major ramifications for the Kentucky program, Stoops and UK have decided their future with Cutter Boley starts now.
This story was originally published November 25, 2024 at 5:41 PM.
