{"id":358968,"date":"2025-09-11T08:02:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T08:02:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/358968\/"},"modified":"2025-09-11T08:02:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T08:02:11","slug":"cutter-boley-expected-to-start-at-quarterback-for-kentucky-vs-eastern-michigan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/358968\/","title":{"rendered":"Cutter Boley Expected to Start at Quarterback for Kentucky vs. Eastern Michigan"},"content":{"rendered":"

After a rough two weeks for the Kentucky passing attack, Mark Stoops and Bush Hamdan are making a change. KSR has learned that redshirt freshman Cutter Boley<\/a> is expected to take the reins of the offense as the starting quarterback when the Wildcats host Eastern Michigan Saturday night at Kroger Field.<\/p>\n

Mark Stoops did not share the news publicly during Wednesday\u2019s SEC Teleconference, but did state that Boley has taken all of the first-team reps this week. Despite Bush Hamdan\u2019s statement on Monday night, Calzada still has not returned to practice. <\/p>\n

Boley is stepping in for Zach Calzada<\/a>, the seventh-year college football journeyman who suffered an injury to his throwing shoulder in the loss to Ole Miss. In two starts, Calzada completed 25-53 passes (47.1%) for 234 yards, zero touchdowns, and one interception. His QB rating of 80.49 is last in the SEC. <\/p>\n

After Calzada\u2019s fourth quarter injury, Boley entered the game for the final two drives against Ole Miss. He was just a hair away from connecting with Willie Rodriguez<\/a> in the end zone to tie the game. Ultimately, that drive ended in a fourth-down sack. Trailing by ten with under two minutes to go, Boley\u2019s 38-yard pass to Hardley Gilmore<\/a> got Kentucky into field goal range for one final score. <\/p>\n

Boley appeared in four games as a true freshman. He logged his first real snaps against Murray State. After throwing for two touchdowns against the FCS opponent, he got thrown into the fire at Texas and performed well. He could not get Kentucky to punch it into the end zone, but his 160-yard outing was enough to earn the start against Louisville. That\u2019s when all of the good vibes soured. He was picked off twice and ultimately exited the game early with an injury. <\/p>\n

A former four-star recruit and a Kentucky native, Stoops billed Boley as the quarterback of the future. When exactly his number would be called was unclear. That future felt distant until Boley became the most talked about player at fall camp. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t even know who he is at this point,\u201d Ja\u2019Mori Maclin<\/a> said<\/a> during fall camp. The wide receiver was blown away by Boley\u2019s transformation leading into the 2025 season. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it comes to decision-making, he\u2019s been very, very good compared to spring. He\u2019s young, so it probably took him a little bit to slow down for him, but I think it\u2019s slowed down for him well,\u201d said Maclin<\/a>. \u201cHe\u2019s quick with his decisions, knows where guys are getting lined up, he\u2019s orchestrating guys, done a very good job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kentucky\u2019s passing offense has been incredibly ineffective. It\u2019s earlier than expected, but Mark Stoops is ready to give Cutter Boley an opportunity to lead the Wildcats. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After a rough two weeks for the Kentucky passing attack, Mark Stoops and Bush Hamdan are making a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":302887,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2026],"tags":[50933,7,40413],"class_list":{"0":"post-358968","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-cutter-boley-24-lexington-christian-academy","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-zach-calzada-19-lanier"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115184621888899548","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=358968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358968\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}