Morgan Newton, left, is a big believer in quarterback Cutter Boley. (Lisa Collins/LCA Photo)
Former University of Kentucky quarterback Morgan Newton was a high school All-American as well as Mr. Football and the Gatorade Player of the Year as a senior in Indiana after throwing for 1,938 yards and 22 touchdowns and running for 1,664 yards and 26 scores the same season.
He led Carmel High School to three straight state championship game appearances and one title as his team went 38-7 those three seasons.
He’s now the quarterbacks coach at Lexington Christian where he works with Cutter Boley, a five-star recruit who verbally committed to Kentucky on Thursday over Penn State, Michigan, Tennessee and Florida State.
“Cutter is just cool as a cucumber. He very rarely even in some environments we have been in does he get out of character,” Newton said. “A couple of times last year we as coaches looked at each other said, ‘This kid has a chance to be so special.”
Newton remembered a game last season against Christian Academy of Louisville where Boley suffered a high ankle sprain.
“The No. 1 trait a quarterback has got to have is to be able to be tough. You are Going get hit and have to play hurt. He just did not want to come out of the game. He just kept fighting and that impressed me,” Newton said.
The 6-5, 208-pound Boley completed 254 of 400 passes for 3,901 yards and 36 touchdowns with 15 interceptions last season. He also ran for six touchdowns during LCA’s 9-5 season.
Newton signed with Kentucky and went 5-2 as a starter his freshman year to get UK to the 2009 Music City Bowl after starter Mike Hartline was injured. He was 21 of 36 passing for 211 yards in the 2019 BBVA Compass Bowl after Hartline was suspended. He started eight games as a junior and threw for 793 yards and eight touchdowns, including 255 yards and two scores against Louisville. He played sparingly in seven games in 2012 after coming off shoulder surgery.
“The good thing about Cutter is he is not wound tight. When you are around him there is kind of a calming, cool aura to him on and off the field. People just gravitate to him.”
Newton said Boley is working on things a 17-year-old quarterback should be doing but the LCA staff is also stressing how to be a strong leader, how to get others to rally around him and how to stay accountable at all times.
“Recruiting analysts and college coaches know all about the quantitative stuff like size, weight, speed, hand size. We want to help him grow as a leader. That’s one of the biggest things,” Newton said. “We want to have him more prepared for the next level but he also has some unique resources that others don’t have that will help him.”
