Cutter Boley with his mother and sister after announcing his commitment to UK.
If Vince Marrow is even close to being right — and he usually is — then true freshman quarterback Cutter Boley has to play and play a lot against Murray State Saturday afternoon.
The Kentucky recruiting coordinator compared Boley to former UK great Tim Couch, the No. 1 pick in the 1999 NFL draft and soon to be inducted in the College Football Hall of Fame.
“He was a very highly-recruited young man, some people said he was a five-star. He had every offer in the country, which you see with him. He has the height — he’s about 6-5 — and he has an elite arm. He’s a young man that really fits in well with this team,” Marrow said while filling in for coach Mark Stoops on his weekly radio show Monday night.
“This is what you want as a quarterback. He has leadership capability, but I like Cutter because he just fits in and he’s driven. He comes from a very athletic family.”
No disrespect to Boley’s family, but what matters here is that Boley “fits in well” with the team, has a big arm and maybe can help interject life into what has been a stagnant offense.
Marrow talked about Boley throwing a perfect pass to a wide receiver on a sideline route in practice. Marrow said he became an even bigger believer in Boley then.
“I was watching him today in practice and he threw an out route, it was just on a dime. I’m just like, ‘Wow, this kid, his future is really going to be good, but the future may be now,’” Marrow said Monday night on the radio show.
“He’s playing a little bit now and I know we plan on playing him. I know coach Stoops was saying we were going to play him in this game.”
Kentucky better. The former Lexington Christian standout had his choice of college offers but opted to stay home and play for Kentucky. He’s been in only one game and has watched both Brock Vandagriff and Gavin Wimsatt struggle to produce consistent scoring.
Kentucky’s offense certainly has had more issues than quarterback play but if Boley is being compared to Couch by the associate head coach, then he needs to have a chance to play for a 3-6 team.
“I’m excited because I told Tim Couch — I saw him Saturday and I said, ‘Man, Cutter kind of reminds me of a young you the way you throw the ball.’ I really believe this young man really has a bright future,” Marrow said.
But where will that bright future be? I wonder if Boley does not start Saturday and maybe only gets in the game once the score is out of hand if he will not wonder what his future is like at Kentucky. Vandagriff will be back at UK next year unless he transfers and the Cats figure to sign Pennsylvania prep quarterback Stone Saunders in December. If Boley does not see a path to playing time next season — or at least a realistic chance to compete — he might contemplate his future.
“You gotta have leadership, and you gotta have moxie. You gotta have that dog mentality as a quarterback,” Marrow said.
The UK coach remembered when Baker Mayfield, now the starting quarterback for the Tampa Bay Bucs, played at Oklahoma and had that “dog mentality” in college.
“That’s what I see in Cutter. I just think he has that moxie and what you that ‘it’ factor. He rallies a lot of different nationalities. They really, really want to play for him,” Marrow said. “I can’t wait to see it unleashed when he actually takes the reins.”
My guess is that UK needs to “unleash” Boley Saturday not only to see what he can do but also to confirm he’s wanted back for 2025.
14 Responses
There are not any QBs at any level who could survive the inept coaching by the UK OC, OL coach, & of course the HC who operated the revolving door for the staff.
It’s dangerous for any QB to play at UK until a real OC & OL coach are hired & that would require a new HC.
Brock, Cutler, Beaux & Gavin (who is not a QB & could be a star if not put in that position) are all good players who would excel with a well-coached OL.
UK FB is beyond being on life support. Some of the coaches & players show no signs of life.
On point! Agree 💯
Yes it is. With a bye week to work with there is plenty of time to give Boley practice time with the starting offense. Give him an opportunity to play against Murray State and let’s see how he does. Even if he looks good, I don’t think playing him in the Texas or Louisville game is wise. Surely our off again on again offensive line can protect him against the Racers. Who knows, he may lead us to a win. Vandagriff and Wimsatt can take the wheel in the last two games as their audition for next year.
It’s the only safe approach & it may be the only way to keep him at UK if the coaching staff is not revamped.
I agree, but Stoops seems to have a really hard time trusting young quarterbacks. The only way this kid is going to learn is to throw him in there. It might even save some of our Offensive recruits if they see Cutter playing well, with a bright future.
BVG will not be back at UK next year. He knows what he can do with a good offensive line because he had that opportunity at Georgia. He almost won the starting job there and Kirby said it was a toss up between BVG and Beck. Why would you want to stay your last year with a team that is in total disarray and coach that doesn’t seem to have any idea how to fix it???
Precisely presented facts!
Not sure that Brock really does know how good he is or can be because he really hasn’t lived up to the hype at either school. Our OC and OL coaches are pathetic but even in the times of protection he still doesn’t show confidence or accuracy.
I think that has to do with his confidence. You can’t be confident when your getting chased around 75% of the time. Even when he doesn’t get sacked he still is running for his life. He 25% of the time that we do protect right he looks nervous that he’s going to get killed. I just don’t think we have the right system for a BVG type quarterback. He is a pocket passer. Bush prefers a athletic quarterback for his system and I see why. It takes so long for the play to develop. By the time it does develop he has either took off running with nowhere to go or he thinks long and he thinks wrong. He looks for Key on 80% of his passes so the defense can suffocate Key and he still forces the ball to him. Another reason for this is that Bush likes just 2 receivers to go out for passes. Which is another terrible philosophy. Since Stoops is staying another year he needs to fire Bush Hamden. Here’s the problem!! Year 2 is usually the start of the offensive coordinators success. Year 1 he implements his system. Year 2 everyone has it memorized and can run the plays without any thought. It looks like we are going half speed, like they are trying to remember the play or something. That should all be worked out by this spring. If BVG, Barion Brown, and Dane Key all come back they will be much better next year. It takes a year or 2 to also gel completely with your team mates. I do think this if those 3 would come back. Wilcox and DSK return. That will be thunder and lightning next year. We can somehow get about 5-7 offensive lineman in the portal. We should return Burton, Ray, Farmer, Wood, Selm, and Ford. Also Ben Christman will be fully healed from his injury. If we can get 5-7 more quality offensive lineman and a couple of receivers on offense we will be great. On defense we are losing Walker, Weaver, Pop and Hairston. Everyone else will be back. Plus we will have Hayes and Henry back on the defense and a ton of players got early reps this year that they would have had to wait next year for them because of all the injuries this year. Since Stoops is coming back we should keep more players than we lose. We already have a top 20 recruiting class. Now we need a top 5-10 transfer portal class. If we can do all this and more we should be solid again next year on defense and even better on offense. How many wins that translates too idk. I just know we can’t do much worse than this year.
I think Wolford has to go. He screwed up Alabama’s OL and they always have better talent than we do. Besides, everyone, even the players, know he doesn’t want to be at UK. He came back just make sure he had a paycheck.
The question about Wolford is this. Is he getting in done? Philosophy doesn’t mean much if you can’t put into practice. It does not matter if he and Stoops are on the same page if it cannot be translated into performance. If the answer is yes then Stoops has to explain how the O Line can be confirmed as a success this year. If the answer is no, then the requirement is obvious.
Not a Wolford fan myself RJohn
Bad news STOOPS just announced BVG will start under center? Yes I know it makes no sense. What does Brock V. Gain by beating up on weaker competition? At this point I think he needs to start developing the younger talent. He will probably start all the starters and we will lose a couple to senseless injuries and get pounded by Texas. He needs to use all this time off to get everyone healthy with the bye week and the Murray state game that’s a possible 20 days we can go and get as many guys back as possible for the last 2 games. I think with a fully healthy roster we can compete with anyone. We played against Florida and Auburn with almost 15 starters listed as out and doubtful. You should get most of them back by the time we play Texas. We will see how he moves against Murray State. If anything Cutter should start the whole second half. He needs a opportunity to run the whole offense without looking over his shoulder.
There is one reason, and one reason ONLY, why Boley would not get any clock in this game against Murray: Stoops is TERRIFIED of actually losing this game–because he knows if they were to lose, that would be his ass. His lack of confidence and trust in his own team is so bad that it’s almost like sometimes he’s just in the wrong business. I mean, as a coach, u can’t start thinking like a fan! The worst part about it is tho, that his level of mistrust is well-placed: at least offensively, our team really is THAT lousy, and there’s a strong chance that we won’t get into a comfortable enough of a position even against Murray to where Stoops will lose fear of putting Boley in the game. He’ll get in with 4 or 5 mins left in the game and us with a 27-6 lead, and he’ll hand off to a running back 4 straight times.
Near the end of the year typical Ky football crap.I am also not a Wolford fan…I think the guy shit on Ky with his classless departure for Alabama..Why would you hire him back..
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