Offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan, center, has added another quarterback to the UK roster.
Kentucky added an experienced quarterback to go with redshirt freshmen Cutter Boley and true freshmen Stone Saunders and Brennen Ward for the 2024 season when Zach Calzada committed to the Cats on Thursday.
He started his collegiate career at Texas A&M before transferring to Auburn and finally Incarnate Word for the last two seasons.
Some felt Duke quarterback Maalik Murphy was UK’s top target in the transfer portal but he picked Oregon State. However, several UK sources said earlier this week that Calzada was the top choice.
How old is Calzada? He was in the 2019 recruiting class when he signed with Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher and in 2021 he played in 12 games when the Aggies went 8-4. Calzada threw for 2,185 yards and 17 touchdowns while completing 56 percent of his passes with nine interceptions. His signature game came in a 41-38 win over Alabama when he threw for three touchdowns and 285 yards.
After Fisher was fired, Calzada transferred to Auburn but he did not play in any games in 2022 and transferred to Incarnate Word, a FCS school. He threw for 2,598 yards and 10 while completing 66 percent of his passes with nine picks. Last season he completed 343 of 524 passes, a 65.5 percent completion rate, for 3,744 yards, and 35 touchdowns. Incarnate Word finished 11-3.
Calzada is using his “medical redshirt” year from 2022 to play another season. CBS Sports’ Will Backus is not sold that Kentucky landed a game-changing player.
“Calzada is coming off a huge year at Incarnate Word, in which he threw for 3,744 yards and 35 touchdowns, though he did average just 7.1 yards per attempt. He also has 27 interceptions in his last three years of football and he hasn’t played in the SEC since 2021 — when he completed 56.1 percent of his passes and had a career-low passer rating as a starter,” Backus wrote.
“Maybe Calzada’s grown in that time, but he’s also entering his seventh year of college football so there’s not much upside to find. Plus, Kentucky’s hit-rate on transfer quarterbacks since Will Levis has been well below the Mendoza Line at a startling .000.”
Brutal honesty that could well indicate Kentucky’s plan is still for Boley, who seems to have a much bigger upside, to develop in the offseason and spring practice to win the starting job. Calzada has not faced SEC competition since 2021 — Boley’s high school sophomore season.
Another key here is that Calzada, 24, has just one year of eligibility left. Boley has four more years of eligibility. Coach Mark Stoops has indicated several times that Boley is his quarterback of the future.
I know NIL and the transfer portal have changed the dynamics of college football but eventually Kentucky has to get back to developing young talent and not depending on the transfer portal for miracles.
6 Responses
No mention of Brock?
Is he in the transfer portal?
It does not seem very smart for Stoops to declare Boley the QB of the future before Stone Saunders even puts in a jersey. Of course, there are not any recent signs of Stoops being smart.
A loser OC with a loser OC Line coach is not a winning combo so any QB is facing a big disadvantage.
Not that we have a choice but we should wait and see what we get from Calzada before dismissing him in a Cats uniform. Once in a while you get lucky. Even a blind Squirrell finds an acorn occasionally.
I heard that Vandergrift has more than likely played his last game. A severe concussion last year has him reevaluating life. Stoops has done more than any coach ever for Ky football and people want to question his "smarts". I question their smarts.
Maybe you’re right Jimmy but it’s clear that Stoops took a year off prior to coming into the ’24 season.
Jimmy is always right. He knows better than all the rest of us,and will tell us so too. We aren’t allowed to criticize any of the coaches at KY when he is in the room–only when he’s out. If he were running UK, CAL would still be here and would be here as long as he wanted to be, Stoops would already have a statue built and would have an "official" lifetime contract–the same kind of contract CAL had. And Elzy would still be running the womens bball program to serve the DEI agenda. U gotta run all your opinions and ideas thru Jimmy first–he is THE BOSS on here!!! U have to apply for your UK fandomship license thru him, and u gotta pass the written UK-fan-virtue exam to get your license in order to prove that you are WORTHY of obtaining that fan license!! Just remember, criticizing the coaches is OFF THE TABLE—thats virtue-signal #1!!!!!
Now that I think about it, Jimmy may be Mitch Barnhart’s son, and that would make sense and explain everything–and that would also explain why he never provides his last name, either……yea, that’s it: JIMMY BARNHART!! LOL!!!!