Zach Calzada (Vicky Graff Photo)
Veteran receiver Ja’Mori Maclin recently said that Kentucky quarterback Nick Calzada knows “where to put the ball and he will throw you open” even if the defensive back has the play covered.
Is that possible? If anyone knows, it should be former all-SEC running back Anthony White of Kentucky who is also the host of WLAP Sunday Morning Sports Talk. White ran for 1,758 yards and 11 touchdowns from 1997-99 and still ranks 14th on UK’s all-time rushing list. During those same three years with Tim Couch and Dusty Bonner at quarterback, he caught 194 passes for 1,520 yards and eight scores while averaging 7.8 yards per catch. The only UK players with more catches are Craig Yeast (208) and Derek Abney (197).
White is also 11th on UK’s all-time career receiving yardage list with his 1,520 yards and White’s 78 catches in 1998 are the fifth-best mark at UK behind Wan’Dale Robinson (104), James Whalen (90), Yeast (85), and Randall Cobb (84).
White said Couch was “great” at throwing off the movement of the defense and assumes that is what Maclin meant about Calzada, a transfer who seemed to emerge from spring practice as UK’s No. 1 quarterback.
“Tim would know where he was going with the ball within his third step, so I could tell when he’s throwing to me. The crazy thing about Tim, and I don’t know if he’s saying this about Zach, if there’s a defensive player pursuing me on the left side, he would throw the ball to my right shoulder to turn me away from him,” White said. “His execution was stellar, but even him processing things to know where he’s gonna go with it is the big first step to know who you’re gonna go to.
“Then he had the accuracy to put the ball on the left shoulder, right shoulder, throw it low so somebody don’t take your head off.”
White said too often last year UK had open receivers that were either overthrown or under thrown. White said Maclin’s praise of Calzada makes him believe the quarterback has spent a lot of time in the playbook already but also understands how to quickly process what he sees.
“I thought the same things about Devin Leary. He processed, he knew where to go with the ball early. He could make all the throws. Only problem with Devin was he didn’t have a whole lot of time to do all that processing, and the more he got hit, the worse it looked,” White said. “He didn’t have time to process because he was trying to stay out of the hospital.
“If Zach does know where to go with it and has the time to process, then I think it’s great. The only problem is on every Saturday of this year, he’s gonna have to have the time to be able to process. But all those comments means that he knows where to go with the ball.”
White said Maclin obviously feels confident if he gets open, Calzada will get him the ball. It’s the same way he felt with Couch and then Bonner.
“I always told you the only way you get the ball in the Air Raid (offense) was just make sure you were open because Tim was gonna throw it to whoever’s open,” White said. “So if you run a half route because you’re on the backside or you are not giving effort to get open, that’s your fault. But if you do everything you gotta do to get open, you’re gonna get the ball. I felt like that’s what Maclin was saying about Zach.”
5 Responses
Anthony White a legend. I still have his autograph on a half blue half white ball from a open practice. One of the most complete running backs to ever suit up in the blue and white. Fred Farrier reminds me of Kio Sanford the way he runs his routes. I look for him to be more of a force this year.
Zach Calzada reminds me of Louisville’s quarterback from last year. Old and game savvy. I think he’s a little bit more fine tuned then Louisvilles quarterback and he knows were to place the ball every time. He is a upgrade from Brock V. I think he also moves better than Leary. Leary would have thrown for 3,000 yards if he had any kind of offensive line. I expect Zach to break the 3,000 yard curse. My biggest take is who starts in 2026? Stone Saunders or Cutter Boley? Cutter has the leg up right now from experience but Stone Saunders is a winner and does whatever it takes to win like Diego P. At Vandy. We need to get at least 1-2 more receivers in the transfer portal. I would go after the best receivers you can find. There should be a couple available during the spring transfer portal but you have to be careful not to waste a scholarship on someone who won’t get any playing time. Most people who left the portal during the spring is because they were buried on the depth chart. I would love to see Gilmore come back. He’s still very young and should just be a true freshman in college football this year. I think Stoops would welcome him with open arms seeing he could start or be a great backup.
Quarterbacks and receivers matter very little if they don’t have an offensive line that allows time for plays to develop. Stoops only knows defense. That is why our offense sucks.
Stoops needs to leave the offense alone and let someone come in and take full control of it. I don’t know if Bush Hamden was the right man for the job, but its also unfair to evaluate his success with the offensive line we had last year. He didn’t recruit anyone on the offensive line so its clearly not his fault. You can’t call plays that work if the line isn’t doing there job. We also can’t seem to keep offensive lineman more than a year or 2. You have to have 9-10 guys that can play and win in the trenches. We can’t seem to do that. If we get 1-2 injuries it absolutely rocks our chances of winning. The other observable matter about the offensive line is if you have very big bodies that’s usually great for run blocking, pass blocking is more agility and foot speed. It seems in years past we go after huge slow lineman. This year we have longer more agile bodies which should mean better pass protection. We lost a great pass blocking offensive lineman who didn’t allow a sack before he ever played a game. I don’t understand it because we need guys like him if we are going to pass the football. I almost hope Stoops has a outstanding year and maybe leaves for a bigger brand or we have a terrible season and he gets fired one of the two. Anywhere in the middle and he will be back for another year or 2. I would rather win big so another school could take him off our hands. I just want Jon Sumrall. I think he could take our program to the next level that has avoided Stoops all these years.
Terry, talking about Nave? Enjoyed your comments.
I see only three wins for the Cats this season.