Quarterback Cutter Boley after rushing for a touchdown against Texas. (Vicky Graff Photo)
It was no surprise that Kentucky coach Mark Stoops was asked about redshirt freshman quarterback Cutter Boley during Wednesday’s Southeastern Conference teleconference.
Boley completed 31 of 39 passes for 258 yards and one interception during Saturday’s 16-13 overtime loss against Texas. He also had 14 rushes for 45 yards with one touchdown. He also completely outplayed highly touted Texas quarterback Arch Manning.
It was easily Boley’s best performance of the season and the kind of performance Kentucky fans had been hoping to see from the in-state player that coach Mark Stoops has repeatedly called the “future” of the program.
“Just a ton of growth. And I think that’s what excites me, excites a lot of people in the building and with his teammates. He’s just a very good player. He’s very young, but he has certainly taken some very big steps week to week,” Stoops said Wednesday.
“Hopefully he’ll continue to do that. I thought he did some really good things this past week. In particular, we’ve struggled with completion percentage amongst other things, but just to see him complete nearly 80 percent against a very, very good defense was exciting to see because he was certainly under duress and getting a lot of pressure on him.
“He was able to manage that. And so hopefully we’ll see him continue to progress in the right direction.”
Kentucky hosts Tennessee Saturday night and Stoops knows the Vols have a “disruptive” defense. Tennessee coach Josh Heupel also has a 4-0 mark against Stoops and Kentucky.
“Up front, very dominant, very aggressive up front. And this ain’t really, you can say the same aggressive with the second level at linebacker and in the back end, very aggressive unit,” Stoops said.
“You could kind of play downhill when you start up front. You got guys coming after the quarterback. It kind of starts there and lets the second and third levels play equally as aggressive. So a very good unit, very impressed by them.”
4 Responses
If the offensive line could give him adequate time to throw the ball we will have a better chance to win. Also I know I'm not the only person that has noticed that we play much better in a hurry up offense. When we need yards quick we get them. When we take the whole play clock to run a play it gives the defense more time to figure out what we are doing. If ol Bush Hamden hasn't realized this by now he needs to evaluated. I still can't believe we got the ball on the 2.5 yard line with 4 plays to run and we run up the middle every time except for one time where we line up like a run and it was a designed QB run and Cutter just couldnt scramble his way into the end zone. I thought he was going to pump fake get the defense in the air and then take off. We didn't score and it killed us. Why run up the middle? We had not gained a yard running up the middle the whole game but on those plays he expected it to work? Bad play calling lost that game for us along with other things. It's like uncle lou a Georgia football YouTube show says Kentucky almost always has a chance but never wins. That's coaching ladies and gentlemen. You have to call the right plays to win. That's just football.
I can see it now; UK needs a score to win and Stoops tells Boley to do exactly what I tell you!!! Try to pass it three times then You Punt it! Boley passes it three times for completions and the ball is on the one yard line! He runs back and try’s to punt and fumbles the ball. When Boley gets to the sideline Stoops asked Him what was he thinking? Boley says I was thinking about the bad coaching we have!
Boley just needs more playing time to develop his skill, confidence and decision making. I am not sure if we have another win on the schedule, but developing Boley for next year outweighs wins and losses this season. Calzada joins the ranks of all of the other transfer fizzle outs and Stoops moves on to Virginia Tech at the end of the season. Hopefully, Jon Sumrall will still be available for next year.
One would think that if UK manages to L out that Stoop's value in the marketplace would take such a hit that it would be easy for VT to TAMU.