Cutter Boley (Vicky Graff Photo)
By LARRY VAUGHT
Scott Boley thought he had some hectic times when his daughter, Erin, the Gatorade High School Basketball Player of the Year in 2016, was being recruited after her stellar career at Elizabethtown High School (she eventually picked Notre Dame, then transferred to Oregon after one year).
“But this last 48 hours has way surpassed any of the hectic times with Erin,” Scott Boley said.
That’s because his son, Kentucky redshirt freshman quarterback Cutter Boley, has been the center of attention after Mark Stoops was fired as UK’s coach on Sunday and then Oregon offensive coordinator Will Stein was named the new coach late Monday night.
“I think it is a great hire,” Scott Boley said. “He (Stein) came to Lexington a few times and watched Cutter’s workouts at LCA.”
Stein was the quarterback coach at Oregon at the time. Cutter Boley was offered a scholarship in October of his junior year by then-Oregon offensive coordinator Kenny Dillingham, before he left a few months later to become head coach at Arizona State.
“I would be lying if I didn’t admit for selfish reasons that I like the hire because I know he (Stein) really likedCutter in the recruiting process,” Scott Boley said. “I thought from the get-go when things were going down (with Stoops) that Will was probably my first thought.”
Scott Boley said he was under the impression Stoops was coming back for another year, and Cutter thought the same thing.
“But the way we lost the last two games (at Vanderbilt and Louisville) just pushed it over the edge in my opinion,” Scott Boley said Tuesday night. “But even Saturday night (after the Louisville loss) I did not know anything was going to happen.”
The college transfer portal is open Jan. 2-16. However, if a head coaching change is made, student-athletes will have a 15-day consecutive period beginning five days after a new coach is announced. That means Cutter Boley or any UK player could enter the transfer portal as early as Saturday.
“Nobody can contact players directly yet but there are a lot of go-between conversations to let you know people are interested,” Scott Boley said. “We know a lot of quarterbacks across the country because Cutter went to a lot of camps. We found out the truth is that quarterbacks know where they are going before the portal even opens. They don’t get in the portal and wait and see what happens.”
Cutter Boley made his own decision in high school when he chose UK over Florida State, Michigan, Penn State, and many others.
“We could have tried to talk him into something else (other than UK) but it would have been impossible. He would have refused to listen.” Scott Boley said. “We can advise or tell him what we think now, but this is still all his decision.
“Nothing has changed about how much he loves this fanbase, the school, the whole place. He really does love it.”
The UK quarterback’s long-term goal remains to play in the NFL.
“The most important thing is putting himself in the right situation and I certainly hope that is here,” Scott Boley said. “He can’t be medically retired (injured) before he gets out of college. That can be the offensive scheme. There’s more to it than the (offensive) line (blocking). I thought the majority of the year our line played very well.
“He took a beating many times this year. We don’t want him crippled when he is 25 years old. I know football players get beat up physically but a quarterback should not look like Cutter did 24 hours after some games. We just want him to be in as good a situation as possible.”
Stein met with the team on Tuesday afternoon and will hold a press conference this afternoon. Certainly, Stein took time to meet with Boley now that he’s allowed to have contact with his player. Not only would Boley give Stein an experienced quarterback, but he could also help ensure other players don’t transfer and offer personnel insights that could help Stein.
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Several media outlets reported Tuesday night that former Lexington Catholic/University of Louisville quarterback Justin Burke will join Stein’s staff. He has been the offensive coordinator at UT San Antonio.
Burke was at Louisville at the same time as Stein, and the two coached together at UT San Antonio before Stein left for Oregon.
2 Responses
Our O line play was passable but can be better. Our running game needs to improve as does our receivers. That should be Stein's first priority. If we are going to get beat, let's have some fun at least. Nobody likes to watch a team that scores fewer points than there are days in any given month. Get the offense fixed and work on the defense in year 2.
I wonder signing Matt Ponatoski will push Boley to the transfer portal, but again we may never see Matt play football due to his baseball skills.