Cutter Boley named Kentucky's starting quarterback for Governor's Cup

Kentucky has a new starting quarterback ahead of their season finale this weekend.

Mark Stoops announced on Monday that Cutter Boley, the true freshman, will be the Wildcats’ QB1 against Louisville in the Governor’s Cup on Saturday. He will take the place of Brock Vandagriff after he had started every other game of their season.

Freshman Cutter Boley will be Kentucky's starting quarterback vs. Louisville.

Mark Stoops made the announcement at today's press conference.

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“He does. He does get to start, yeah,” Stoops said at his press conference earlier this morning.

“I thought he just handled himself very well. Once again, you know, just, thought he had a lot of poise in the pocket. I thought he distributed the football, you know, had the vision to hit open receivers. You know, the arm strength to get the ball down the field on his second play. You know, saw a lot of good things,” Stoops said of Boley’s outing this last weekend. “I thought he did some really good things and, you know, he deserves the opportunity to get his start here this week.”

Boley has made appearances in three games so far this season, including being the starter for the past two second halves for the team against Murray State and then this past weekend in place of Vandagriff at Texas.

In those opportunities during his first collegiate season, Boley is 20-38 (52.6%) overall passing for 290 yards, two touchdowns, and two interceptions. However, he has been better in his last two after all six of his attempts were incomplete, including a pick-six, when inserted late during the fourth quarter of their blowout loss at Florida. Just looking at the limited action in the halves against the Racers and Longhorns, Boley is 20-32 (62.5%) for those 290 yards with the pair of touchdowns and then just the one pick this weekend in Austin.

Boley, a native of Hodgenville, Kentucky just an hour and a half outside of Lexington, played high school football at Lexington Christian Academy, which is located just a few minutes down the street from Kroger Field. He was a four-star prospect at LCA as the No. 398 overall recruit in the 2024 cycle. That’s according to the On3 Industry Ranking, a weighted average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies. He also rated as the No. 25 QB in the class and the No. 3 player in the state.

Kentucky had been going back and forth between quarterbacks with Vandagriff and Gavin Wimsatt for all of this season before Boley became part of that since their second bye. Now, he’ll end his freshman year with his first career start at quarterback in what could be the first of many for him with the Wildcats.