Cutter Boley, Daveren Rayner earn SEC Weekly Honors after Florida win

For the second week in a row, Kentucky won an SEC football game, and for the second week in a row, some Wildcats have some hardware to show for it. Linebacker Daveren Rayner won SEC Co-Defensive Player of the Week, an honor he shares with Texas A&M linebacker Daymion Sanford. Quarterback Cutter Boley was named SEC Freshman of the Week, his second straight week earning the honor.

Let’s start with Rayner, who played his best game as a Wildcat vs. Saturday. The Northern Illinois transfer had a pass interception, a pass deflection that was intercepted, five tackles, and a quarterback sack in the 38-7 win over Florida. He was active from the start, deflecting a pass that was intercepted by Ty Bryant on the first series of the game to set up a field goal. In the second quarter, he intercepted a pass himself. Rayner’s 10-yard sack in the third quarter led to a Florida punt and extended his streak of five consecutive games with a tackle for loss.

Thanks to Rayner and the rest of the defense’s efforts, Kentucky held Florida to seven points, the fewest vs. the Gators in 39 years, and 247 yards of total offense, the fewest vs. Florida in 10 years. Add in the game vs. Auburn, and this two-week stretch marks the first time Kentucky has held SEC opponents to 247 or fewer yards in back-to-back games since 1999.

“Starting with the opening play of this game, I thought he was very aggressive and pulled the trigger and made a very disruptive play on the opening play of the game,” Stoops said in today’s press conference. “I think he is a guy who can play explosive. He has that knack for — you know, maybe sometimes you’re watching film, it’s not perfect, but he plays ball, which is what you want out of an inside linebacker, just the instincts there. He’s played a lot of football, and he’s been a really good leader. So very proud of him.”

Boley was 18-23 for 168 yards, two touchdowns, and one interception in the win over Florida, Kentucky’s biggest in the series since 1950. Boley completed 78.3% of his passes, the best for a Kentucky quarterback vs. Florida since Bill Ransdell’s single-game school record 86.9% in 1986. Boley led scoring drives on the first four possessions. The Cats were 70% (7-10) on third down and 100% (2-2) on fourth down. Boley is the first freshman quarterback to lead Kentucky to a win over since Terry Henry in 1979.

“You can’t say enough good things about Cutter in the way he is playing,” Stoops said today. “He is so effective. Sure, we’d like to have a couple of those turnovers back, the fumble and the interception. You take those away, and [he] absolutely played lights out.”

So far this season, Boley has completed 67.1 % of his passes for 1,544 passing yards and 12 touchdowns. He’s really turned it on in the last few games, which Stoops said is due to his budding chemistry with offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan.

“I mentioned, I feel like Bush has really done a good job, certainly in the second part of the year, of getting better at the things that he does well. We’ve dressed things up nicely. H’s done a nice job with some motions. Cutter’s certainly processing it. And then there are some things that are happening during the game that you love to see. Just the way he’s throwing the ball, the spots that he’s throwing it. And as you do that, you see people making good catches and a lot of things just look routine, which is what we all like. When you’re just sitting there watching ball and seeing things look routine, that’s what you want. But I think receivers are making really nice catches.”