Cutter Boley still has faith that Kentucky can put it all together

The state of the Kentucky football program is not in a good spot four games into the 2025 season. The good news (or bad news, depending on your perspective) is that the Wildcats still have eight games remaining on the schedule to figure things out. There is time to turn the ship around, especially as a young quarterback continues to work to get his legs under him.

“We had a lot of self-inflicted wounds,” Redshirt freshman QB Cutter Boley said following Kentucky’s 35-13 defeat to South Carolina. “There’s definitely a lot of plays we left out there on the field. But we just got to get right back to it and keep getting better. I know the dudes in the locker room, I know the team we have, we can do a lot of things with this team.”

Saturday’s blowout loss was Boley’s first-ever road start in the SEC and just his second college start of the season. After leading Kentucky to 10 first-quarter points, thanks in part to Seth McGowan‘s impressive opening drive stretch, Boley and the operation around him could not find a groove. He finished with 124 yards on 10-19 passing with zero touchdowns, two interceptions, and a fumble. Some throws had little chance of finding a white jersey.

Boley showed plenty of promise a couple of weeks ago against Eastern Michigan, but a rowdy road environment inside Williams-Brice Stadium presented a challenge that ultimately became too tough to overcome.

“Cutter is a very good quarterback that’s going to have a very bright future,” Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops said postgame. “When you start on the road for the first time in the SEC, you’re going to take some lumps. We have to be good enough around him and as a team to overcome that. And we weren’t tonight.”

As Stoops alluded to, a loss like this can’t all fall on one player. Boley’s receivers, for whatever reason, cannot seem to get themselves open. His offensive line, which allowed six sacks, failed to keep him off the turf and in the pocket. Some of that is on Boley to get rid of the ball quicker — which he acknowledged postgame — but there’s only so much he can do when under constant duress. There were too many third-and-longs. Kentucky’s defense is bleeding yards.

In spite of that, Boley is saying all the right things as the team leader. His postgame press conference was filled with praise for his teammates (including backup QB Zach Calzada) and the faith he has in them. The fanbase as a whole might be down, but Boley knows there is a long way to go. Improvements can be made — they just need to happen sooner rather than later.

“We’re close. We’re close. We’re so close,” Boley said. “We just got to hit on a few plays, and we’re inches away from hitting on a few plays. We just put everything together, we’re going to be all right. Like I said, I know the guys we’ve got in the locker room, the guys have unwavering confidence.”

Maintaining that confidence will be the worry moving forward. Kentucky’s schedule only gets tougher. Five more SEC matchups are to come, most of them against College Football Playoff hopefuls. However, the first step in maintaining confidence is to build it up in the first place. You can’t do that by not believing.

“I really do believe, and every dude in that locker room believes, we’re going to put it all together and do something special,” Boley said.

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