2025 Kentucky Position Previews: Quarterback

Kentucky’s fall camp is right around the corner. Before the Cats officially begin the 2025 season, KSR is taking a closer look at the roster and analyzing each position group. Personnel, storylines, questions, and one bold prediction will be included.

Quarterback is up first where Kentucky is breaking in a new transfer starter again while only one scholarship player returns from the 2024 roster.

Expected Starter: Zach Calzada

For the fourth time in five seasons, Kentucky went to the transfer portal to find its next starting quarterback. Zach Calzada (6-4, 230, 7th-year) has not officially won the starting job yet but all signs point to the 24-year-old opening the season as QB1 in Lexington.

The former Texas A&M and Auburn quarterback has returned to the SEC after a two-year stint in the FCS. Calzada is a veteran with a ton of experience and a power arm that can stretch the field vertically. Look for Kentucky to try and take advantage of that skill set in the play-action passing game.

Calzada has played over 2,000 career snaps with over 8,000 career passing yards and 80-plus total touchdowns. The college football veteran will turn 25 years old in November. Kentucky is betting on experience at the sport’s most important position.

Kentucky’s Quarterback Room

There are three more scholarship quarterbacks joining Zach Calzada in Bush Hamdan‘s position room along with a walk-on that has been a part of the Kentucky football program for a long time.

Beau Allen (6-2, 211, RSr.)

A former high three-star prospect out of Lexington (Ky.) Catholic, Allen spent two seasons at Kentucky before entering the transfer portal after backing up Will Levis for two seasons. After throwing for 2,836 yards and 23 touchdowns at FCS Tarleton State in 2022, Allen was forced to sit out the 2023 season at Georgia Southern for an NCAA rule that has now been eliminated. The sixth-year player will serve a role as a veteran backup with experience in the quarterback room.

Cutter Boley (6-5, 220, Redshirt Freshman)

The Lexington (Ky.) Christian Academy product played in four games and earned one start as a true freshman. Boley flashed in backup duty against Murray State and Texas, but struggled with ball security and decision-making against Florida and Louisville. The talented passer is the program’s future at quarterback and will be given the opportunity to compete for the starting job during fall camp.

Stone Saunders (6-1, 222, Freshman)

The all-time Pennsylvania passing yards leader enrolled early at Kentucky and will be competing for the QB3 job in fall camp. Saunders is a pocket passer who won multiple state titles at Harrisburg Bishop McDevitt. The true freshman logged 200-plus touchdown passes in high school.

Brennen Ward (6-4, 222, Freshman)

The Greater Columbus native was the first high school recruiting win for Kentucky with new offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan on staff. Ward was a three-star recruit who UK will look to develop. Expect the early enrollee to receive a redshirt year in 2025 as he competes for the QB3 role.

Big Question: How serious is this QB competition?

Throughout his offensive coordinator career, Bush Hamdan has not been afraid to go to the backup. When things bogged down at Washington and Boise State, the play-caller benched Jake Browning and Taylen Green when the season was not going great. The former is in the NFL and the latter could become one of the best quarterbacks in college football this season.

That quick trigger played out in Hamdan’s first season at Kentucky when Brock Vandagriff was pulled for Gavin Wimsatt and then Cutter Boley started the final game of the season. The Cats entered the transfer portal to address the position again in the offseason. All signs point to Zach Calzada being the starter but that is not official yet.

How serious is this competition? Does Cutter Boley have a legitimate chance to win the starting job? Regardless of what happens during fall camp, Hamdan’s work history tells us to be ready for Boley to get his chance to run the offense at some point this season.

Top Storyline: Kentucky with Zach Calzada

Kentucky had some offensive infrastructure problems to fix this offseason. Before even getting to the most important position on the field, the Wildcats had to address offensive line, tailback, and wide receiver in a significant way in the transfer portal.

But this season could still come down to how the Bush Hamdan and Zach Calzada partnership gels and produces.

Hamdan threw a bunch of stuff at the wall in 2024 and nothing really ever stuck. That included changing quarterbacks constantly. Kentucky — for the moment — is all-in on Calzada. What will the offense looks like with a seventh-year quarterback?

This will likely remain a run-heavy attack but Calzada has thrived as a play-action passer during his collegiate career. The quarterback also was a productive rusher at Incarnate Word. Could those skill sets raise both the floor and ceiling for the offense?

Bold Prediction: Zach Calzada becomes third Mark Stoops QB to reach 20 total touchdowns

Patrick Towles (20 in 2014), Will Levis (33 in 2021, 21 in 2022), and Devin Leary (26 in 2022) are the only starting quarterbacks of the Mark Stoops era to reach 20 total touchdowns in a single season.

Zach Calzada will join them this fall.

The transfer quarterback has 11 career rushing touchdowns and can provide legitimate value for the Wildcats in the low red zone. The transfer reached 17 touchdown passes in 10 starts for Texas A&M in 2021 and reached 19 touchdown passes in eight games at Incarnate Word in 2023 before his breakout season in 2024 where he accumulated 40 total touchdowns across 14 games.

The 20-touchdown mark is not setting the world on fire, but it would give this offense a much-needed shot in the arm. With the heavy transfer influx at wide receiver, Kentucky should be an offense that spreads the football around.

Calzada holds off Cutter Boley from taking over the starting gig this season and that leads to some touchdown opportunities for Kentucky’s latest transfer addition at quarterback.