Mark Stoops compares Cutter Boley to other great SEC quarterbacks who made early mistakes

Things could have gone better for Cutter Boley in his first SEC road start at South Carolina, finishing with 129 yards on 10-19 passing with two interceptions and two fumbles while taking six sacks. In the snap of a finger, a 10-7 lead for Kentucky turned into a 28-10 deficit, and the rest was history in the 35-13 loss. That’s ahead of three straight matchups against top-15 competition and six more conference foes ahead in total — plus Louisville to end the year, a battle that did not go his way last season.

He’s dominated against lesser opponents, but is still waiting for his breakthrough against a name-brand defense. His next test? No. 12 Georgia, hungry for a bounce-back coming off a home loss vs. Alabama. Ready or not, here the Bulldogs come inside Sanford Stadium.

Don’t expect Boley to crumble, though. His head coach certainly isn’t, praising the young quarterback’s response after being thrown in with the sharks this fall.

“He’s responding great, and he’s gonna handle it,” Mark Stoops said during his call-in radio show Monday evening. “He’s not a fragile young man, he’s built the right way. He’s man enough to look at the film and know there are areas he can improve.”

As a coach, it’s on Stoops to recognize and fix the failures around his redshirt freshman gunslinger, who has five turnovers in two power conference starts. His success rate is slim to none if no one else is doing their job.

Then Boley can worry about his own struggles and overcoming them at his own pace.

“There are areas he knows we need to be better around him. It’s not always on him,” Stoops continued. “Certainly, we cannot turn the ball over. We know that, we’re not built to give up scores. Then we have protection issues, tipped passes, things of that nature.

“Sometimes those are gonna happen, but sometimes the careless ones like the second interception, he’ll get fixed.”

Fortunately for Boley, he’s not new to any of this. He grew up in a household full of collegiate athletes who dealt with highs and lows themselves, so there are plenty of brains to pick and shoulders to lean on as he begins his own journey.

“They’re wired the right way. He’s got a great family and they’re very supportive,” Stoops said.

This was always going to be the case, Boley taking some early lumps before finding his footing and letting that potential shine through at some point, hopefully sooner rather than later. Even Arch Manning, football’s next appointed superstar with the most famous last name in the sport, has been chewed up and spit out by fans and talking heads after taking the keys in Austin. It happens at all levels — even Arch’s uncle Peyton set the rookie quarterback record for most interceptions in the NFL in a 3-13 season for the Colts.

Then he became one of the greatest to ever do it.

Now, Stoops isn’t comparing Cutter Boley to Peyton Manning, but he is saying SEC football is hard and it’s especially hard for young quarterbacks. That’s why they’re starting the process now so we can start inching closer and closer toward his ceiling.

The signs are there that he’ll be just fine, even through the rough patches.

“Let’s be honest, I mean, there are a lot of great quarterbacks that have started in the SEC, and early on, they’re going to make some mistakes,” Stoops said. “We have to be good enough around him to overcome those mistakes and to help him. I said that for his first start this year, we had to step up and compete and play well around him.

“I thought in this second start, on the road in a hostile environment, he handled it very well. Procedurally, it was very good. 
We worked really hard on the crowd noise, the operation, communication with the guys and the in and out, that was very clean.”

But the turnovers were back-breakers and Kentucky didn’t play well enough elsewhere to make up for them, leading to yet another blowout loss. Now, it’s time to go back to the drawing board and take on the next challenge — arguably his biggest yet.

The good news? Win or lose, more reps are coming for a quarterback desperate for more reps. Experience is necessary for Boley’s development, and it’s on the way.

“We couldn’t afford to get penalties, pre-snap penalties, all of those things. But protecting the football is a big one, and that comes with snaps,” Stoops said. “It comes with getting more reps under your belt and making sure, as a staff, we’re putting them in a position to be successful.”