Cutter Boley: "I want to play for Kentucky."

Mark Stoops‘ future was riding on the shoulder of redshirt freshman quarterback Cutter Boley. The talented Kentuckian nearly got the Cats back to the postseason, but hit a hard wall in the final two games of the regular season.

When you’re outscored 86-17 over two games, it’s hard to find any sort of silver lining. However, if you’re going to try to sell optimism about the future of the program, it’s all centered around Boley.

Ahead of the Louisville game, Mark Stoops said on his radio show that the quarterback was ready to return for the 2026 season. Boley echoed that sentiment after Saturday’s loss at Louisville.

“This is definitely where I want to be. I want to play for Kentucky,” Boley said.

The Kentucky quarterback was asked about his relationship with Stoops and offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan.

“I have a really close relationship with both of them,” said the downtrodden quarterback. “You know, we’re really real and honest with each other. There’s not much to say about today. And besides, (Louisville) kind of beat us as a whole. They beat us. They played better.”

Boley set Kentucky’s freshman completion percentage record (65.2%), but it was the second straight season that he did not perform well against the Cards. Boley just went 14-27 for 107 yards and two interceptions. He also had a pair of picks in last year’s loss to Louisville at Kroger Field. He has plenty of room to grow, but believes he has learned quite a bit in his 10 starts under center.

“I feel like my overall command of the offense, just kind of being a captain, and managing the offense as a whole, I feel like there’s a variety of areas I still need to get better,” he said. “There’s not one specific one I need to get better, but there’s a ton of areas I just need to improve. I need to improve overall as a quarterback.”

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Mark Stoops Wants to Build Around Cutter Boley

During his postgame radio conversation with Tom Leach, the Kentucky head coach spent time heaping praise on Boley. He also kind of walked back what he said about Boley’s future.

“I said last week, you and I were talking on Monday, that Cutter’s all in and everything, but I don’t speak for Cutter or anybody. They make their own decisions and will tell publicly what they want to do,” said Mark Stoops.

“But I love everything about that young man, because he is all in and he cares, and he cares about our program, and he’s optimistic and all that. But that’s up to him, when, where, how he mentions that. I’m certainly not gonna say he’s half in, because he’s all in. He’s all in, and he works his tail off. And again, getting back to him playing in this game; I mean, he had an AC joint sprain.”

Stoops added, “That’s up to him. I mean, I just indicated that on Monday, and everybody said, ‘Oh, he’s staying.’ Well, I won’t ever speak for our players. And I just said, the young man is all into Kentucky, and he’s in with both feet. He works, you know, hard, he cares, and so, yeah, that’s up to him to say that.”

Boley had a sprained AC joint in his non-throwing shoulder. That probably didn’t help. Nevertheless, all eyes are on the future. That future is No. 8. Kentucky needs to surround him with quality players to ensure he continues to develop as a passer.

“There’s a lot of work to be done, obviously, but it can and will be done. You know, you could turn rosters quicker than you used to, with the transfer portal. We have a good nucleus players. I’ve already met with a good nucleus of players that are returning, that are good young talents, that have already, really; they’ve already signed contracts. And so I’m very optimistic about that,” said Stoops.

“We have to retain the good players that we have first, and then we have to the incoming guys. And then you have to plug some holes with support guys. I think one thing that’s evident to me here late in the year is just overall depth at certain positions. We just got to have better, better depth. I mean, it’s a long, grueling year with the guys we play, and we have to be able to sustain that throughout the year. I’m not going to say who or what, but there is a large group of very good players that are already signed to come back for next year.”