Zach Calzada: "I gotta put the team in better situations"

His coaches weren’t pleased with his debut as a Kentucky Wildcat, the former Aggie, Tiger and Cardinal, Zach Calzada, sure not looking like the experienced and safe seventh-year quarterback they brought him in to be. He threw for just 85 yards on an abysmal 10/23 passing while adding one interception and one rushing touchdown.

His worst moment came early in the second quarter, taking a safety in the end zone to give Toledo unnecessary life — whether it led to anything meaningful or not.

“Zach’s gotta hand the football off, bottom line,” Mark Stoops said after the 24-16 win. “… I think he got a little spooked, but we had it protected. You’ve just got to get some tough yards there.”

You start him because of his high floor and ability to limit mistakes rather than the high-ceiling redshirt freshman, Cutter Boley — the future face of the program. The reality of his debut, though, is that the guy who is supposed to be most comfortable in that role looked like the errant youngster you hoped to avoid.

It wasn’t all his fault — Kentucky got zero help from the receivers — but Calzada didn’t do himself any favors.

“Offensively, I felt like we were going to get in rhythm, and we hurt ourselves,” Stoops said.

“Do I think Zach looked in rhythm? No. Did I feel in rhythm? No,” offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan added.

How would the 24-year-old assess his own performance? He likes this group and believes in their production together as an offensive unit, but there is plenty of work to be done.

“It felt good being out there for the first time with all these guys. There were some ups and downs, but I feel good about these guys and we’re gonna get better,” Calzada said. “… I gotta go back and watch the film. My decision-making, I gotta put the team in better situations. We’ll go back and watch the film, do that next week.”

What was his explanation for the safety?

“That was my fault,” he continued. “At the end of the day, the guy made a good play, but I gotta hand the ball off. That’s on me. That was my fault.”

Kentucky had some early momentum, even in the passing game, Calzada finding JJ Hester down the right sideline for a 32-yard reception on 3rd and 10 in the opening series. That would be overturned, forcing the punt in what was trending toward a feel-good scoring drive with most of the damage coming through the air.

The offense felt good leaving that drive, but unfortunately, that would be the best the passing attack would look all day.

“I don’t know, I gotta go back and watch the film,” Calzada said of what went wrong. “I think JJ getting called out of bounds was big. We felt really good after that, but we just have to bounce back and play the next play. Any adversity, we have to be able to bounce back.”

Kentucky’s tight ends combined for 74 yards on five catches — as productive as we’ve seen the position group in recent memory. On the flip side, the wide receivers combined for just 12 yards on four catches with the only player earning multiple receptions finishing with negative yardage. No catches for Hester, Kendrick Law or Troy Stellato.

For one reason or another, Calzada couldn’t get on the same page with his top pass-catchers beyond the tight ends.

That doesn’t mean there is a chemistry issue, though, in the starting quarterback’s opinion.

“Definitely, we just have to go back and watch the film,” Calzada said of his confidence in his on-field relationship with the receivers. “We were hitting really well in camp, I think we just missed a couple of those by fractions. I gotta give them better passes, give them a chance to go make a play.”

That’s what week one is for, knocking off the early rust and seeing what needs work compared to what you can build upon. Fortunately, they were able to take those data points in a win — whether or not it was the prettiest thing in the world.

“The message to the team is that we have to get better and we will get better,” he said. “I’m excited to go back to practice with these guys and see what we do next Saturday.”

1-0 is 1-0.