Brock Vandagriff is retiring from football, so where does Kentucky’s 2025 QB room stand?

Quarterback Brock Vandagriff will not use his final season of eligibility to play for Kentucky — or anywhere else.

After the winter window for non-graduates to enter the transfer portal closed Saturday without news of Vandagriff’s assumed departure from UK, a UK spokeswoman confirmed Vandagriff has elected to retire from playing football.

The former five-star high school recruit and Georgia transfer started the first 11 games of the 2024 season for UK. Kentucky coaches had hoped Vandagriff would cash in on his high school recruiting hype after being blocked for three seasons at Georgia by Stetson Bennett and Carson Beck but instead benched him twice amid an abysmal season for the entire offense.

When UK coach Mark Stoops elected to start freshman quarterback Cutter Boley for the regular-season finale against Louisville, it became clear that Vandagriff’s future was elsewhere. The fact he had two seasons of eligibility left when he transferred to UK was seen as a major selling point for offensive continuity, but Vandagriff failed to play well enough for the staff to feel confident about him as the starter this season, let alone in 2025. He spent his last game as a Wildcat in uniform on the sideline but without his helmet and was apparently not an option to play after Boley was sidelined by a helmet-to-helmet hit early in the third quarter.

Still, UK coaches stressed repeatedly that the offensive struggles — UK failed to score more than 20 points against a Power Four conference opponent — were not solely attributable to Vandagriff.

“I think everybody knows what Brock Vandagriff is all about,” offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan said after the announcement that Boley was starting the finale. “I can’t say enough about him. He’s given everything he can to this program and just continues to get better.”

The offensive line was among the worst in the country and the mounting effect of repeated hits appeared to take a toll both physically and mentally on Vandagriff as the season progressed. He missed the second half of the Tennessee game with a head injury then struggled after returning to the field against Murray State and Texas. Boley took over in the second half of both those games before starting the finale.

Vandagriff finishes his lone season as a college football starter having completed 57.3% of his passes for 1,593 yards, 10 touchdowns and eight interceptions. The Georgia native did win two national championships as a backup for his home state Bulldogs. Had Vandagriff stayed at Georgia, it is possible he would be preparing to start a playoff game now after the Bulldogs lost Beck to a season-ending injury, forcing them to turn to backup Gunner Stockton to start next week’s playoff quarterfinal matchup with Notre Dame.

With Vandagriff retiring and backup Gavin Wimsatt already entering the transfer portal, Boley is the only scholarship quarterback returning on Kentucky’s roster. He will compete with Incarnate Word transfer quarterback Zach Calzada for the starting job in spring practice, but Calzada, who began his career at Texas A&M, is considered the favorite to win the job after electing to spend his seventh and final college season at UK. Boley and Calzada will be joined by three-star high school signees Stone Saunders and Brennen Ward in January.

Hype soared for Boley, a former four-star recruit from Lexington Christian Academy, after his strong showings against Murray State and Texas, but he struggled in his start against Louisville, completing just six of 15 passes for 48 yards and two interceptions. Since the original plan was for Boley to redshirt in 2024 then serve as Vandagriff’s backup in 2025, signing Calzada provided UK an insurance plan in case Boley is not ready to start in 2025.

“We’re not making any decisions just based off of a half of football there (against Louisville),” Hamdan said after the season finale. “We got a lot of belief in him, the type of player he is, the type of guy he is.”

For all Boley’s physical tools and potential, Kentucky did not score any points in his 15 drives at quarterback against Power Four competition. Going into 2025 with only the freshmen as options for competition for Boley would have been a dangerous proposition for a coaching staff facing pressure to erase the disappointment of a 4-8 season.

“I have a lot of confidence in Cutter,” Stoops said after the Louisville game. “We’ve got to make sure we build a very good team around him. We have to make sure that we have strong competition.”

In Calzada, Kentucky now has one of the most experienced quarterbacks in the country to pair with Boley.

As a third-year sophomore at Texas A&M in 2021, Calzada led the Aggies to an upset of No. 1 Alabama after a season-ending injury to starter Haynes King. With King set to return to the field in 2022, Calzada transferred to Auburn, where he lost the competition for the starting job before electing to undergo season-ending shoulder surgery on his non-throwing arm. Calzada transferred again before the 2023 season, this time to Incarnate Word, the same FCS program that produced current Miami star quarterback Cam Ward.

In two seasons at Incarnate Word, Calzada completed 66.6% of his passes for 6,144 yards, 53 touchdowns and 17 interceptions. He also rushed for 382 yards and 10 touchdowns. He will use a medical hardship waiver to return to college football in 2025 rather than trying to make an NFL roster.

Kentucky will hope Calzada can carry his success at the FCS level back to the SEC or that Boley makes the jump needed this offseason to win the starting job. The one certainty is that the Wildcats will enter 2025 with a new starting quarterback for the third consecutive season after Vandagriff’s departure.

“I think the absolute world of (Vandagriff),” Stoops said after announcing Boley would start versus Louisville. “He has given us everything he has. We know we have some areas that need to be improved, and that falls on me.

“I know Bush gets a lot of heat and the offense and the quarterback and everybody. I understand that. It is not just coach speak. I’ll take that, and I’ll also work to get it fixed. We’re very excited to get it fixed and move forward.”

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