Could QB Cutter Boley play against Murray State with Brock Vandagriff’s status uncertain?

Asked at his normal Monday news conference to refute persistent rumors that he might retire at the end of the season, Kentucky football coach Mark Stoops said there was a zero percent chance of that outcome.

Even if Stoops was considering walking away, there would be little reason for him to announce that publicly with three games remaining, but the emphatic response at least directed focus back to planning for the home stretch of a disappointing season and looking to the future.

That does not include a public announcement of his quarterback plan for Saturday’s game against Murray State, though.

Brock Vandagriff is likely to retain his starting job if healthy after an encouraging first half in UK’s last game against Tennessee, but Vandagriff’s status is uncertain due to a head injury that sidelined him in the second half in Knoxville. If Vandagriff is unable to play or is limited, UK’s annual game against an FCS opponent looks like a natural spot to hand much-hyped freshman Cutter Boley his first extended action.

Since UK is not playing a conference opponent this week, Stoops is not required to release the normal SEC availability report on Wednesday, so he will have full discretion on how much information to share about Vandagriff and other injured players leading up to the game.

“There’s a lot going on,” Stoops said Monday when asked for an update on the status of Vandagriff, wide receiver Barion Brown and the other injured Wildcats. “For me to just get into all the little nuances of that just doesn’t make sense right now. We’ll see how the week goes. We’ll be better, certainly some guys will be better than they’ve been. And some others we’ll still be evaluating.”

Vandagriff has completed 57.3% of passes for 1,359 yards, seven touchdowns and six interceptions through nine games.

While Vandagriff has started every game this season for the Wildcats, he was benched for the second half of UK’s game against Auburn on Oct. 26. After the offense looked no better with backup Gavin Wimsatt at the helm in the second half against the Tigers, UK coaches decided to start Vandagriff against Tennessee.

He completed 10 of 17 passes for 123 yards, one touchdown and one interception in that game before he was sidelined by a head injury in the third quarter. UK coaches have been concerned about the toll of repeated hits Vandagriff has taken amid extensive pass protection struggles throughout the season. The injury came after bone-crushing hits while Vandagriff was sacked on back-to-back drives.

Earlier in the game Vandagriff also was hit in the face by a Tennessee player on the sideline as he ran out of bounds. Stoops confirmed last week he had sent video of that play to the SEC office but said he was not allowed to share what feedback he had received.

Wimsatt threw an interception that was returned 67 yards on his first pass attempt after replacing Vandagriff at Tennessee but did later lead the Wildcats on a touchdown drive. He completed just 4 of 10 passes in the game though and has completed just 46.6% of his pass attempts in his college career across 32 games at Rutgers and Kentucky.

With the struggling offense even more limited when Wimsatt is at quarterback, it made sense for UK coaches to give an extended look to Boley during the bye week.

The former four-star recruit from Lexington Christian Academy went 0-for-6 and threw a pick six in his one appearance to date, a cameo late in the loss at Florida, but he might have the best arm talent of any of the quarterbacks on the roster. Providing him more reps with the first- and second-team offenses in practice could put him in a better position to play in the final three games, which he can do without losing his redshirt season.

“I’d like to see him, just like I’d like to see a lot of the young guys, any of the guys that we have four games with,” Stoops said of Boley during Kentucky’s bye week. “… But we want to go look good, build on what we’ve done, and try to get better. Again, I thought, as I mentioned postgame, we did some good, we played some winning football against a really good team (Tennessee), and we just have to sustain that for a whole game. And I thought Brock was really having a good game. And so obviously his health is most important to us, and getting him healthy right now is the main thing.”

One injured Wildcat who is expected to return against Murray State is star cornerback Maxwell Hairston, who missed the last five games with an undisclosed medical issue.

With Hairston, a preseason top-50 NFL draft prospect according to The Athletic, unavailable, UK’s defense was forced to turn to a trio of inexperienced underclassmen at cornerback.

“We need all of them to be 100%,” Stoops said. “That’s been awhile since we’ve had the whole group even close to 100%. It will be good to try to get some depth.”

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