LCA star Cutter Boley commits to Kentucky as Wildcats’ most-hyped recruit in decades

Kentucky football’s high school quarterback recruiting drought appears to be at an end.

Four-star Lexington Christian Academy quarterback Cutter Boley committed to the Wildcats on Thursday, handing Mark Stoops and offensive coordinator Liam Coen the program’s most highly touted recruit of the recruiting website era. Originally listed as a member of the 2025 recruiting class, Boley announced he will enroll at UK in January 2024 after graduating from LCA.

“It was Coen coming back, building that relationship with him,” Boley said when asked what gave Kentucky the final edge. “They’ve got something special going on over there with the offense. I just wanted to be a part of it. I feel like I grew up a Kentucky fan. I’ve always bled blue since I was young. It’s definitely just going to be nice to represent everyone out here that’s supported me.”

Boley picked the Wildcats over reported offers from traditional football powers across the country, including finalists Tennessee, Michigan, Florida State and Penn State. Rivals.com ranked Boley as the No. 2 pro-style quarterback and No. 12 overall recruit in the 2025 recruiting class before he announced the move to the class of 2024. If he sticks with his commitment to UK through signing day, he would be the most hyped quarterback to sign with the Wildcats since Tim Couch in the early 1990s.

Last fall, Boley completed 63.5% of his passes for 3,901 yards, 36 touchdowns and 15 interceptions for LCA. LCA listed Boley as a junior on its roster, but before the season he told the Herald-Leader his plan was to delay his college enrollment until January 2025. That plan changed after Coen returned to Lexington after one season as the Los Angeles Rams’ offensive coordinator.

“I just feel like I’m ready to go,” Boley said. “I’m ready to go now. I just want to get there as soon as I can, start learning the offense, start learning the playbook.”

Boley would be the third-highest-rated player to sign with Kentucky in the Stoops era, according to the 247Sports Composite, which averages the ratings of the major recruiting services. He is the highest-rated offensive skill position player to sign with the Wildcats in the recruiting website era, which dates back to 2001.

“We just said, ‘Just stay who you are because he is the real deal on and off the field,’” LCA head coach Doug Charles said. “Checks every box.”

For most of the Stoops era, Kentucky has struggled to sign top-flight high school quarterbacks.

Stoops did previously sign two four-star Kentucky high school quarterbacks, but Drew Barker (2014) had his career derailed by a back injury and Beau Allen (2020) transferred out of the program without playing significant snaps. Kentucky landed a verbal commitment from New England Patriots quarterback Mac Jones early in his high school career, but after his recruiting stock began to soar during a strong camp circuit performance prior to his senior year he flipped that commitment to Alabama, where he went on to win a national championship.

No high school signee recruited as a quarterback has been the primary starter for a UK team with a winning record since Morgan Newton, who is Boley’s quarterbacks coach at LCA, in 2010. Of the seven consecutive bowl teams in the Stoops era, six featured quarterbacks who transferred into the program from a junior college or other FBS program. The lone exception was the 2019 Gator Bowl squad that was forced to play wide receiver Lynn Bowden at quarterback after the top two quarterbacks on the roster, both of whom arrived at UK as transfers, were sidelined by injuries.

The lack of high school quarterback recruiting has become less of an issue for Kentucky in the transfer portal era. Will Levis was 17-7 as the Wildcats’ starting quarterback after transferring from Penn State. Kentucky replaced Levis with N.C. State transfer Devin Leary, the top-ranked quarterback available in the portal at the time of his commitment.

“I think eventually you’d like to be able to get somebody that you can start for a few years, but with the way this thing is going with the portal, especially at the quarterback position, how many Mac Joneses are there anymore?” Coen said when asked about the high school quarterback recruiting drought after returning to UK. “How many times is that really going to happen with a guy that’s just going to bide his time, sit behind some guys? Might not win it the first time around, but then the second and third time around he ends of winning the job. He’s a two-year starter or something like that.

“I don’t know how realistic that is in the landscape of college football anymore. You’ve got to believe if you don’t win the job your first two years a lot of these guys are probably going to take off.”

Kentucky could turn to the transfer portal again to land a quarterback as a bridge between Leary, who has only one season of eligibility remaining, and Boley, but the expectation will be that Boley plays early in his college career.

How Boley deals with the pressure that hype brings may say much about his ultimate success in college.

Adding to the intrigue is the fact that Kentucky has not had a graduate of a Lexington high school start a game at quarterback since Shane Boyd in 2004. Stoops has signed two Lexington quarterbacks in his tenure, but both transferred before starting a game for the Wildcats.

“He’s extremely composed,” Newton said Thursday. “Has got a really great demeanor about him to be a quarterback. … I think between that and his pedigree — he’s been around college athletes his whole life — he’s uniquely qualified to be a good college quarterback.”

Boley, who started his high school career at LaRue County before transferring to LCA prior to the 2022 season, has credited older sister Erin Boley for helping him deal with the attention of the recruiting process. Erin Boley was ranked a top-five girls’ basketball player in the high school class of 2016.

“I’m just going to be me,” Cutter Boley said. “One of the reasons I went ahead and got this out of the way is I feel like we have a state championship team here at LCA. I want to go win state. That’s my goal. That’s what I want to do this year.

“I don’t really feel that pressure. I just go out there and play. It’s got me this far, so I won’t get nervous now.”

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