New Kentucky Offensive Coordinator Joe Sloan is Excited to Work with Cutter Boley

Since Kentucky made a change at head coach, BBN has been filled with uncertainty. With each passing day, the future becomes incrementally clearer, but we are still far from knowing what that picture will look like when the season kicks off in September.

The Jan. 2 start of the transfer portal period looms. There’s been plenty of anxiety in BBN surrounding Cutter Boley, particularly after a string of high-profile quarterbacks announced their intent to enter the portal earlier this week. While we have yet to hear from the Kentucky quarterback, the new coaching regime has made it clear that they’re big fans.

Will Stein believes Boley has some “elite characteristics” and has kept an open line of communication throughout the process. New offensive coordinator Joe Sloan has had what he described as “awesome” conversations with Boley during his first days at work in Lexington.

“Cutter and I have been around each other every day. Excited to work with him,” Sloan said during his introduction on Wednesday.

“Love what he did there at the end of the year. I think he’s got a great future. He’s been great. I recruited him out of high school. We’ve had a longstanding relationship. Fantastic kid, tough, and really talented, so it’s been really great.”

Kentucky football fans will probably not breathe a sigh of relief until Boley makes some sort of official announcement about his future, but these coaches believe he has a bright one in Lexington.

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Not The Only Kentucky QB Sloan Likes

Cutter Boley is just one quarterback. Over the last seven seasons, Kentucky has started multiple quarterbacks in all but two of them. In this league, guys take big hits. Whether it’s for one game or one month, you need to have somebody ready to step in if the starter goes down. That’s what Boley did for Zach Calzada in week two of the 2025 season.

The quarterback depth chart is thin and young. Boley just completed his redshirt freshman season. Brennen Ward wore a redshirt last fall during his true freshman campaign. The only other quarterback on the roster is preparing for an All-American high school baseball season.

“Every college football team in America is gonna have to have four quarterbacks in the room. You always gotta do that,” said Sloan. “It’s just like any other position, just like we need 10 wide receivers or 5-6 tight ends, whatever it might be. We’ll do that. Ultimately, that’s just college football. That’s football in general. We gotta fill out a roster.”

We’re still in the early days of this roster build before the portal has even opened. Sloan and Co. may ultimately decide against supplementing the position. After all, he’s pretty high on Ward and Matt Ponatoski, who he’s well aware of from his time at LSU. Many of the conversations he had with Ponatoski were late after a long day of baseball games. The Cincinnati native has got the goods on the diamond and gridiron.

“Matt’s an excellent football player… I think he has elite arm talent. I think he has toughness in the pocket,” said Sloan. “He’s really creative. He’s a really good athlete in terms of his balance, his mobility, and his ability to create power. So I couldn’t be more excited about Matt.”

Joe Sloan loves what he has to work with in Lexington and is fired up to put the pieces together. “I’m really excited about some of the young players on the team. I think there’s definitely some talent.”